Human beings are creatures of habit. Human beings HATE to change. H-A-T-E to change.
In a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in April 2013 as reported on by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, patients that had suffered a heart attack, stroke or other major cardiac event were counseled on three behavioral changes designed to improve their health and prevent future cardiac events (and probably death): smoking cessation, healthy eating and physical exercise. In this study, ONLY 4.3% of patients improved their habits in all three areas. That means less than 1 in 20 people thought that decreasing the chances of dying were worth the hassle of making a few lifestyle changes.
All of the choices we make every day carry consequences with certain consequences more significant than others. However, I don’t know of too many consequences that carry the weight of “do this or your chances of dying increase dramatically”. Yet even in the face of that advice only 4.3% of patients made significant lifestyle changes in all three areas, 30% made two lifestyle changes and 47% of patients changed at least one lifestyle change to improve their health and lessen the immediate chances of dying. That also means that nearly 20% of people elected to do NOTHING.
We can all get caught up in the bliss of change, imagining how things will be better, how they will be different, how much more efficient things will operate, how much money will be saved, etc., etc.
New is change. When selling a product or service that will bring about something new, never ever discount how hard it will be to convince someone to give it a try, how hard it will be to implement the change and how hard it will be to make sure the change takes root and flourishes.
Change is the way we grow, the way we develop, the way we move ahead. It is just not easy.
Every time someone tells you it is going to be easy, remember the cautionary AMA study.
