Change Can Be Daunting; Here’s How to Accomplish It

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Research has long told us that, when we are intending to make a change in our health behaviors, we need a reason why we want to do this for ourselves. Many protocols advocate starting with this “why.”

Whatever links the desired change to something that the person values and wants to cultivate for themselves is often referred to as intrinsic motivation. An intrinsic motivation has more staying power than an extrinsic motivation. An extrinsic motivation is often linked to a short-term external reward, like winning a challenge or losing weight for a wedding, the high of which fades quickly..

When it comes to making changes to ourselves that include eating healthier foods, losing weight, and exercising more, many people have a pretty compelling “why.” Their “why” includes things like being able to feel better, living a longer life, having improved quality of life, being able to partiipate in enjoyable activities, and not being a burden to relatives later in life.

What Comes After the “Why”

Lorraine Besser, professor of philosophy at Middlebury College, notes in her book The Art of the Interesting (2024) that, as we get older, we naturally get more set in our ways. Many of us have observed this in others and possibly ourselves. She explains that, as our experiences pile up, our brains naturally try to make things as autonomous as possible. This is a good thing. We would be crippled by having to think through everything we do as if it were the first time.

Her point is that we all have a tendency to fall back on our habits because we are full of previous beliefs, emotional responses, and experiences. Autopilot means that we do not have to pay attention to what we are doing or what our emotional response is.

By contrast, for a new behavior to become integrated into our brains in a way that sticks, there needs to be a cognitive and a positive emotional component attached to To make change compelling, it needs to be interesting (cognitive) and produce pleasure (emotional).

A person may start to engage in a series of new behaviors,but may fall away from those because they don’t hold any interest or pleasure for them. This is what often happens when people sign on to a diet or exercise program. The “why” can be viewed with a certain detachment when there is no interest or positive emotional connection to each step along the way.

First Steps

One of the first steps in making change sustainable, says Dr. Besser, is to be aware that we tend to stay set in our ways and fall back into autopilot. Our existing attitudes and experiences can hold us back. Awareness of this tendency can be humbling.

But, that awareness can open the way to become curious and interested and, eventually, to find creative ways to conquer change. While curiosity can sometimes create uncertainty (as in, What should I do now?), it also is a way to get our minds engaged so that we don’t go on autopilot.

Dr. Lily Zhu (2023) at Washington State University puts it another way. Her research indicates that people can easily fall into distraction or suppression when faced with a potentially frustrating situation. As many of us know, making changes to health behaviors and maintaining them, can be extremely difficult and frustrating. When faced with frustration, people often resort to old habits and behaviors.

Tapping Into Creativity and Emotions

In order to break that cycle, a creative mindset is needed, Dr, Zhu finds.. Creativity usually involves breaking existing assumptions, viewing a problem from a different angle, and then applying cognitive processes to formulate new solutions.

Dr. Zhu takes it further. She ties creativity to emotions. The strategies that people use to regulate their emotions, she says, can also be used to influence creativity. She found that people can use a process of emotional reappraisal.

One example would be seeing previous or current attempts to eat healthier, lose weight or exercise more as learning experiences, not failures. On a more specific level, taking the time to explore one new food item each week and discovering new ones that please, can be a positive step. Instead of holding on to the thought that exercise will probably hurt, you can look around for options that will feel good or at least not hurt. There are many options out there once you start looking.

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Many of us have chosen ways to live that feel comfortable and that often give us some degree of pleasure. But if we are looking to do something better for our lives and our health, we need to use our minds and our emotions. We need to engage our minds by becoming curious about the options and becoming open to the idea that we can develop a positive emotional response to our new life choices.