Motivation to change problem behavior and sustain the change is:

If you lack motivation to change or to sustain efforts, a recovery lifestyle eventually will cease. Excuses used, conscious and subconscious, for your lack of personal motivation include:

• Your scapegoating of other people, agencies, or circumstances as to why efforts to change or sustain change are unsuccessful.

• Experiencing stress, depression, or confusion as to why the efforts to change or sustain change are unsuccessful.

• Denial that the change is stagnated.

• Blaming others for the inability to succeed in recovery.

• Blaming a lack of money, effort, energy, persistence, or time to attain or sustain change.

• Not realizing how hard it is to attain and sustain change.

• Becoming discouraged with the length of time change takes and the necessity for lifelong commitment to sustain change.

• An inability to accept personal responsibility for self.

• Depending on others to provide prodding, cajoling, and nagging to attain and sustain change.

If you lack personal motivation and depend entirely on social support to attain or sustain a change, you could:

In order to sustain healthy self-motivation, you need to:

• Unless I am able to achieve my goal quickly and with little effort, it isn't worth pursuing.

• Everybody else is relying on me to change; this is enough to keep me going in my need to change my lifestyle.

• There is only a need to lose weight, stop smoking, stop drinking, stop gambling, stop using my credit card, stop using crack, etc., in order to change my life.

• There is no reason for me to change my entire lifestyle in order to change my problem behaviors.

• It should be easy to change my behaviors.

• The professionals who preach lifestyle change don't know what they are talking about.

• My problem behavior is not addictive; I am in control at all times; why all the fuss!

• Change should be simple and easy to achieve; why am I having so much trouble? There must be something wrong with me.

• My friends are all wrong in encouraging me to change. It appears that I mean nothing to them unless I change.

• The effort it takes to sustain change is too much; therefore, I will only work on attaining the change and leave sustaining change to time to take care of.

• I should enjoy the adventure of change; it should come easy and be pleasant.

• If someone makes fun of or criticizes my efforts, I'll get angry enough to give up.

• For me to be successful it is important for everyone to understand me and my need to change.

• When my family and friends don't make accommodations for my changed lifestyle, I should give up. I can't stand to change alone.

• People should realize how hard it is for me to change; they should be more sympathetic.

• Unless everyone supports me, I'll never succeed in changing.

• I must have warmth, understanding, and caring from others in order to change.

• This need to change my lifestyle is being perpetrated by professionals who have a financial interest in it.

• Why are they making this seem so difficult? Are they using scare tactics to make me change?

• This "change thing'' is beginning to look like a plot hatched by the professionals and my support system. They're never satisfied.