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How Do We Change Behavior? The Ultimate Model
Successful and long-lasting behavior change using the Transtheoretical Model to go from stuck to unstoppable
I love the TV show How I Met Your Mother. The series has a lot of long-running gags, but my favorite is one involving the song “I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)” by the Proclaimers. The joke is that one of the central characters, Marshall, has a cassette tape stuck in his car, so the stereo only plays that song — over and over again, for years.
Our inner world sometimes seems similar. Our inner monologue sounds like a tape player stuck on repeat, replaying the same self-talk. Over time, our habits become deeply ingrained and we feel as if we’re going through life on auto-pilot.
My coaching business is driven by people who aren’t totally sure how to change — and how to make transformations stick in the long run.
One client, who I’ll call Chloe, compared this feeling of inertia to the classic Bill Murray movie Groundhog Day. “Every day feel like a cycle on repeat,” she said, “the exact same problems crop up, just on different days. I start out the morning with the best intentions, yet I always end up feeling the same way — stressed, out of control–every evening. I make a pact with myself to try and do better tomorrow. But…
