The Pyramid Of Resistance To Change

We all know that life is dynamic. What was yesterday is no longer today. What is not there today, tomorrow will. No matter how routine and stable our life is, there are always transformations. Despite everything, most people have great trouble changing. The pyramid of resistance to change is a model that tries to explain why.

We are who we are and we organize our lives many times without knowing why. Many factors influence all this, the point is that we are not fully aware of many of them. Now,  we also achieve balance points in what we do, think and feel that provide us with a sense of tranquility . So we settled in and stayed there. The problem is that when we need to move forward, we also have to move and obviously change. However, we are not always prepared to do so.

The pyramid of resistance to change allows us to understand why it is sometimes so difficult to make changes in our lives. In fact, it happens to all of us and even sometimes, it plunges us into a conflict with ourselves, but we also cannot avoid it because sometimes we do not realize it. We invent arguments or excuses to continue as we are and only in the medium or long term do we become aware of what happened and we regret it.

The pyramid of resistance to change and knowledge

Many times it is said that someone who does not change is because they do not want to. It is true that the will plays an important role in this area, however, it is not the only thing. Sometimes we call that will and it does not come, but we do not understand why. The point is that at the base of the pyramid of resistance to change is not the will, but knowledge.

Therefore, the first barrier to overcome is the lack of knowledge . Many times we do not have enough information  about the reasons that motivate the change, but neither about the best way to advance it, nor about the set of benefits that we can obtain.

The first thing is to inform us in a neat way about all this. When we have abundant and valuable information , our consciousness is nourished and opens up to new possibilities. The change takes place first in the mind and then in practice. Knowledge contributes to forming convictions and great transformations are born from them.

The second element: power

At the second rung of the pyramid of resistance to change is power. It is known that it must be changed, but it is believed that it is not possible to do so. You do not trust the capabilities you have to achieve it or presume that the difficulties that will appear along the way are greater than your transformation purpose.

To achieve a change it is necessary to work in depth on self-confidence. We know that the mind has great power and if we think that we are not going to achieve something, we certainly will not achieve it. These types of schedules are the ones that have to be redesigned.

It is convenient to remember past achievements. Also difficult moments that we have gone through and that we have finally overcome, in one way or another. Sometimes it is also worth setting smaller change goals that we believe we can achieve. This increases self-confidence.

The third element: want

Most of the time we end up doing and achieving what we want. What happens is that many times we are not aware of it, mainly because we do not admit what we really want. It seems impossible to us, for example, that our desire is to fail. But if we examine our failures coldly, we surely realize that we have contributed decisively to them.

Sometimes what we really want does not match what we think we want. This topic is not so obvious. We can believe that we want to buy many dresses, when deep down what we want is to compensate for a hurt self-esteem. Or we think that getting a new academic degree is our goal, when perhaps we just want to feel more respect for ourselves.

Our wishes should also be a cause for careful examination, since they are not as easy to identify as they seem. Perhaps, in reality what we want is not to face our fears and that is why, obviously, we do not do it. Or we prefer not to expose ourselves to failure, even if the price is a life without major emotions.

The three elements of the pyramid of resistance to change (knowing, being able and willing) correspond to the three barriers that we must face. Also to the three processes that we would have to advance: inform ourselves, empower ourselves and identify our desire. If we do them, with all certainty, that single exercise will change us for the better.