STRATEGIES FOR CHANGE Knowing what stage you're in will help you determine your best strategy for adopting a new behavior. Here are a couple of strategies for each stage, and tools that can help you with your progress:
LEARN ABOUT IT
Often, when a behavior change is suggested to arthritis patients, they may be resistant or may never have thought about the behavior as important to their arthritis management. At first they may know nothing or very little about why they should adopt new self-management behaviors. Before changing, they need to learn why adopting is important and how it has helped others with arthritis. They need to see the behavior as personally important. At first the benefits or "pros" of the old behavior may appear to be greater than the "pros" of the suggested change. In the beginning, it is important to learn as much as possible about the change suggested for arthritis management and about how this change can help.
You can weigh your personal "pros" and "cons" by using the Pros and Cons tool and listening to the personal stories of others with arthritis. To imagine your life as you engage in the new behavior, use the Imagine This tool. Check how this change may enhance your personal values and goals with the Values and Goals tool.
After deciding that you want to try a change or adopt a new behavior to help manage your arthritis, you will naturally move to planning for the change. At this point, making a plan of action will facilitate getting started. It is important to set some modest personal goals, such as for the first two weeks walking 10 minutes twice a day, then 15 minutes for the following two weeks. It also helps to set a target start date and make a public commitment. Finally, taking small steps will help ease the change: set the alarm, look for low-fat recipes or check out yoga classes for persons with arthritis. Make a plan that fits with your life, taking into account "What is happening? When is a good start date?"
STAY FOCUSED
Once a plan of action has been made and your start date is upon you, you will need to stay focused. Incorporating change into your life with arthritis and undoing a habit does not happen overnight. You need to give your change time to take hold. You need time to have your schedule settle around the yoga class, your morning or afternoon walk or your morning stretches. Or, you need time to adapt your taste and cooking habits to new ideas.
You may need to go back to Pros and Cons, Values and Goals or Imagine This to remind yourself about why you are making the change.
STICK TO THE PLAN
When you have made the change, the work begins to maintain the new behavior. Remember to reward yourself for good behavior and to try controlling your environment by avoiding temptation and planning ahead.
Now may be the time to use the Situation ID tool to identify situations in which you would be tempted to stop the behavior, the Change Timeline tool to remind you of how far you have come and the Decision Matrix tool to help you think about the consequences of stopping now and the benefits of continuing.
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