EVEN UNDER A DEATH THREAT!

I don't understand why the change does not go faster ?!

Everyone knows that if we do not develop, we will perish in the market.

Shouldn't that be enough as a motive for change ?!

About stubborn resistance to change, even when death threatens...!
And about unexpected change when other motivators get to work...

In the Fast Company article "Change or Die", the author Alan Deutschman explores the motivation and resistance to change, when ones own life is at stake ...

Would you make big changes in your lifestyle, under the threat that your life would end very quickly if you did not? Would you change your mind if it was a matter of life or death !?

You think you would do that?

Think again ...

Do you still believe that?

Then you're probably fooling yourself. You would not ..!

About 600,000 Americans undergo bypass surgery each year. They are told by their surgeon that the operation will remove the chest pain they have known before, but that it does not reduce the risk of heart attack or in any other way prolong life, and that they also run a high risk of dying early if they do not change their lifestyle.

Truly a matter of change, or die!

But only 10% of all these have changed their lifestyle, when you follow them up two years later !!

Threats - even the threat of death (!) - are not a strong enough motivator for change !!

But there was someone who found a better way to change lifestyle ...

One professor - Dr. Dean Ornish (professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco and founder of the Preventive Medicine Research Institute in Sausalito, California) - tried to approach lifestyle change from a completely different angle. Instead of trying to motivate patients based on "fear of dying", he instead tried to inspire a new vision based on "the joy of living". To convince them that they could feel better, not just live longer!

He also discovered that it is often easier for people to succeed with radical, far-reaching changes, than small, incremental ones. "People who make moderate changes in their diet get the worst of two worlds: They feel depressed and hungry because they do not eat what they want, but the changes they make are not big enough for them to experience a better quality of life or reduction in weight, blood pressure or cholesterol ".

Researchers had to select 333 patients with severely clogged arteries, who then had to undergo Dr Dean Ornish's radical but time-limited program. They were helped to quit smoking, they were allowed to go on a strict diet, they participated in psychologist-led support groups twice a week and participated in classes in meditation, relaxation, yoga and aerobics.

The program lasted only one year, but three years later the researchers found that 77% of the patients had maintained their new lifestyle and thereby managed to avoid bypass surgery completely!

So what was the secret?

The heart patients who went through Dr. Ornish's tough program experienced rapid and dramatic effects. Before the program, they had had so many problems with chest pain that they sometimes could not even cross the street without getting intense pain, but already the first month they were able to report a 91% reduction in the frequency of chest pain. This meant that they could suddenly enjoy things that made daily life fun, such as making love (!) And taking long walks without being hindered by pain.

Dr. Ornish says it best himself:

"The rapid improvements were a powerful motivator."