I'll say it straight: I keep finding better and better books on habits, and this one surprised me. It was written in 1994, so it's over 20 years old, but habits don't age. They're wired into the same lizard brain we've always had. The full title is a mouthful — a revolutionary six-stage program for overcoming bad habits and moving your life positively forward — but it's one of the most scientifically grounded explanations I've read for why people don't change, why they try and fail, and why the change that does happen doesn't last.
Why jumping straight to action doesn't work
Prochaska lays out six stages: precontemplation, contemplation, preparation, action, maintenance, and termination. Precontemplation is when you don't even register the habit as a problem — you smoke, you see other smokers, that's just how it is. Contemplation is the wishy-washy "maybe I should" stage. Most people, most years, skip straight from there to action. That's exactly why New Year's resolutions collapse by February. You wake up on January 1st, decide today's the day, and skip preparation entirely. No prep, no environment set up, no plan — just willpower, which runs out fast.
You might also like
Preparation means the room, the gear, and the people around you
This is the part that actually changed how I operate. For me the habit was sales calls. I used to think I just needed to be motivated enough — hype myself up, grab the phone, go destroy it. Never lasted. What the book made clear is that preparation isn't optional, it's the stage that makes action stick. For sales calls that meant a headset, an actual list of people to call, and a room where I could focus. But the bigger piece was telling the people around me: don't disturb me between nine and ten. That's the part most people skip. If you're quitting smoking or drinking and the people around you don't know, they'll pull you back in without even meaning to — they're still in their own smoking stage, and your success makes them uncomfortable. You have to prepare your environment and your people before you prepare yourself.
Action is the toughest stage, but slipping isn't the failure
Once you take action, the book makes a point I hadn't heard before: if you take action and slide back into preparation, that's normal, don't panic about it. The real danger is staying in preparation too long — the longer you sit there "getting ready," the harder the actual habit becomes to break. You have to reach a tipping point where the cost of not changing outweighs the comfort of the old pattern, and only then does action hold.
Maintenance is where I personally struggle most
This is my honest one: maintenance is the hardest stage for me. Prochaska says it can take six to eight months of maintaining before you're anywhere near the finish line, and the way through is giving yourself real rewards for doing the work — a smoothie after the gym, something small but real. I fall out of maintenance more than I'd like to admit. I'll be solid in action, then drift back into preparation, then start the cycle again. Knowing that's a normal part of the process, not a personal failure, changed how hard I am on myself about it.
Termination is the goal — "this is who I am"
The last stage is termination, and it's not really about willpower anymore. It's identity. I'm not a smoker. I make sales calls nine to ten every single day, don't disrupt me. Prochaska says that can take two to six years to fully lock in, and even then there's always something in the back of your mind waiting for a day off. I haven't hit termination on sales calls yet — I'm somewhere in the maintenance loop — but knowing the map made the process feel a lot less random.
Who should read this
If you've ever tried to build or kill a habit and had it fall apart by week three, read this alongside Charles Duhigg's habit book. Duhigg tells you what a habit loop is. Prochaska tells you which stage you're actually standing in and what to do next.
0 Comments
Log in to comment
Not a member yet? Join the community
Pick a meme
KlipyHave a great take?
Drop your email — we'll send a magic link so you can post it. No password.
Not a member of the community? Join today.
Join the community →