We all want to achieve change, but so often there is a resistance, a push back. S.T.A.N. might just help.
I have found that often there is a lot of resistance when I want to make changes. It can feel like you’re pushing into a headwind.
Why change? Why do something different?
It’s easier to stay the same.
As a writer, I can connect with Steven Pressfield when he uses the word ‘Resistance’ to describe that almost energy like state that pushes against any movement forward.
Resistance is experienced as fear; the degree of fear equates to the strength of Resistance. Therefore the more fear we feel about a specific enterprise, the more certain we can be that that enterprise is important to us and to the growth of our soul. That’s why we feel so much Resistance. If it meant nothing to us, there’d be no Resistance.”
― The War of Art
Why Bother! Most of us have two lives. The life we live, and the unlived life within us. Between the two stands Resistance. Steven Pressfield
Achieving change is hard work, and so it’s important to have a plan?
What if you had a biblical hero to show you how?
Dare to be a Daniel
As I child I was taught all about a young godly man called Daniel who dared to stand up to persecution.
But Daniel determined that he would not defile himself by eating the king’s food or drinking his wine, so he asked the head of the palace staff to exempt him from the royal diet.
The head of the palace staff, by God’s grace, liked Daniel, but he warned him, “I’m afraid of what my master the king will do.
He is the one who assigned this diet and if he sees that you are not as healthy as the rest, he’ll have my head!”
But Daniel appealed to a steward who had been assigned by the head of the palace staff to be in charge of Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah: “Try us out for ten days on a simple diet of vegetables and water.
Then compare us with the young men who eat from the royal menu. Make your decision on the basis of what you see.”
The steward agreed to do it and fed them vegetables and water for ten days.
At the end of the ten days they looked better and more robust than all the others who had been eating from the royal menu.
So the steward continued to exempt them from the royal menu of food and drink and served them only vegetables. Daniel 1:8-16 (The Message)
Daniel achieved change. It was risky, there was a lot of resistance, but he had a plan. A carefully laid out plan.
The S.T.A.N. Plan for Achieving Change
Let’s look into how Daniel achieved change.
Daniels plan had four qualities.
1. Simple to understand by all that were involved
It was a simple plan. Easy to understand by all involved.
“Try us out for ten days on a simple diet of vegetables and water. Then compare us with the young men who eat from the royal menu. Make your decision on the basis of what you see.”
Everyone could understand the plan. Ten days, vegetables and water, then compare with those who eat the royal menu.
Too many plans are complex and difficult to understand. Plans that achieve change are simple to understand by all.
2. Timed for review, not necessarily completion
There was a time period to review how things were going.
Try us out for ten days
Plans that achieve change have a review period to see how things are going.
Are there adjustments to be made? Positives, negatives, challenges and obstacles.
This was part of Daniel’s plan to achieve change.
3. Aimed at achieving something of deep personal value.
So often, the change we want to achieve isn’t linked to something of deep importance to us.
The eating of food offered to idols was going to defile Daniel and his friends. This was serious to them.
Often a good question to ask is why this is important? Why are we doing this?
Connecting the outcome to something deeply important helps to motivate.
4. Negotiated with those that are involved
Daniel negotiated this plan with the steward who was going to making sure the young men would be fed.
But Daniel appealed to a steward
Ten days was long enough to see if there was going to be a change for the worse.
So often, the achievement of change relies on others being involved.
Have we talked with others about our plans?
Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much. Helen Keller
Daniel used a little plan I call S.T.A.N. to achieve his goal of having a different diet.
You can use it too.
Is your plan …
- Simple to understand by all that are involved
- Timed for review, not necessarily completion
- Aimed at achieving something of deep personal value
- Negotiated with those that are involved
Quotes to consider
- Resistance is experienced as fear; the degree of fear equates to the strength of Resistance. Therefore the more fear we feel about a specific enterprise, the more certain we can be that that enterprise is important to us and to the growth of our soul. That’s why we feel so much Resistance. If it meant nothing to us, there’d be no Resistance.” The War of Art
- People change when they hurt enough that they have to, learn enough that they want to, and receive enough that they are able to.
- Yes, “the truth will set you free” as Jesus says (John 8:32), but first it tends to make you miserable. Richard Rohr.
- Nothing digs ditches like shovel fulls of dirt. Rick Hanson
- If part of me likes a compulsive habit, then it will remain, even if most of me doesn’t, until such time as I become more fully persuaded. D. Riddell
- Changing one’s own behavior is a much more promising strategy than insisting on change from the other. Terrence Real
Barry Pearman
Photo by Glenn Carstens-Peters on Unsplash
Further reading