The Action/Behavioral Gap: Why Good Intentions Aren’t Enough
The Moment That Changed Everything
I will never forget the moment.
My wife, Susan, and I were sitting with Pete Scazzero, Paul Kuzma and a few other people in a meeting at New Life Fellowship in Queens, New York. We were listening to a consultant from Chicago, and she began to tell us about educational psychologist Benjamin Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives. It was like a light bulb went on.
Pete jumped up out of his seat and went to the whiteboard where the presenter was diagramming it. It was this revelation that Pete brilliantly adapted to discipleship and the five-stage process of “Getting EHS” in his book The Emotionally Healthy Leader.
A New Lens for Understanding Growth
The premise of this model is this: After people become aware of their need for change, ponder its importance, and actually begin to value it, there is often a gap between believing something is important and actually implementing it in their lives.
These “good intentions” fall into what Pete describes as the “Action/Behavioral Gap.”
Why We Get Stuck
What happens? Why do we get stuck?
You know it is important, you know you want this behavior or change to be in your life, yet, you are unable to follow through with your commitment.
If you’ve ever made a New Year’s resolution and didn’t follow through with it—or started a new discipline only to find it unsustainable—then you know exactly what I mean. It’s not that you don’t value it, you just haven’t figured out how to make it become a reality.
“The ‘Action/Behavioral Gap’ has once again swallowed another dream and we are stuck repeating the same old cycle year in and year out.”
From Valuing to Prioritizing: The Path to Real Change
Take heart, because all is not lost.
The key to lasting change is not simply valuing something as important but making it a priority in your life. Once you make it a priority, everything begins to change.
Priorities impact your calendar, your finances, your relationships, and your short- and long-term goals. Over time, once you prioritize something, it becomes second nature. You naturally incorporate it into your life because you actually own it. It’s a part of you, and you can’t imagine your life without that value living inside you and guiding you.
You live it without consciously thinking about it.
Reflection: What’s Falling Into Your Gap?
What is falling into the “Action/Behavioral Gap” in your life?
What are your next steps to prioritizing and owning it?
Let It Sink In
What do you think?
How does it make you feel?
Steven
