Why don't we do what we know we should?

Think about it — quitting smoking, losing weight, exercising, earning additional educational credentials, developing better relationships with our spouses, children, coworker or clients — all of these are ideal behaviors that should logically lead to greater health, success and happiness in our personal and professional lives. Yet, most of us are resistant to making the necessary changes needed to achieve these behavioral goals.

The Problem
We often experience the same type of resistance when faced with making difficult decisions at work requiring us to adopt behaviors that are out of our comfort zone. For example, how many of you have ever been in a business relationship that you knew wasn't really working and probably didn't have a future, such as an employee not living up to your expectations or a partnership that wasn't a good fit?

You are reluctant to confront the problem for fear of an awkward or negative outcome. Just when you finally decide you have had enough and are ready to address these issues, the situation appears to resolve itself: your sales rep meets her quota, your assistant is more consistent in his attendance and your partner brings in a large new account.

Everything seems improved and you begin to wonder why you were upset in the first place. So you avoid potential conflict and opt to do nothing. The situation just doesn't seem bad enough to go through the discomfort that would result from having a difficult conversation, replacing someone on your team or dissolving a partnership. You are leery that things will continue to remain positive, but you are temporarily relieved and hopeful the situation will resolve itself. Why is that?