The Door to Change

“No one can persuade another to change. Each of us guards a gate of change that can only be opened from the inside. We cannot open the gate of another, either by argument or emotional appeal.” (Marilyn Ferguson)

I’d add, nor by teaching or coaching. People don’t change just because it’s a good idea. Change takes commitment and perseverance. I’m guessing you have some behaviors you’d like to change. The thing is, your behaviors are either long-standing habits or they are expressions of a condition like ADHD, and both take a great deal of commitment and perseverance to change.

In the book, Mastery, George Leonard says, “learning any new skill involves relatively brief spurts of progress, each of which is followed by a slight decline to a plateau somewhat higher in most cases than that which preceded it.” That’s the fancy way of saying it’s a “two steps forward, one step back” kind of thing.

Discouragement is likely when change is difficult to notice. It’s easy to drop out at the plateaus. The good news is that our brains have a quality of plasticity. By persisting in developing a new behavior your brain will gradually change and the “new behavior” will become “the standard behavior” in time.

-Sydney Metrick