Summary and Review of Changing for Good: A Revolutionary Six Stage Program for Overcoming Bad Habits and Moving Your Life Positively Forward

            – Change costs more than you budgeted. People do not realize that change takes a lot more time, energy, and sometimes money then they could possibly imagine.

            – Using the wrong process at the wrong time. People need to learn the processes and when to apply them correctly to change effectively.

            – Be prepared for complications. Some problems are connected to others and when you fix one, another one can become larger. Luckily a person can solve similar problems with similar solutions.

            -The path to change is rarely a straight one. Change follows a cyclical path everything a person started with is not lost, but it is changed.

            – A lapse is not a relapse. A lapse is a slip up but it does not undo all of the work that was done to change a behavior. Relapse does undo all the work that was spent on the change.

            -Mini-decisions lead to maxi-decisions. Small decisions that people make may lead them to relapse. A recovering alcoholic keeping beer in the house is a great example of this.

            – Distress precipitates relapse. The most common cause of relapse is distress.

            – Learning translates into action. People should use what they have learned through relapse to further their growth toward change.         

A Changer’s Manual

- This chapter helps people track what they would need to do to overcome problems with smoking, drinking, and psychological distress.

- This chapter has a lot of examples in it so the brief overview that I gave previously would suffice to rap this one up.

Termination- Exiting the Cycle of Change              

            – This chapter supplies the reader with four defining criteria to determine if a  person’s problem is terminated.

            – A new self-image. If a significant revision in a person’s attitude or self-image  has occurred then that person will approach termination.

            – No temptation in any situation. This simply means that if a person has no temptation to revert back to their old behavior in any situation then they will  approach termination.

            – Solid self-efficacy. This occurs when a person is convinced that they can  function well without ever again engaging in their former behaviors.

            – A healthier lifestyle. A new lifestyle is essential for maintenance. A lifestyle in  which a person does not perform their former behavior is created. 

Personal Insights

            Reading this book made me think differently about the topic in the sense that I now can see why a habit is so hard to get out of, and what it takes to get out of it. The first difference that I have found in myself is that I now have more sympathy for people who really want to change but simply don’t know how. Another way I am thinking differently is that I now know how to make the changes I have tried to or will try to accomplish happen. And lastly I have come to realize that a permanent change is not an over night thing, these so called changes end up spiraling the person back to the habit they were trying to fix in the first place.

            I’ll apply what I’ve learned in this book in my career by always remembering that people who have bad habits and are trying to change are going through a lot more than most people realize. I will always try to be patient with someone when and if they are trying to change because I can now see that failure is a part of the changing process.

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To contact the author of this summary/review, please email Daniel Blanchard at dan2blanchard@gmail.com.

David C. Wyld (dwyld@selu.edu) is the Robert Maurin Professor of Management at Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond, Louisiana. He is a management consultant, researcher/writer, and executive educator. His blog, Wyld About Business, can be viewed at http://wyld-business.blogspot.com/. He also has a book summary/review blog that is a collection of his students’ works at http://wyld-about-books.blogspot.com/.