7 change strategies for this new year

Professional experience

I have long been captivated by personal change, like individuals overcoming unhealthy habits to lead better lives, shy people transforming into confident communicators, and lifelong learners mastering new skills. These stories of transformation beg the question: How do individuals achieve and maintain personal success? I've seen clients adopt a simple but profound method for lasting personal change, whether it's overcoming anxiety, cultivating fulfilling relationships, or maintaining emotional well-being, and most changes seem occur indirectly through direct methods. It’s about creating a context or environment that stimulates change. It is rarely forced, except in circumstances where all possible outcomes and resources are known from the outset. Change, a natural part of life, often arouses fear, whether it is a minor event or a major life change. This fear stems from the evolution of our brains, which make change intimidating and sometimes stifle creativity.

The biology of fear and the consequences of change

Our brain developed into three parts, each with unique functions. The reptilian brain controls basic life functions, while the mammalian brain is responsible for emotions and the fight or flight response, which is essential in dangerous situations. The cortex, the most recent development, is the center of rational thought and creativity. These parts of the brain sometimes conflict, affecting our reactions to change. The amygdala, located in the midbrain, which manages the fight or flight response, can interpret new experiences as threats, triggering fear and making it difficult to think clearly. Overcoming this reaction is essential to accepting change. Small, incremental steps can disarm the fear response and promote rational thinking and creativity. By taking a gradual approach to change, we align with the evolutionary design of our brain, allowing us to navigate changes more effectively and reduce the impact of our survival instincts. This strategy helps overcome the fear of change.

Find Tips to Combat Fear and Anxiety: Strategies for Achieving Your New Year's Resolutions

Being strategic in solving our problems means using a deliberate and structured approach to achieve lasting change by stimulating an environment in which our goals become more likely. I have applied this approach in multiple contexts and it has proven to be indispensable. Here are the seven steps to achieving change.

• Define your problem in concrete terms: From the start, you need to clearly define your resolution and understand the current situation and the obstacles preventing you from achieving it. Take different points of view to gain additional information. Thinking about how other people you know might think or perceive the problem you see will also help you see possible options. The lack of a clearly defined problem means we don't know what action to take next, and so this is very important.

• Agree on the goal to be achieved: set measurable and achievable goals and involve other people in the goal-setting process. Involving others triggers the social pressure effect: if you commit to doing something with others, you will be more inclined to do it, for example by joining the gym with a friend.

• Identify dysfunctional solutions: Think about past attempts to solve the problem and how your solutions may make your problem worse. 

• Learn from failures and successes. It is not uncommon for problems to disappear once we realize that our solutions are often the source of their creation. For example, if we believe that abstinence and avoidance of food will help us lose weight, it is likely that the more we abstain from eating, the more we lose control of our appetite, so the solution in this situation generally perpetuates weight gain.

• The Aggravation Technique: Using reverse psychology to identify harmful habits and create an aversion to negative behaviors. Using this unusual strategy of asking yourself to list all the ways you could choose to make your current problem worse or to list the things you know you could do to ensure you never achieve your goal, you will most likely and paradoxically discover ways to avoid making your problem worse and consider ways to achieve your goal.

• The Story Beyond the Problem: Visualize the success you want to achieve and consider the potentially undesirable side effects once you achieve your desired goal. This will help you overcome obstacles and foresee potential pitfalls in advance. It will also help you decide if the path you are taking is the right one.

• The Mountaineer's Technique: Just like the intrepid mountaineers who plot and plan a route from the summit to the base of Everest in reverse order, dividing it into different steps, try breaking your resolution into smaller steps and achievable and plan backwards from your end goal, considering this step up the “ladder” to first.

• Adjust your approach based on progress made. Whether it is improving your physical fitness, acquiring new skills or changing your eating habits, this approach must allow you to move clearly from a goal to its achievement, by dissecting the problem, by setting objectives clear, evaluating past strategies and planning the journey in manageable steps, which significantly increases the chances of maintaining and achieving resolutions. At each stage, be sure to adjust your strategy as you see positive results at each stage or as you discover things that are working better or causing problems.

This approach is consistent with the principles of behavioral psychology, which emphasizes the importance of clear goals, self-monitoring, and gradual progression in habit formation and behavior change. If you follow these steps effectively, your New Year's resolutions can go from fantasy to tangible reality.

Where to train in the systemic and strategic approach? 

• Generalist systemic training
• DU in Relationship Clinic with the University of Paris 8
• Clinical Masters with specialization in psychopathology with Pr Nardone's CTS
• Systemic Coach Training
• Systemic training in relationship management with the University of Grenoble
• Online Ericksonian Hypnosis Training