You want to change. You have good intentions to change, but let’s be honest, you don’t change nearly or as often as you want to. The reason is because you go about change all wrong. But don’t take offense! It’s not entirely your fault. Keep reading.

There’s a simple reason we don’t change. And if we can understand that reason, then significant and purposeful change can occur in our lives and in our organizations. For me, understanding the underlying detriment to change has been a...wait for it...game changer.

One of those reasons you don’t change is because your change-wiring is crossed. It’s somewhat not your fault because it’s simply how you are wired (if that makes you feel better!). But you have a chance at successful and continual change by understanding that the uncrossing of these wires is necessary.

Let me illustrate: You want to start a new hobby (that's change). Say it's tennis--you want to start playing tennis. Here’s how we naturally would go about that:

Confidence. You muster enough confidence that you can actually learn to do this sport.
Capabilities. You would then go develop the capabilities so you knew how to play tennis. You’d borrow a racket, go hit with friends, ultimately get a lesson, until….
Courage. You’d have enough courage to take the next step, to buy a racket and maybe some real tennis shoes and then you would,
Commit. You’d commit to playing weekly. Why not? You now know how to play, you have the equipment so now it’s time to commit. You’d join a club or a team and really start playing.

That sounds like a logical way to change, right? But in channeling Dr. Seuss you find: “Except that you won’t because most times you don’t…” The problem is that is completely backwards and why change rarely happens. You will most likely quite at one of the steps before you get to the last one: commitment. Without commitment, you won’t change. Those who successfully change know that you have to start with Commitment, note end with it! So, if you want to change, you have to flip the natural order on its head, and it looks like this:

Commit. First you commit that you are going to play tennis! You get the resolve, that “yes, this is something that I am going to do!” You sign-up for lessons, and you commit to playing in a league this fall.
Courage. Let’s face it, you’re scared. You’ve never done this before so that’s understandable! What if you look like a complete fool out there? Well, you’ve already committed, so you muster up the courage to continue. Commitment creates courage!
Capabilities. You’re committed and you’re courageous, so you start developing the capabilities you need to be a tennis player. You’re actually motivated to learn what you committed to, and then
Confidence. That gives you a higher confidence to do more. You start getting your serves in, your backhand comes along, you start winning matches. And one day you find yourself setting a new goal: You decided you want to go to State next year. So guess what starts all over again? It’s time to Commit…because you decided to change again.

Change without starting with commitment is like a dream without a plan--it ain’t going to happen. Know that you’re naturally wired to do the 4C’s backwards. Consciously change the order, and start with commitment. Once you commit, you can’t help but change.

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Credits: The 4C’s Formula is copyright Dan Sullivan of the Strategic Coach