RESISTANT BARRIERS TO CHANGE

• August 27, 2022
• 387 views

The Five Most Common Barriers to Change

No matter what their origin, resistant barriers to change that keep us from becoming who we want to be or who we are meant to be, Recognizing and identified, them can help us  significantly in working to diminish them.

1) Are you on Your Own Path to Self-Actualization or Someone Else’s Wish for You?

Many people begin their journey of transformation/change because someone they care about thinks they should. Somewhere along the way, you loose yourself while trying hard to be what others want you to be.Trying to become someone you are not meant to be is a daunting task

2) Do you resist challenging your preconceptions?

From the time you were born, the way you were raised has influenced your beliefs and behaviors. As a young child, you could not challenge those teachings.

As you progress through  life, some of those internalized beliefs have been challenged by new experiences. And most likely you have dropped some of the biases but held on to others.

If you feel held back by what you thought was the right way to think and act, ask yourself why you are resisting challenging your preconceptions.

3) Hurts, Habits and Hangups that keep you from moving on

Basic personality defects like anxiety, depression, inertia, insecurity, dependency, impatience, compulsion most often hold people back from transformation. Unfortunately, most habits are formed unconsciously, taught by a particular current or past reactions to situations. Sometimes, no matter how hard a person understands the need for change, he or she may be facing barriers that are very hard to break by themselves without help.

4) Living with unconscious or suppressed pain

Many people bury trauma and for totally understandable reason. Research has shown many people who cannot change are being held back by unresolved past trauma that they have been unable to share or heal. Suppressed pain can fester, becoming an invisible barrier to future options.

People who are determined to change often have to get to the core of prior traumas so that the process will release the energy they need for transformation.

5) If you are frightened of taking risks

Fear of risk-taking can be both inborn and affected by environmental rewards or punishments

When one hundreds people were asked if they went back in time and remember a pivotal decision they had made in the past and they could go back in time, knowing then what you know now, would they make the same decision? If not, would you they choose to take a more conservative route or a greater risk?”

Only one person out of the one hundred said he would have opted for more security. All the others (99), in retrospect, would have taken more risks.

Reference:

What Keeps Me From Changing?- Challenging the barriers to transformation

Posted September 8, 2013 by Randi Gunther PhD. Psychology Today.