Talbott Talks: A Model for Change

Are you thinking of making a big life change - personally, professionally, physically, or spiritually?

I want to share with you a process that has worked for me! If you’re looking to get different results in an area, I have a great model to share with you.

I honestly don’t remember where I first heard about this model (if you know where it’s from, please leave it in a comment below!), but I have personally used it to make some major changes in my life.

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HERE’S A BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE MODEL: If we want to get different results than we are getting today, we have to change our habits, and in order to change our habits, we have to change our actions. In order to change our actions, we need new and different thinking, and in order to start thinking differently, we need to gather new information.

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Here’s how I’ve used this model for change in the past:

Whenever I recognize I want something different in my life I think, “Okay, first I need to gather new information”. I do this through a variety of channels ranging from talking with others, reading books and articles on the subject, listening to podcasts, and consuming information from experts in the field.

I recommend working with whatever mediums help you take in information and internalize it best. Bringing in new information helps lead you to different thinking.

After you gather this new information, you need to believe it. You need to believe that this information is true, and you need to believe that you can make these changes. Something such as “I believe something can be different because_____” Whether that’s because God is helping you or that you’ve seen other people accomplish what you want to accomplish or that you know you can do it.

If you think it can happen, and believe it can happen, this leads you into action.

In my experience, the thinking stage and the action stage sometimes happen simultaneously.

As soon as you start believing and thinking differently with the new information you’ve gathered, you start taking action based on that information.

In this stage, you might find that you need some extra encouragement and motivation. I personally haven’t seen many people make major changes in their life without having at least some sort of internal motivation to do so. You need to want to make these changes for yourself, not for someone else.

This stage can also be complemented by encouragement from others to help you stay motivated. You can reach out to someone in your circle and say “Hey, I’m trying to do something different, could you please help me to do so by giving me some words of encouragement along the way? I would really appreciate it.”

The next stage of the model is repeating those actions over and over and over again until you build a new habit. This is a great time for accountability and I recommend taking an active approach. Instead of having someone tell you what you need to do, which can come across as discouraging, find someone you trust and ask them if you can use their support as an accountability partner. You can say something like “I want to hold myself accountable to you for this”.

Then tell them how you will keep yourself accountable with them.

For example, if your goal is to read more, you can let your accountability partner know that you’ll text them every day after you’ve accomplished your reading goal. This accountability partner can be your encouragement partner, or someone else entirely, just make sure it’s someone you trust and feel comfortable talking with on a regular basis.

These actions completed multiple times and over a long period of time, are what get you your results.

Keep in mind, different actions and habits can take longer to change than others, depending on how often you do them. If it’s something you only do once a month, versus say, every day, it might take longer to get that habit in place and to notice the different results.

The tricky thing about maintaining these results, from my personal experience, is that once I achieve these different results I tend to say “Look! Everything is better, I don’t need to keep doing these things anymore” which isn’t true at all!

If I’ve gotten new results from different actions and habits, I might think that these results are permanent, and I don’t have to keep those habits anymore. I might even drop back into my old habits, which will give me my old results. If I want to continue to get this new result, I need to put forth effort in my actions and habits.

I hope you found this model for change interesting and helpful. I’d love for you to put it into action in your life, and let me know how it’s working for you. I would be happy to hear about your results below in the comments!