When things go bad, you realize that you need to change something. And, you probably even take steps for it, but most likely your endeavors, like most people's endeavors, end up going absolutely nowhere.

The problem is not that you don't have the determination or willpower to change something. You just don't understand how emotions work and how they affect your desires.

The desire for change is usually impulsive. It manifests itself clearly at a time when you feel so bad that it seems to you that you simply cannot go on. And that's the moment when you realize that something has to change. And you take the first steps to make the change.

But one thing you don't take into account is that you're not going to be in a negative state forever. Balance is what everything in nature strives to achieve by default.

Negative emotions die down after a while, and in a neutral state the problems of the past do not seem to be anything serious at all. We realize that everything is not so bad, and in general, we can go on living just like we did before, believing in a better future that will work itself out without our active participation in it.

The trick is that the problems of the past have not gone away... and when things go bad again, they will knock at your door. And the vicious circle repeats again: you realize that you have to change something, you start making the first steps, probably even make some success, but then negative emotions die down, and the need to make the change dies down as well...

The desire for change is noble -- after all, we all want a better life... but, unfortunately, there is one thing that we want even more, even though we're afraid to admit it -- it's having some sort of stability, where things are not too good, but at the same time not too shitty either that we'd really want to make the change.