The Dickens Process: When Knowing Isn't Enough

The cost of standing still is invisible. Until it isn't.

Most of the leaders I work with know exactly what needs to change. They can articulate it clearly. They've probably known for months, sometimes years. And still, they haven't moved.

This isn't a motivation problem. It's a feeling problem.

The brain doesn't act on logic. It acts on what it feels. Knowing you should change and feeling the cost of not changing are two completely different things. One produces insight. The other produces movement.

The Dickens Process is a coaching tool designed to close that gap.

Where It Comes From

The name comes from Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. Scrooge changes not because someone explains why he should be kinder. He changes because three ghosts force him to feel the weight of his past, present, and future. By the time the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come shows him his own grave, change isn't optional. It's urgent.

Tony Robbins popularised this as a structured exercise. In his version, you take a limiting belief through a time-travel visualisation: feel its cost today, then at 5 years, 10 years, 20 years. By the end, the pain of staying the same outweighs the discomfort of change.

I use a calmer, coaching-adapted version with leaders I work with. Same principle, gentler execution. The goal isn't to traumatise anyone into action. It's to make the invisible visible.

Why It Works

There's a concept in behavioural science called temporal discounting. We systematically undervalue future consequences in favour of present comfort. A cigarette today feels fine because lung cancer is abstract. The promotion you might miss in five years doesn't compete with the anxiety of a difficult conversation today.

The Dickens Process is a hack against temporal discounting. It collapses time. Instead of imagining the future intellectually, you step into it emotionally. You feel what it would be like to have lived with this belief for another decade.

That feeling is leverage.

Most coaching interventions work on the pull side: clarifying goals, imagining the positive future, building motivation toward something better. The Dickens Process works on the push side: making the cost of inaction so real that staying the same becomes intolerable.

Both are useful. But for beliefs that have persisted for years despite the person knowing better, push often works when pull hasn't.

When to Use It

This isn't an everyday tool. It's designed for specific situations:

You feel stuck in a repeating pattern. You've tried to change this before. You've set goals around it. You've probably beaten yourself up about it. And you're still here, doing the same thing. The pattern has survived multiple attempts at change.

A decision keeps slipping. There's something you know you should do. Leave a role, have a conversation, set a boundary, make an investment. You've thought about it extensively. You can argue both sides. But weeks pass and you haven't moved. The decision feels important but not urgent.

You're ready to change but can't feel the urgency. This is the key one. You're not in denial. You're not defensive. You genuinely want to change. But the fuel isn't there. You know intellectually that this matters. You just can't feel it.

If someone is in denial about a problem, or resistant to exploring it, this isn't the right tool. The Dickens Process requires willingness. It's not a confrontation technique. It's a depth technique for someone who's already open.

How It Works

The exercise has six steps. In a coaching context, I guide people through it in 15-20 minutes. It can also be done solo, though it tends to be more powerful with facilitation.

Step 1: Name the Belief

Put the limiting belief into one clear sentence. Not a paragraph. One sentence.

This forces precision. "I'm not good enough" is too vague. "I believe that speaking up in meetings will make me look stupid" is something you can work with.

The belief should be something you genuinely hold, not something you think you should work on. If it doesn't feel true when you say it, pick a different one.

Step 2: Feel the Cost Today

Where does this belief drain you right now? Not theoretically. Specifically.

Walk through the key domains: work, relationships, energy, money. For each one, name a specific person, moment, or situation where this belief has cost you something.

The specificity matters. "It affects my career" is abstract. "I didn't apply for the VP role last quarter because I convinced myself I'd fail the interview" is concrete. Concrete creates feeling. Abstract stays intellectual.

Step 3: Jump 5 Years Forward

Imagine you're five years in the future. Nothing has changed. You still hold this belief. You've lived with it for another five years.

What is heavier now? What has slipped? How do you look and feel? What didn't you do because of this belief?

The instruction here is to actually step into that moment. Not to analyse it from the outside, but to be there. Feel the weight of five more years of the same pattern.

Step 4: Jump 10 Years Forward

Same exercise, ten years out. A decade with this belief running in the background.

Which results have you missed? Which habits have hardened? Who have you become if you keep living this way?

At this point, the cumulative effect starts to land. Individual years don't feel like much. A decade does.

Step 5: Jump 20 Years Forward

Twenty years. Two decades with the same belief shaping your decisions.

What regrets feel heaviest? Who else pays the price? What opportunities never happened?

The question I ask here is: was it worth it? Are you willing to make this your future?

If the answer is a clear no, you have leverage.

Step 6: Choose Differently

This is where the exercise pivots from pain to action.

Write a belief that is more accurate and more useful. Not the opposite of the old belief (that often feels false). Something truer that you can actually hold.

Then name one visible action you'll take in the next 72 hours that would prove this new belief true. Not a plan. An action. Something you can do, that other people would notice.

Finally, add one environment tweak that makes it easier. Change something in your surroundings that supports the new pattern.

What Makes It Work (and What Doesn't)

The exercise only works if you actually feel something. Thinking through it intellectually produces nothing. The whole point is to create an emotional experience that shifts your relationship to the belief.

A few things help:

Go specific, not general. Every prompt should land on a particular person, moment, or situation. Vague answers stay in your head. Specifics reach your body.

Take your time. Rushing through defeats the purpose. Pause between steps. Let each scene settle before moving to the next.

Don't force imagery. Some people visualise clearly. Others don't. Words, sensations, and brief notes work just as well. The goal isn't a cinematic experience. It's an emotional one.

End with action, not insight. The Dickens Process produces leverage. Leverage without action dissipates. The 72-hour commitment matters. Without it, the experience fades and you're back where you started.

A Note on Safety

This is a coaching tool, not a therapeutic intervention. It involves deliberately accessing difficult emotions, which is usually fine for someone in a stable place who's working on a specific belief.

But it's not appropriate for everyone.

If someone has unprocessed trauma related to the belief, the exercise can surface material they're not equipped to handle. If they're in a vulnerable psychological state, intensifying difficult emotions isn't helpful.

The safeguards I use:

• Frame it as optional and collaborative. They can stop or pause at any time.
• Invite them to choose how deep to go. Lighter versions still work.
• Include a break state between the pain portion and the action portion. Don't rush from 20 years of regret straight into goal-setting.
• Use a shorter time horizon (6-12 months) if the full version feels too intense.
• Refer to a clinician if difficult material surfaces that's beyond coaching scope.

The goal is useful discomfort, not distress. There's a line, and it's the facilitator's job to watch for it.

Why I Use It

I don't use this with every client. Most coaching conversations don't require it. Standard reflection, reframing, and accountability are usually enough.

But sometimes they're not. Sometimes someone has been circling the same issue for years. They understand it completely. They've tried multiple approaches. And they're still stuck.

In those cases, understanding isn't the problem. Feeling is. The Dickens Process provides a way to feel the cost of inaction clearly enough that change becomes the easier path.

It's not comfortable. But it's effective. And sometimes that's the trade-off worth making.

Trying It Yourself

If you want to run this solo, here's the minimum version:

1. Write down one belief that's been holding you back. One sentence.
2. List three specific things it has cost you in the last year. Not categories. Specific moments.
3. Imagine living with this belief for another ten years. What doesn't happen? Who do you become?
4. Write a belief that's more accurate and more useful.
5. Commit to one action in the next 72 hours that would prove the new belief true.

That's five minutes. Not as powerful as a facilitated session, but enough to create some movement.

If you try it and something shifts, I'd be interested to hear what it was.

The Dickens Process is based on a technique popularised by Tony Robbins, adapted here for my own coaching contexts.