Willingness to improve your situation

In DBT (Dialectical Behavior Therapy), there's a concept called "willingness versus willfulness".

That is, when people get willful, they understand that things are going badly right now, but they aren't willing to start moving towards improving their situation. This is an important realization, because sometimes you're feeling down but are willing to put forth the effort to change, and other times you're just not having it and you want to sit and pout. And that's fine — it's important to meet yourself where you're at.

"Change readiness"

Change readiness is another way of saying it, and is a phrase that's used with the transtheoretical model as well as in the business coaching world.

Ways to improve willingness or "change readiness"

Funnily enough, although you may not be willing to change right now, you might actually be willing to improve whether you're willing to change. (yeah, I know... that's not easy to wrap your head around)

Going through this article, "The Seven Traits of Change-Readiness", there are a few things that resonate with me:

• resourcefulness – make the most of any situation and use whatever resources are available to develop plans and contingencies
• optimism – the pessimist observes only problems and obstacles while the optimist recognizes opportunities and possibilities
• tolerance for ambiguity – The one certainty surrounding change is that it spawns uncertainty. No matter how carefully you plan it, there is always an element of indefiniteness or ambiguity.
  • adaptability – flexibility and resilience
  • adventurousness – the inclination to take risks and the desire to pursue the unknown, to walk the path less taken
• passion / drive – If you have passion, nothing appears impossible. If you don't, change can be exhausting.
• confidence – the belief in your own ability to handle it