For those in the ‘I KNOW I’m doing it, but I still do it!’ frustrating stage of changing a habit or pattern of behaviour….
Think of your change in terms of stages. You start off not knowing what you’re doing or not doing that’s not serving you (unconscious incompetence).
Then, you become aware that it’s not serving you, but you haven’t yet learned to change it (conscious incompetence).
Next, you are able to change the pattern, but it takes a lot of effort and conscious energy (conscious competence).
Finally, the new pattern becomes the default habit and you reach unconscious competence.
The trick is to acknowledge where you’re at and celebrate the wins. If you noticed something you’d no longer like to do – congratulate yourself! The more you let your brain know what you’d like, instead of beating it up for not being perfect, the more it will support you by bringing you more of what you’d like, in this case, more awareness of the pattern so you can slow it down enough to interrupt it and do things differently. Every step needs to be acknowledged and honoured as progress.
Above all, as always, be kind to yourself.
Making changes
