Ross Ellenhorn’s book, How We Change: The 10 Reasons We Don’t, offers a great answer. As a physician and thought leader in the field of mental health and addiction, he argues that we often look in the wrong direction when trying to decipher the factors that support human change. He suggests that it is far more productive to look at why we don’t change than to work on understanding why we do change. Because by looking at why we don’t change, we give ourselves the best chance of actually changing in meaningful ways.