The psychology of making a change to your life – and sticking with it

Is there a change you’d like to make in your life? Perhaps you’d finally like to write the novel you’ve been thinking about for years. Perhaps you think you should start saving for a holiday or a deposit on a house or flat. Maybe you would like to improve your fitness.

That’s great. But we all know it can be hard to stick to these kinds of changes. Gym membership figures suggest half of new members quit within six months, and many of us have the evidence of once-loved hobbies scattered around our homes.

To write that book, for instance, you’re going to have to find time to do it, and stick with it when the going gets tough and initial enthusiasm has worn off.

First, you should ask yourself why you’re doing it.

My research looks at the psychology of making changes through the lens of what is known as self-determination theory, which proposes that there are different forms of motivation. These range from, for instance, being motivated to do something because someone is making you do it, to being motivated because you think it’s fun.

Looked at like this, big changes, such as training for a new career, and smaller ones, like joining a weekly fitness class, are all the same. What matters is the reason you have...

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