Executive Summary: The change you desire in life starts with you. Your destiny always has and always will be solely and completely your responsibility. You shouldn’t really be surprised by that! Your life as assessed by you is the sum total of all your choices up to right now. The great news is that if you want to change your life for the better, all the days ahead of you are a clean slate.
My simple principle or axiom has always been that “people are more than happy to maintain their life / lifestyle, until such time that the pain of maintaining the status quo exceeds the pain of changing it”.
C = P > SQ
where C = Change, P = Pain and SQ = Status Quo
This also fits Newton’s First Law of Motion we all learned in high school – or maybe earlier. “An object at rest stays at rest and an object in motion stays in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force. “
In Sir Issac’s case the “unbalanced force” may have been a physical object like the apple that supposedly hit him on the head while sitting under an apple tree. He was motivated to sit elsewhere after the apple “acted upon” his head. So in our lives that unbalanced force could be the stress of living in debt, that the car keeps breaking down, or that your relationships keep breaking up, you feel powerless and adrift in life or your boss is a major curmudgeon – putting it nicely. (Have I got a book for you!)
My axiom seemed reasonable and simple enough to me. No pain = No gain. My wife said it sounded negative. Yes, people can envision a very pleasurable future – money, status, travel and the “good life” as it is defined by you but the majority of people get easily sidetracked for hours reading their Facebook wall or the walls of their “friends” instead of working – hard by the way – on the future they envision. Side note: Isn’t it ironic that Facebook calls the page of never ending status updates a “wall”? A wall to progress in life that is!
So, a business consultant named David Gleicher created a formula for change while he was working at Arthur D. Little in the 1960s. It’s always consultants who come up with these cool formulas and slogans that eventually end up on a PPT slide, a successory poster or a blog post….
His formula is C = (ABD) > X where C is change, A is the status quo dissatisfaction (this is where I would simply have said “PAIN”), B = a desired clear state (or – my life without PAIN”), D = practical steps to the desired state (what do I need to do to get away from the pain), and X = cost of the change. (if there’s lot’s of pain, the cost to alleviate it becomes less of an issue).
The problem is that as soon as the pain is alleviated (change occurs) most people instantly settle back into the new status quo never really getting them anywhere other than “just far enough” away from that place called “PAIN”. So, change gets them away from the pain but generally not with any intention to achieve their future goals. It’s all about pain avoidance at this point in the story.
In steps Dannemiller in the 1980’s with a modified version of Gleicher’s formula for change.
Dannemiller’s formula is: D x V x F > R Where:
D = Dissatisfaction with how things are now;
V = Vision of what is possible;
F = First, concrete steps that can be taken towards the vision;
If the product of these three factors is greater than R = Resistance then change is in fact possible. Because D, V, and F are multiplied, if any one is absent (zero) or low, then the product will be zero or low and therefore not capable of overcoming the resistance and thus no change!
Dannemiller’s version adds a “V” or vision, so that while you are moving away from pain, you might as well be aiming for gain.
Obviously, there’s a lot more to attaining your goals (such as having actual, realistic and attainable goals and the desire to achieve them). It’s good however to realize the inner workings of the human mind and how we humans are motivated to effect change in our lives not just to avoid pain but what is needed to actually achieve goals – a vision of your future.
What do you want to achieve by Dec 31, 2016 and how are you going to get there?
