The Challenge of Changing Your Behavior

How well do you meet the challenge of changing your behavior when you know it would improve the quality of your life? To help you answer that question, look at the following scale. Picture number 1 as people who feel quite helpless, almost totally out of control of their lives. Number 10 is the opposite, people who feel on top of things and quite in charge of their lives. Most of us fall somewhere in between.
Take a moment. Think about it. At this point in your life, where do you place yourself?

How Much I Feel In Control Of My Life
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
I feel very little personal I feel a lot of personal control control over my life. over my life

Chances are, the less personal control (that is, the less in charge you feel over your life), the less happy you are. As a clinical psychologist, I’ve spent many years working with many different kinds of people dealing with many different kinds of problems. I am convinced the bottom line is this:
· Feeling you have a reasonable degree of personal control over your life is essential to your emotional health and well-being.
· Research shows a sense of personal control over your life is also a major contributor to keeping you physically healthy.
· The opposite is true as well. Feeling helpless is bad for both your mental and physical health.
The scale above is a useful first step for taking stock of your situation.