Hi everybody. I am currently on a mission to find out, what is the biggest and #1 challenge, people are facing, when they want to create personal change?

30, female.

I lack a sufficient number of small bills.

Is that the only challenge?

Mostly I’m not sure what your question is about. Thus the sarcastic response about “making change”.

“Personal change” sounds like a multi level marketing buzzword.

Thanks for clarifying :) I am talking about making changes in your life and would love to know what is or has been the challenge when wanting to make that change.

Personally i find my old beliefs can come in the way when I want to make changes in an area of my life – from starting a business to personal fitness.

Ps; what would you call it instead (if not “Personal change”)

Inertia

For me, it’s lack of a stable living situation and money. 20, male.

20, female. Currently making a personal change, or more pecisely a personal accomplishment. The most challenging is to find a suitable source of help.

The most challenging thing in making a change? Recognizing the need for change.

People don’t wake up happy and say, “I’ll start losing weight today” or, “wow, that was such a good night, I am going to quit smoking”. The biggest motivator is surrender, that continuing to do things as we have done means nothing changes.

Where a coach, trainer, motivator is needed is to keep someone on the path once they have begun to change. And what seems to be a stumbling block for many, is that many behaviors are a means of smothering emotions and feelings, and when one begins to change those behaviors, uncomfortable feelings arise. A good trainer or motivator helps a person though that emotional processing so that they can continue on the path to growth.

Male, age 60.

Female, dark side of 40. Single parent, stuck in a foreign country with a special needs kiddo and a very special needs stepson. Thinking it’s too late for me and just giving up.

People are creatures of habits and change is often difficult and often will make things uncomfortable. There are also 2 main types of changes. One are those changes we have to face that we have little control over, divorce, death of a loved one, loss of a job. These events often involve big changes we simply have to put on our grownup pants and deal with it.

Other changes are changes should make and we may or may not be aware of but are often obvious to those around you. People who are obese, addicted to something, in an abusive relationship, in a dead end job. These people are in their comfort zone, used to the way things are and even accept how their lives are and will even rationalize why they tolerate things the way they are because the alternative would be to have to make changes. That means getting out of your comfort zone, having to work hard or harder to make these changes. People know they are fat or an alcoholic, being abused and unhappy at work they just don’t want to be told this because they don’t want to have to make these changes.

Male 55

The Schweinehund inside.

I would think the biggest hurdle would be to believe that it is possible to change.

The second is to believe that change is necessary because the thought of making an attempt to change may seem daunting.

The third would be fear of failure.

The 4th would be fear of success. What if I do change and lose something I value in the processes? Or what if I change it find it was for nothing, because I still feel the same inside or it didn’t change what I was really looking to change. For example. What if I lost weight to attract the opposite sex and find I’m still not attractive to them? So now I feel like a total loser because it wasn’t my body that turned them off, but rather my personality, or my looks. Which is harder to change. Or I leave my spouse thinking they were the problem in the relationship and find out it was me who needed to change but it’s too late and they have move on.

If this is an infomercial attempt, know, that I am not interested in changing anything.

female, and over 50

Motivation. Plain and simple. Nobody does anything until they are damn good and ready and sometimes they are never ready. Motivation is a highly personal and subjective thing, this is why nobody can ever change anyone else.

Regardless of how one intellectualizes all the reasons they should or should not do something, without motivation the intellectualisms fall along the wayside. Humans are motivated by pleasure and pain avoidance, hence the saying ” no pain, no gain”, but finding the motivation to put up with the pain and discomfort of change is a hard nut to crack whether this is some sort of addiction or making any change that will bring discomfort for a period of time. Female age 56.

Hi Pandora
I’ve always been interested in making change in my life despite the hurdles, challenges or uncertainty. Having done it consciously for over a decade I’m keen to how others relate to change..

57, female. Starting over AGAIN in yet another career. The things life has thrown at me has required a lot of self confidence, which I have.

Male, late 60’s. Both in personal experience and observation of others going through changes, I’ve noticed that the biggest obstacle to achieving that change would be habit. Humans are creatures of habit, and some habits are so deeply ingrained that we might not even recognize those that are contrary to any changes we wish to make.

It’s about time management, resposibility, stability and uncertainty. I find myself securely and gainfully employed but not I’m not exactly doing what I want to do. It’s close but not perfect. I have a lovely wife but we have some conflicting interests, the love is there but we don’t always make time for it. For me to enact further change would involve dissolving stable relationships and leaving a good job. Both of which are rare things. I do work on fitness, give up bad habits, find new hobbies etc.. Thats not exactly change though. For me to find change I would be taking on huge risks so in the end you ask yourself “Is it worth it?” I can’t answer that so it is the uncertainty involved that holds me back.

Female, 42 (tomorrow). Motivation. Unless i’m in a dire situation I just try to take the path of least resistance.

31, male.

I’ve made many changes in my life. I suppose ego is the biggest challenge to me. I plunged into this by letting go of desire to be right. I questioned everything, especially myself and left my ego at the door (so to speak). This tactic has opened up my mind in so many ways.

The other challenge is fear. Fear of the unknown and fear of what others may think. I still struggle with that sometimes and I think we all do. But if you value your individuality and principals as a person, you’ll take the dive and just be honest with yourself.

I knew it, @ragingloli. You’re mellowing.