How to change your life | A Guide to Behavior Change

 Every one of us at a certain point in life wishes that we can have a different life. Well, I am no magician having any magical wand revolving that will change your life. So, without beating around the bushes I will state my facts straight as I know after you complete reading this article you will value every minute of your time and I don’t want to take some extra time than I need and delay your life-changing journey.

 

“You are the creator of your own life.”

 

We all have often heard this quote but in our minds we think I am trying hard, working daily, listening to my arrogant bosses but still I am not reaching anywhere and all these quotes are easy to say. Trust me, I completely understand what you are saying. But all these negative thoughts cannot overshadow the truth behind this quote which can be further assassinated by another quote

 “It’s our habits that make us or breaks us.”

So, simply we can conclude that in a way to change your life completely and changing your life for the better you have to change your habits first. And for it, go through the process of behavior change.

What is behavior change?

The sum of conscious and unconscious alterations, transformations, and modifications in one’s behavior throughout any period is behavior change. There are broadly two types of behavior change, which are,

• Voluntary behavior change

•  Involuntary behavior change

 As the name clarifies voluntary behavior changes are the changes made by us voluntarily in ourselves to achieve any specific goal or for the altogether betterment of the quality of our life. We have to work on this process and we will talk about it further but first let’s know about involuntary behavior change.

 

Involuntary behavior changes are the changes that we are not aware of we are making or they just happen like an accident. We observe many people change after facing an accident or a trauma, but the changes we see in them come suddenly. Involuntary changes can last for a lifetime but most times normal as they recover, the behavior of the deceased gets back to normal as soon as he recovers from the incident or trauma.

Importance of bringing the change:      

 “Change is an inevitable part of life” and to survive in this ever-changing world, we should try to bring changes in ourselves. 

Various concepts and theories support the importance of bringing a change in your life by changing your habits and how important it is to bring changes into your life. From all the concepts and theories, we will understand the importance of behavior change with an easy-to-understand and comprehend concept. Known as the 3-4-50 concept.   

 

The 3-4-50 CONCEPT

 According to the 3-4-50 concept,

• Low or no physical work
• Excessive smoking, and
• Intake of improper diet

Are three main poor behavioral activities, any of these or altogether of these when performed for a significant period can cause 4kinds of hazardous diseases, which are

· Cancer

· Pulmonary diseases

· Heart diseases, and,

· Diabetes

        In any period, these 4 diseases kill about half of the population (i.e. 50%) that dies every year across the globe.   

 The 3-4-50 concept tells you how necessary it becomes to change your unhealthy habits and adopt healthy ones. The same is the case of every other field, whether it's your profession, personal life, eating life and, workout life, etc. And for bringing changes into your life, undergo a process made with 5 steps. But before telling you about these steps and the process. Let me tell you that all this will not be easy. I am not saying it to make your mindset negative about the process, but to let you know about the hard work you have to put in to change your life.

Is behavior change a hard process:

    

If you want me to stay true then yes, behavior change is never a simple process. But if going through a process can change your life for good, then the hardships that come in the way are actually worth it. 

The process of behavior change is a lot more complex than the simpler it sounds. As the process will require the best level of dedication, patience and, strong-will you have ever provided. The fact is bringing any minor change in your lifestyle like waking up at the same time daily can take your 2-3months easily and after that to you have to take care of the recent change and maintain it so that it can become permanent.

Things to remember in your life-changing journey:

 “Your setback is just a setup for your comeback.”

                                                                                                                -Steve Harvey

You will face many setbacks in this journey of self-change. But never let those setbacks hinder your path and keep your eyes focused on your goal, which is living a better life. Instead, try to embrace these setbacks by analyzing them and finding out the mistakes that caused you to face the setback. Learn from these mistakes and try again with a better perspective of what you should do and what you shouldn’t.

 "Success is built sequentially. It's one thing at a time."

-Gary W. Keller

Try to achieve a few goals at a single time. I recommend you to start with trying to make a simple change at a time and after achieving it, go for the other one. But if you think you are highly determinant, then take a maximum of 2 to 3 goals at one time. Do not change everything at a single time. It will give you anxiety and panic and will leave you achieving nothing.

 "If you don’t know where you are going, you will probably end up somewhere else."

