The Simple Framework For Human Change

Since the beginning of civilization humans have chased progress and improvement. Whether it be financial, health, productivity, relationships or whatever our heart desires, we are looking to level up our existence.

But, even after all these years of progress people still:

• Go years wanting change but seeing none

• Feeling stuck in the same place

• Live their whole lives thinking “what if”

Just to name a few…

For those that are fortunate enough to experience change, they often had to pay a hefty amount of time or money to realize that change— think college, personal trainers etc.

Then there are the select few that seem to improve their lifestyle effortlessly. Why is that? Do they just have more money, knowledge, luxury, higher IQ?

It could be any reason, but I have made an observation about human change: it can be boiled down to a single framework.

Simply knowing this framework accelerates your ability to enact change in yourself and your situation.

The Framework

There are 5 pieces to any type of change:

1. New Knowledge

2. Desire for Change

3. Change in Thinking

4. Change in Behavior

5. Desired Outcome Achieved

Anyone who has experience change has went through each of these phases, so let’s break this down.

New Knowledge

Normally all change starts with obtaining new information that highlights something that was previously hidden from us. This can take many forms:

• Realizing there are more lucrative careers

• Realizing how much weight you gained/lost

• Realizing your declining health

• Realizing how the monetary system actually works

Those are just a few examples, but notice I started each one with the word “realize”. That was no mistake. I chose that word because for any change to begin, there is a period of realization that has to occur.

This realization period is the discovery that leads to a desire.

Simply put, as we obtain new information, we understand that there are new avenues that we can take in life.

Desire for Change

With our new found knowledge, it often incites a feeling of “desire” within us. A desire to trade our current situation for a new and improved one.

This phase is where all our dreams live. We fantasize about how great everything will be once we achieve this desire outcome.

We plan about how we will get there, and all the great things that will happen as a result of this change.

This is where an inner desire or feeling of change begins.

Change in Thinking

Welcome to the dream graveyard. This third phase is where dreams die. People get stuck in a cycle between the first two phases and they are unable to break out of the third. It often looks like this:

People will bounce between new information + ideas, and desire for a new reality. But once the novelty fades, and the real work must begin, people give us.

This is also known as the “dip” the period just before real and exponential change where a majority of people quit.

Simply making it into the third phase puts you ahead of most people and that’s because there’s a major difference between the first two phases and the last two phases

That difference is passive vs active.

New knowledge and desire for change are passive endeavors (for the most part). In today’s world, information is free flowing. Passive info discovery has been made mindless through social media scrolling and notifications.

We are in a constant state of information overload. This creates a constant cycle where individuals bounce from new information to desire and vice versa.

In phase 3, we need to change our thinking which is an active requirement.

You must take the new information, channel the energy from your desire and understand what is necessary to go from where you are now, to where you want to go.

It requires a total shift in your thinking.

You must actively understand what steps you must take next to bring about this change.

Change in Behavior

Once we have changed our thinking and outlined what needs to happen next, its almost impossible not to see a behavioral change. This is the easy part, and builds off momentum.

This phase consists of executing what we outlined previously. All that happens here is the realization of the previous three phases.

Desired Outcome

One of two things happen at the end of behavior change: You either achieved what you wanted or you didn’t.

If you did it, congratulations you experienced the high of a desired outcome.

If you didn’t, you now have more context on what you need to better next time.

Putting it altogether:

It can be easy to think that change is a lot more complicated than that, but those are the essential elements. Distractions, lack of discipline or poor execution are what prevent us from achieving our goals.

I am confident if you’re reading this letter that you are going to make it, and you are already focused on change. Be patient and it will happen 💪

If you enjoy this type of content, check out the 1% Better Pod where we discuss these ideas with real time creators, entrepreneurs and high achievers.