Change. How?

Catching up with the January 2008 O, The Oprah magazine, I found a rather interesting piece by Stephanie Losee, entitled, The Willpower Myth. I can't link to it online so will quote from the opening paragraphs here. Definitely recommended:

"Maybe you haven't made it yet, that change you wanted to make, but you know what it would take. Hard work. Willpower. Self-discipline. And if you've been trying to make the change of your dreams for years without success, you've probably told yourself that you failed because you didn't try hard enough.

That's what we all think, but when researchers examine the actual mechanism of change, that's not what they find. So says Alan Deutschman in his book Change or Die: The Three Keys to Change at Work and in Life, out this month in paperback from Collins. Deutschman, executive director of the Atlanta consulting film Unboundary, decided to get to the bottom of whatever it is that makes people and corporations able to change - especially after they've tried and failed. What he found is that people get unstuck not through willpower but through a relationship with a person or a group who shows them the way. Not just any relationship will do. It has to be an emotional relationship with someone who inspires hope and belief, who makes you say, If she can do it, I can, too."