             –Laurence J. Peter

For achieving your goals, envision them properly. Instead of setting vague goals like I will run every day. Set a goal like I have to run for 20 minutes a day in the morning between 6:00 a.m. and 6:20 a.m. When you know what exactly you want to achieve, it becomes easy to know that if you are going in the right direction or not or how close you are to your goal. Knowing your goal properly also works as a motivation factor that will remain missing in the other case.

“Believe in yourself! Have faith in your abilities! Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers you cannot be successful or happy.”

           —Norman Vincent Peale

Self-belief is the most important thing that you will need on your life-changing journey. If you don’t possess an inner belief in yourself, no matter how many people believe in you. You are still not going to achieve anything big. Don’t depend on others to motivate you or believe in you. Do all these things by yourself for yourself.

Process of behavior change:

The process of behavior change comprises 5 steps in total. Climb one step at a time and give yourself time before climbing the other one. So, without taking much of your time. Let’s talk about the steps and understand what every step concludes too.

Precontemplation: The stage where no change happens instead we are not even thinking of changing or we need a change in our life is the pre-contemplation stage. We can say it as the stage of “complete unawareness” or that a person is in the phase of denial. There can be different reasons for one’s being in this stage.

 

1. Fear of change- Many people fear change and thus constantly avoid the fact that they need a change in their life. We can state it as another example of what stage of denial is.

2. Lack of awareness and information- Most people live their complete lives with wrong behavioral habits without even knowing that the behavior they have requires significant changes. While others think it is impossible to change one’s behavior.

3. Avoiding positivity- Many people avoid positive things as their mindset has become enough negative to endure any positive thought. Thus these people live at a stage where they consciously don’t want to change.

The only way for you to surpass the stage is to realize your wrong behavioral patterns and then decide not to stay with them forever.

Contemplation- At this stage “unawareness turns itself into awareness.” A person realizes the negative traits of his behavior and is ready to work upon them. The things he lacks at this stage are a strong will that he will need to change his behavior and the knowledge required to do so. A person at the contemplation stage can be described by the word “ambivalent”. 

Ambivalent is the one who wants a healthy body but won’t consume a healthy diet or do exercise for it. Before searching for the knowledge and maybe reading this article you were at this stage.

Preparation- Goal-oriented planning comes under the preparation stage. An individual believing that he is enough and capable to make any change required and thus starts taking the steps required to achieve that goal. 

Let’s take help with the previous example where the person who wants a healthy body will now consult a dietician to know which healthy diet he should consume and will enroll himself in any place he can exercise, like aerobics classes or a gym.

Action- after enrolling yourself in a gym and after taking the advice of the dietician, the thing required is a proper and important follow-up, that is what action is. In simpler words, doing the things that are required or we can say making the required change is action. This phase will challenge you the most and will test your determination to the very best. 

Keep your patience and motivation levels higher. There will be days where you will question yourself and the journey, or is this hard work worth it? Believe me, it is. Once you will successfully make a change and then look back to this journey, the pain you had endured will seem very less against the satisfaction you will get after achieving your goal.

Maintenance- After indulging in the process of action for 6 months, you will get an entry into the Maintenance phase. The primary aim of this stage is the prevention of the relapse of your new habit, which you have made with skilled work and zeal. 

Take care that consciously or subconsciously you won’t do things that will end up affecting your new habit so that the new habit can become a permanent one and your hard work won’t go in vain.

Before ending, I want to repeat some important things that will help you in the life-changing journey.

· 

Set realistic goals which are possible for being achieved in the actual world.  

Try not to set too many goals at a time instead stick with one, achieve it and then move further.

Try to set such goals completion of which is not dependent on someone else in these cases you will easily get disappointed.   

   
Envision your goals clearly. The more clearly you know what you want to achieve, the more likely you will achieve it. 

   In the end, I want to wish you all the courage and patience you will need in this life-changing journey. And may you come out as a better person after going through this process.

     

      PENNED BY- PEARL GUPTA

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Racial Discrimination | Meaning of Racial Discrimination And Its Effects

 

“The very serious function of racism is a distraction. It keeps you from doing your work. It keeps you explaining, over and over again, your reason for being.”

