The Stages of Change: Meeting Yourself Where You Actually Are

If you've ever read a piece of health advice, nodded along, and then not done any of it — you already know something the wellness industry keeps forgetting.

Knowing what to do isn't the problem. Being ready to do it is.

The Transtheoretical Model, briefly

In the 1980s, psychologists James Prochaska and Carlo DiClemente developed the Transtheoretical Model (TTM) — also called the Stages of Change. Four decades of research have validated it across every domain of health behavior: smoking cessation, weight change, exercise, addiction recovery, chronic disease management.

The model identifies six stages a person moves through when changing a behavior:

1. Precontemplation — Not considering change. The behavior isn't a "problem" yet.
2. Contemplation — Aware of the tradeoff. Curious. Not ready to act.
3. Preparation — Planning. Gathering information. Trying small pieces.
4. Action — Actively changing the behavior.
5. Maintenance — Change sustained for six months or more. Now the work is protecting it.
6. Termination — The new behavior is fully integrated. No relapse risk.

Most health content is written for stage 4. That's why it fails so many readers — because most of us are in stage 2 or 3 when we encounter it, and the advice is calibrated wrong.

What stage-matched coaching looks like

Board-certified health coaching — through the NBHWC framework — is trained to meet clients at their actual stage. That means:

• In contemplation, the coach doesn't push action. She uses reflective listening to help you articulate why change matters to you.
• In preparation, the coach helps you design a first experiment that's small enough to actually happen.
• In action, the coach becomes an accountability partner — not a director.
• In maintenance, the coach helps you build the systems that protect the change through the disruptions life inevitably produces.

The method for doing this — evoking the client's own reasoning at each stage — is Motivational Interviewing (Miller & Rollnick, 4th edition, Guilford Press 2023). It's supported by hundreds of randomized controlled trials for health behavior change.

The practical upshot

If you've tried and abandoned five wellness plans in the past three years, it isn't a discipline problem. It's very likely a stage-matching problem.

The next question isn't what should I do? It's what stage am I actually in for this change? Once you know that honestly, the right next step usually becomes obvious.

That's exactly the work coaching is designed for. If you'd like to explore whether it's a fit, the free 15-minute chat is the easiest place to start.