Have you ever wondered why:

…The majority of people who lose weight always gain it back…

…So many multimillion dollar lottery winners declare bankruptcy…

…The divorce rate is higher for second marriages?

…Someone having breakdown after expensive breakdown will purchase the very same brand of automobile again?

…The majority of people actually feel as if they don’t deserve to have the best even if it is cheaper to buy, lasts longer and is easier to use?

These aren’t trick questions, they are statements of fact!

When you look closely you will see that there is a re-occuring pattern to these behaviors. In every case, the majority of people will continue behaving in a manner which is not in their best interest. This is true even if personal experience has already proven that what they are doing doesn’t work!

They already know it doesn’t make sense and is going to give them the very same bad results, over and over again!

Does this mean people are just generally stupid… Or selectively stupid? The answer is that it really may not have much to do with someone’s IQ! There are a lot of intelligent people who continue to do stupid things over and over again. What it has to do with is what I call status quo, or personal comfort zone.

This is the psychological place you live in where you achieve a balance with your inner world and the world outside yourself…

Think of it this way: Your comfort zone is where your attitudes, opinions and beliefs are safe. They are not challenged by contradictory information from the outside world. This is because of your built-in status quo/ comfort zone protection mechanism. It is always on guard making sure little if anything, that can challenge your attitudes, opinions and beliefs, gets through your five senses!…

It filters those things out by not recognizing them as being of any consequence…You could say that it denies their immediate consideration by relegating them to the “it doesn’t matter” file…

The purpose of your status quo/comfort zone protection mechanism is to maintain the safety of your beliefs… and your current reality.

The fascinating thing about status quo rationalization is that the more you use it, the harder it becomes to break through it and change your mind. Think of rationalization as layer of thought cement… This is what causes people to become stuck in their beliefs.

So many layers of rationalization are added over time, it doesn’t matter what the facts of a situation may be. This means you cannot simply penetrate the layers of rationalization with facts and logic to change a person’s behavior.

Behavior is a reflection of an individual’s attitudes, opinions and beliefs… rationalized by the logic which connects and cements attitudes, opinions and beliefs together.

If you want to change behavior you have to first change the core elements which are responsible for that behavior.

This is why you see so many people continue to do things, which are not in their best interest. They are simply continuing to act in the best interest of their current comfort zone.

-Bob Baran