Change in professionals’ work contexts is an important and increasingly frequent phenomenon, yet change initiatives often fail due to professionals’ resistance. While this holds especially true for change that is externally mandated, our study shows how professionals’ change resistance can even arise in the context of their own, voluntary, change initiatives. Based on qualitative data on German GPs’ adoption and use of video consultations, we explore how and why professionals counter their own change initiatives. Our findings show how GPs engaged in various interdependent yet counter-effective efforts, which both enabled but also considerably limited the use of the newly adopted practice. Outlining the underlying sources—professionals’ ambition, need for efficiency and role perceptions—and the intricate relationship of efforts, our study provides several contributions to the literature on professionals’ behavior in the context of change.