                        — Toni Morrison

 

In a world that claims to be modern, having a mindset that is different and progressive. And none of the social evils still exist here. Well, by just watching any news channel for just an hour or less you will find how bogus these claims are, and how shallow our modern and progressive thinking is. How these are just mere words and the reality is way far and harsh. We are living in the 21st century, and we get to read one or two cases of racial discrimination daily in newspapers, whether it’s a local newspaper or the international one as the world never gets short of these cases, and daily some of them found their way in almost every newspaper. This news will let you know how people are still being judged by the way they look, the color of their skin, their accent, the country they belong to, and the religious beliefs they behold. They get outcaste or privileged based on their caste, gender, and religion, and we provide no concern to their capabilities.

 

Meaning of racial discrimination

We also know racial discrimination as Racism providing different treatment to certain individuals or a group of individuals entirely based upon their beliefs, caste, creed, religion, and gender. The treatment is mainly unfair in which they get outcast or receive a different treatment than the usual one. In such cases, such people are outcasts from society or large groups and they are often looking down on them. But in some rare cases for the upliftment of the discriminated sector of the society or to reverse the damage they had received we provide them some special privileges, known as racial quotas. 

 Things that fuel racial discrimination

Skin Whitening Products–In all these years Beauty companies have made people believe that beauty is all about how fair your skin is. It obsesses people with white skin so much that they try every way to get that white skin. You can often see people searching for partners having a fair skin tone on matrimonial and dating sites. Some say that it’s a matter of choice and we should respect it. Believe us we do but all this is making dark skin colored people feel less worthy at the end which is not correct in any sense. What these beauty companies sell are not just products but hopes of getting fairer skin and no one stands against this policy instead we subconsciously accept people with a darker tone as less beautiful than the fairer ones.

Social Media Platforms–In the world of social media, selfies, right swipes, and short videos, commonly known as reels we have become addicted to judging people by the way they look, the clothes they wear, and then we decide to talk to them or not. Social media platforms have made our lives all about the way we look and not about the way we are. We have knowingly and unknowingly started giving much emphasis on things that matter less than the thing that matters the most. Things like feelings, honesty, and soulfulness are not getting enough value. As a result, you can see men having great bodies and 6 pack abs, and women having slim bodies and fair skin tones have more followers on their social media handles. We are not against influencers and people who want to teach you a better lifestyle or are working to make them look like they want to look alike. In simpler words, all we want to say is that now the world is more concerned about how beautiful the packaging sheet looks than about what’s inside it. 

Mass Media Representation- We don’t say that mass media means knowingly supports racism but the way they represent things usually does. And the straight fact is that they don’t oppose it, anyway. We come across movies, television shows, and web series that support racial beliefs making people subconsciously more rigid in their beliefs about racism. There is a need to make and telecast more such programs that can continuously challenge these beliefs and help in bringing a change. 

No or less Vocalisation-In modern times, there are still few leaders who freely talk about racism. Where political leaders don’t want to offend any group of people and reduce their vote bank, others don't want to get into a mess causing a situation where there is no one or very few individuals who can challenge the views of discrimination in other minds. “And where there are no challenges, there is no change.”

Reverse Discrimination

The talk of racial discrimination can’t be complete without talking about the term reverse discrimination. As the name suggests and as Miriam Webster says “the practice of making it more difficult for a certain type of person to get a job, to go to school, etc., because other people who were mistreated in the past are now being given an advantage.”

Actually, what I want to say is reverse discrimination is also a kind of discrimination imposed upon us by our leaders that is not solving the problem of racial discrimination instead it is making the differences among us wider. As the capable and deserving don't get adequate jobs and colleges which makes them feel discriminated toward those individuals who got jobs based upon the racial quotas. You can see and experience reverse discrimination in countries like India where there are racial quotas based on caste and religion and they are following this system at each scale of every sector of the economy. Whether you want to get a public sector job or getting admission into college, you will face the racial quota system everywhere. Somewhere less and somewhere more in most of the places around the world lies both racial and reverse discrimination making us human beings rift apart from each other because of the issues that don’t matter at all.

Ways to resolve racism

Every change starts with us. We can’t wait forever for our government, our bosses, or our leaders to speak against the cause and take necessary measures. Instead, we are the ones who can bring the change. Start by changing your behavior and make your home a place free of racism. Tell your partner and children about your alternative belief system and challenge their old beliefs. Make your workplace a better and racism-free place, where everybody gets treated upon their capabilities. While encountering any racial injustice don’t just stand there, use your voice against it. 

Not anyone else, but “it’s you who can bring the change.”

 

PENNED BY- PEARL GUPTA