Whatever is necessary.

• Author: Guttman, Howard M.
• Position: Behavioral Science

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OPRAH WINFREY probably is the best-known dieter in the world. For more than 20 years, viewers and the tabloid press all across the globe have watched her weight yo-yo up and down. They have applauded her success when she got the pounds off and commiserated when the weight came back. In the January 2009 issue of O, The Oprah Magazine, Winfrey confessed that she again had ballooned to the 200-pound mark. "I'm mad at myself," she wrote. "I'm embarrassed.... I can't believe that after all these years, all the things l know how to do, I'm still talking about my weight."

Moving from talk to setting an intention, and staying in that intention, is no easy task, as Winfrey has discovered. Despite a support group that numbers in the millions, the best coaches that money can buy, and a spotlight glaringly fixed on her every pound, she has not yet mastered the ability to lose weight permanently. Winfrey is no different from many of us. We set goals; we reach; we grasp---and then we fall back on old habits. We remain down on ourselves for a while, until we muster up the courage to begin anew, only to have the cycle repeat itself.

If unlimited resources are not the answer, nor is access to celebrity coaches and trainers or a cheering section that numbers in the millions, what is the secret to permanent behavior change'? What separates those who make it to the top of the mountain from those who get stuck on the uphill climb and those who, like Winfrey, no sooner reach the pinnacle than they backslide?

People do succeed in changing their own behavior, not just temporarily, but for the rest of their lives. Shrinking violets become toastmasters; stock boys become CEOs; second-stringers become star athletes; abusive spouses become supportive partners; entrepreneurs create empires. Every day, people who once saw themselves as losers become winners. They go from being mad at themselves and embarrassed by their failures to possessing a new sense of self-esteem and real pride in their accomplishments.

Change begins with making choices. There are many theories that attempt to explain human behavior and change. Original sin: the Freudian triangulation of id, ego, and superego; and the social or economic determinism posited by socialist philosopher Karl Marx and others quickly come to mind. However valid these theories may be, change at a personal level ultimately involves a fundamental choice. People can choose how they behave. By setting an intention to change, they can trigger a process of reflecting, imagining, willing, and, ultimately, acting.

The goal may be to improve...