How to Coach Yourself and Others Essential Knowledge For Coaching | Page 406

4.27 STAGES OF THE CHANGE CONTINUUM
Facilitating Behavior Change
Motivation is a key factor in successful behavior change This chapter
presents techniques that will be useful in assessing motivation and
helping others increase their intrinsic motivation to change their
behavior.
READINESS TO CHANGE
Behavior change is rarely a discrete, single event. During the past
decade, behavior change has come to be understood as a process of
identifiable stages through which people pass (Zimmerman et al., 2000).
The Stages of Change model describes five stages of readiness:
precontemplation, contemplation, prepar-ation, action, and maintenance
- and provides a framework for understanding behavior change
(DiClemente and Prochaska, 1998).

For most people behavior change occurs gradually over time, with the
person progressing from being uninterested, unaware, or unwilling to
make a change (precontemplation), to considering a change
(contemplation), to deciding and preparing to make a change
(preparation). This is followed by definitive action, and attempts to
maintain the new behavior over time (maintenance). People can
progress in both directions in the stages of change. Most people will
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