Making permanent changes

Making permanent(ˈpərmənənt) changes

By Steve Pavlina

You may often get stuck in cycles of temporarily(ˈtempəˌrerəlē) upgrading some part of your life, only to watch that area decline when you stop giving it as much attention. People especially do this with their finances(ˈfīnans) and their health. When the pressure to take action is strong enough, they’ll make some improvements, but once the immediacy(iˈmēdēəsē) subsides, they return to old habits –and the old results.

Partly this is a framing issue. If you really want to upgrade a certain area of your life and have the upgrade stick, it helps to frame your efforts as creating permanent changes. Adopt(əˈdäpt) the mindset that you can never go back to the old way of doing things. Do your best to mentally(ˈment(ə)lē) and emotionally accept that the old path must permanently end, and you can never return to it again.

You might have a temporary upgrade phase and a long-term maintenance(ˈmānt(ə)nəns) phase for certain changes, but the maintenance phase can’t be the same as the pre-upgrade phase if you want to lock in some permanent gains(ɡān). Whatever you’re doing now that isn’t getting you the results you want – that particular collection of habits – has to die off and never see the light of day again.

For instance, if you’re considering a dietary(ˈdīəˌterē) change to improve your health, frame it as a permanent change. This framing makes it clear that you can never go back to the way you’re eating now. If you do, you’ll undo any results you gain. Look at your current eating habits and know you must leave them in the past and that they can never be part of your future.

The notion of making a permanent change may seem daunting(ˈdôn(t)iNG) enough, but you also have to accept that this means the absolute end of your current practices.

If you want to upgrade your health, your current health practices must end forever. If you want to upgrade your finances, your current financial practices must end forever. If you want to upgrade your social life, your current social practices must end forever. To usher(ˈəSHər) in the new and make it stick, you must be willing to accept the death of the old.

…
https://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2020/06/making-permanent-changes/