Wait til it's broke, then fix it! But don't change...

An interesting article in Fast Company magazine (May 2005) by Alan Deutschman, entitled Change or Die.
Essentially the article challenges you with this question--Told that you needed to change the way you think and act, otherwise you would die a lot sooner than necessary, would you change?

What do you think? Yes or no? The research he quotes says, no, you wouldn't change--even when death could be the result. I'd agree with him--most people would only do enough to get through the immediate crisis--but they wouldn't change their behaviors/lifestyle which created the problem in the first place.

The most significant aspect of Deutschman's article though was the REASON why most people don't change. It isn't because they don't have enough information, data, choices. It's because 'information', while important, isn't sufficient. Behavior change happens mostly by speaking to "people's feeling". And bottom line, we don't do that.

Which is sad, because most people are so "emotionally blocked". But it's also why it makes sense that changing our behavior so we can be healthier and live long doesn't happen for about 85% of people. As the article says, "Who wants to live longer when you're in chronic emotional pain?"

Ouch....
Saddest thing of all--it doesn't have to be that way. You can open these emotional blocks. It's not that hard....it is a big part of what I'm trying to help folks do through the Life Puzzle model. I'm not afraid to take on this piece of the puzzle, while most professionals are!