Grow and Develop: The Psychology of Positive Personal Change

All of us 'get stuck' repeatedly doing things we really wish we could stop doing. But for reasons unknown, we seem unable to stop eating too much (or little), staying with the exercise program we keep starting and quitting, making unkind remarks about others even though we want to be more sociable... How do we break free from our own recurring patterns of behavior? Why We Get StuckEven when we want to change, we're often terribly stuck in behavior patterns that don't serve us, and alienate us from those who love us. Why is that? Dr. Allan Zuckoff, a clinical psychologist and faculty member in the Departments of Psychology and Psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh, describes the underlying causes -- in our own minds -- that keeps so many of us stuck in patterns we don't want. Invisible forces keep many of us from moving toward making the changes we want:• Ambivalent feelings about losing something of value when we make a change in our life.• A lack of confidence in ourself that we will succeed i