The Five A’s Of Positive Change
Intro; A quote by William Knaus, ED. D. “When I gave my first talk on my five phases of change approach in 1975, it helped many participants feel more at ease. Personal change was now a process that they could realistically work toward. This idea helped participants ease a general sense of urgency and uncertainty.”
When I was doing my research for this article, I came across those words Of William Knaus, who is the author of “A New Harbinger Self Help Workbook, The Cognitive Behavioral Workbook For Anxiety.” And all in all, I love them, and I think they speak perfectly on the subject matter that I have been writing so extensively on. These five steps, that are the building blocks for change may be developed to help people with mental health problems, and substance abuse. Still though, I think they really have the ability to help every person, especially for a person, who has opened their mind completely for the consideration, and option to try and change for the better. It is also referred to steps in the process of making positive voluntary changes.
The first letter A, in step one, of five is Awareness. The most obvious parts of its definition is our mental consciousness of something. In this case, more our conscious, then our subconscious. Developing a good awareness, allows us to better see, and understand our anxieties, and fears. Practicing a quality awareness, can give us an ability to escape from those anxieties and perhaps not be held such a prisoner to them. We have to ask ourselves, about which specific scenarios are known to be the triggers to can set off an uncertain type of feeling, or set off anxiety, or anxious thoughts? What do we do, when that type of stuff happens? Are we responding in healthy manners? If not, then how can we change, in order to have a more healthy reaction?
The second A, is for Action. Knaus states that “Awareness without action, is like a ball caught in a whirlpool. There is a lot of churning, but nothing else happens.” Action is more or less representative of taking steps to figure out what needs to be done to remove anxiety, remove fear, and then doing what you have to do to then rid them from your life. Another great quote from Knaus, related to this topic of Action, states “Clarity born from experience adds a dose of realism to awareness, and action.” In other words, its my old adage about how you can learn or memorize anything in the world from text books, but it is the actual process of doing; in whatever subject field, is where you will find true experience, that stays with you forever, and it becomes something that nobody, and no thing can take away from you. Action, creates the purest, and strongest of knowledge.
Accommodation; the next one, and a word and similar meaning I have written about multiple times. It doesn’t normally veer too much from its normal meaning and purpose, and it’s about adjusting. Adjustments to opposing actions, thinking, maybe oppositely doing things then a way that we always had done before, whether we’re right or wrong. sometimes, we just may, make way for that newer way, and submit to it, and we may do that as a way to avoid conflict, and “reconcile opposing thoughts.” There are many times, where those types of changes mentioned, and covered in the part for accommodation was not nearly as evil, bad, or difficult, as we had thought it would be, but we don’t come to that stress lifting conclusion, unless we open up our minds, stop closing them, and stop judging. That is why, accommodation can be one of the best steps.
The Acceptance is our next point, and another common one in many different routes that we take in life. As William Knaus summarizes it the best by saying, “Acceptance is the emotional phase of chance. “Acceptance comes into play when you choose to emphasize reality over your fantasy fears.” When I read that, I think of the word that has come to be popular in today’s society, and that simply is “drama.” To my, when they mention fantasy fears, that is what they are referring to. Since so often, when people are having drama, it may not be a complete fantasy, however, the urgency that people connect to their drama, their big emergency is probably very often exaggerated. That part, my friends gives the word fantasy, in fantasy fears, its power and fuel.
Actualization is the fifth point of the five A’s of Positive Change. Its definition is “stretching your abilities to develop self-efficacy skills. Self efficacy is your goal-directed ability to organize, regulate, and direct your actions toward achieving meaningful, and constructive results. These directed efforts involve “taking constructive risks to discover the limits of what you can do in areas where you want to improve.”
To me, that is all about making sure that neither you, nor anyone else set you up for failure. We all have our defects, our qualities, and our trouble areas. It is okay to say, as well as realistic to say that we will all go through life with fault areas. Sometimes, we can practice day and night, and we will still have in life, areas and skills we are proficient in, and not proficient in other areas. It is just a part of being human, and it does not mean we are ones who give up, nor does it make us a failure. That is not the same as “stretching abilities” though. I recommend stretching abilities, and adding quality to our skill levels, and areas.
Putting all our skills together, and consolidating them, can also be ways that we accomplish the tasks that are the most difficult. William Knaus states that “moving toward resolving uncertainties, you constructively absorb yourself in meaningful, self development, and socially beneficial pursuits.”
I also agree with a lot of the literature when it reminds us to stay away from, and remove our entire being from the things like “self defeating behaviors, negative thinking, low emotional tolerance.”
Ask yourself, are you moving towards something that will positively affect you, or negatively affect you? Vice versa, are you moving away from positive things, and are you moving away from negative things?
