Change Anything You Want in Your Life in 3 Steps

To change a bad habit, overcome a behavior that does not suit you, or to adopt a different attitude you have to go through these 3 steps.

If you skip one you just wont make it. Whether if it is to achieve financial independence, become more efficient, learning to not to procrastinate, develop your leadership or make a significant change, you have to go through these key steps.
If you do not respect, it will be difficult to get to it .

The 3 steps to change anything you want in your life are simple:

1. Understand the mechanisms that trigger factors, difficulties and performance.
2. To have the desire to adopt a new behavior .
3. To be willing to make efforts .

Apply this to the domain of your choice and see that these are essential steps. You'll see that if you skip a step, it will be hard to make it.
For example if you want to stop procrastinating and you  "force " yourself you are going to burn because you do not understand what you are facing and you will misdirect your efforts.

If you want to negotiate your salary and you assume that you had a positive opinion of your job last year, you better go thorough these steps before.
To understand how a salary negotiation work, you'll have to change to get it and accept the efforts you have to do.

Step 1: Understand what is happening.

If I take the example of time management  we realize that what works well is illogical. It is often the opposite of the basic advice that everyone gives you .
They say that to be effective you must make a list of everything you have to do. The problem is to listen to people who know nothing about it. The other problem is that sometimes there are people who makes you believe that they know what they are talking about.
To overcome a problem you must understand the key mechanisms and especially those that apply to your situation .
But you do not you need to become an expert in time management to learn effectiveness, you just have to understand the mechanisms .
Triggers are situations or stimuli that cause the problem. For example, you are overwhelmed each time a new project comes. You lose patience when Tom is involved in a meeting, etc. .
These are signals.

Ask yourself the good questions to understand what's happening.

What are the consequences of my current behavior?
When a new project arrives and you feel overwhelmed you destroy the work in progress and your customers suffer.
When you lose patience you lose credibility in front of your team.
You 're committing self sabotage.
Then you have to understand the process with a more broader view .
What are the cognitive processes, behavior and what goes through your head when the problem is occurring? The goal is to "understand".

Step 2: Have the desire to change.

Image courtesy of [Stuart Miles] / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I know it's obvious. Who would strive to change if it was not his desire? But how do you change? What is it that motivates the change?
Sometimes we force ourselves when the desire is not strong enough or because it comes from others and we are not really convinced of wanting to change.

Step 3 : Make efforts.

Yes, change will require an effort, that is evident. To make an effort is to commit yourself to take time and money if necessary. To make an effort is to consciously work on that behavior that needs to change.
It is not that you must exhaust yourself or get frustrated about it, but to be aware that there will be a time when you have firmly decided that things really must change and you feel ready to accept the transformation.
What will you do when you'll face the first challenges?