Ground Zero in Lifestyle Medicine: Changing Mindsets to Change Behavior

The aspiration of lifestyle medicine practitioners is a healthy population engaged daily in lifestyle behaviors that generate the vitality needed to live a good life. That said, we are aware that there is a high population prevalence of low readiness to change behavior. This article proposes that we can improve readiness to change by shifting our expert mindsets to coaching mindsets. We focus first on helping others mobilize resources that improve readiness to change, including motivation and confidence—rather than beginning with expert education and training on new skills and behaviors. We call this coaching activity tilling the (patient’s) ground, which then germinates an interest in a mindset shift from an unresolved state (e.g., I don’t have time to exercise) to a new state (e.g., I might feel better and be more productive, if I exercise). In a generative conversation, moving from unresolved to resolved improves confidence in behavior change. This mindset shift is called integration—connecting and integrating an unresolved state to new thoughts, ideas, or perspectives (the ah-hah experience). We use the ground zero metaphor in multiple ways, and invite readers to till their own ground, generate potential, and enable integration as role models.