ABSTRACT
Whether you and your patients completed the decisional balance sheet on paper or in your mind’s eye (see Chapter 8), making a decision to proceed with this stage depends largely on the overall benefi ts of changing outweighing those of staying the same. This preparation phase is absolutely vital to getting the results you want. Skimping here and taking premature, poorly planned action is a recipe for failure. The single most important ingredient for success is a concrete, fi rm, unyielding state of commitment. In fact, from this stage on and throughout the rest of the change process, your patients need an increasing sense of commitment to the task in hand to aid them through the potentially diffi cult times that can occur – no matter how good the plan.
