Day 320 of 365 - Motivational Butt Kick
One of the health and wellness series I've recently been following is wrapping up. The final interviews were with first, a motivational speaker and secondly with a personal and professional coach. I thought I would check them out as a diversion from my usual speaker diet of health strategies. As a result, I got a bit of a motivational butt kick, and that's a good thing.
Some years ago, I became interested in the personal development field. I devoured books by people like Wayne Dyer and Debbie Ford. Their stories and strategies helped me to shift some beliefs around my own stories and motivated me to keep pursuing improving myself and figuring out how to try to be a more authentic expression of myself. After following teachers like that for awhile, the messages became repetitive and my interest faded somewhat.
In more recent years my improvement strategies shifted more to physical health and wellness approaches, mainly due to changes and symptoms in my body. There has been an interesting shift over time to more integrative health and functional practitioners, who have a more holistic approach which appeals to me. I've also expanded my interest in meditation approaches too. Now that I've been following those fields for some time, I once more see that the same presenters show up again and again, with pretty much the same messages.
So, even though I decided to check out the motivational talks today, I really did not expect to hear anything I had not heard before. In a way, I didn't, when it comes down to the concrete information shared. But, it landed differently, perhaps, than it has in the past.
The host, who has had multiple presenters sharing health strategies asked both speakers why people fail to succeed with their health and wellness goals, even when they have the knowledge to make changes. Both responded that just providing information does not change people. There has to be a connection and a bigger motivation for that to happen.
In the past, I naively believed that if people just knew better, they would do better. I held onto this belief for many years of my career as an occupational therapist. But, time and again, I would find that just educating people about how they would benefit from following through on recommendations was usually not enough. They had to be willing to experience a difference and feel it for themselves.
If we don't really believe in ourselves, in our ability to make changes and that there are people who will support us in following through, we are unlikely to change. It takes courage to make significant lifestyle changes. Many people give up after their first failure, convincing themselves that it won't work for them. Both speakers encouraged listeners to acknowledge ourselves for each attempt we make, to celebrate our failures as having made a solid effort, and to not give up.
We all have a tipping point for making a lifestyle change that we have maybe put off for a long time by making some excuse or other for not following through. Sometimes that tipping point is a health crisis of our own or that of a loved one, which jolts us out of our complacency and resignation. We basically have to decide that we want to be healthy and to create a vision of what that looks like for us. It's quite a challenge to make changes and follow through on our own. That's why being accountable to others who will support you can really help.
Just about every program you sign up for now has a Facebook group linked to it for peer support. These can be really helpful but also huge time drains unless you are mindful. One of the advantages of the old style in-person meetings, such as 12 Step programs, diet groups, or the like is that they are time limited meetings. I've also found it useful on my own journey just to have some friends I can talk to about what I'm doing. Some people do better with a one-to-one sponsor or coach to whom they can be accountable.
Part of the reason I'm doing this blog challenge is to keep myself on track with a lifestyle which supports health and vitality. As a recovering perfectionist, I'm learning to give myself permission to take some risks in being a bit more vulnerable in my writing. I'm aware that people don't just want information. They want to make a connection through personal stories and experiences of both success and failure. It's part of being human after all.
My challenge to myself in this final six weeks of this daily writing is to find more ways to confidently express and share my journey with readers in a way that supports all of us to more authentically be who we want to be. I can't promise that I'll be successful at it, but I'll give it a try.
Some years ago, I became interested in the personal development field. I devoured books by people like Wayne Dyer and Debbie Ford. Their stories and strategies helped me to shift some beliefs around my own stories and motivated me to keep pursuing improving myself and figuring out how to try to be a more authentic expression of myself. After following teachers like that for awhile, the messages became repetitive and my interest faded somewhat.
In more recent years my improvement strategies shifted more to physical health and wellness approaches, mainly due to changes and symptoms in my body. There has been an interesting shift over time to more integrative health and functional practitioners, who have a more holistic approach which appeals to me. I've also expanded my interest in meditation approaches too. Now that I've been following those fields for some time, I once more see that the same presenters show up again and again, with pretty much the same messages.
So, even though I decided to check out the motivational talks today, I really did not expect to hear anything I had not heard before. In a way, I didn't, when it comes down to the concrete information shared. But, it landed differently, perhaps, than it has in the past.
The host, who has had multiple presenters sharing health strategies asked both speakers why people fail to succeed with their health and wellness goals, even when they have the knowledge to make changes. Both responded that just providing information does not change people. There has to be a connection and a bigger motivation for that to happen.
In the past, I naively believed that if people just knew better, they would do better. I held onto this belief for many years of my career as an occupational therapist. But, time and again, I would find that just educating people about how they would benefit from following through on recommendations was usually not enough. They had to be willing to experience a difference and feel it for themselves.
If we don't really believe in ourselves, in our ability to make changes and that there are people who will support us in following through, we are unlikely to change. It takes courage to make significant lifestyle changes. Many people give up after their first failure, convincing themselves that it won't work for them. Both speakers encouraged listeners to acknowledge ourselves for each attempt we make, to celebrate our failures as having made a solid effort, and to not give up.
We all have a tipping point for making a lifestyle change that we have maybe put off for a long time by making some excuse or other for not following through. Sometimes that tipping point is a health crisis of our own or that of a loved one, which jolts us out of our complacency and resignation. We basically have to decide that we want to be healthy and to create a vision of what that looks like for us. It's quite a challenge to make changes and follow through on our own. That's why being accountable to others who will support you can really help.
Just about every program you sign up for now has a Facebook group linked to it for peer support. These can be really helpful but also huge time drains unless you are mindful. One of the advantages of the old style in-person meetings, such as 12 Step programs, diet groups, or the like is that they are time limited meetings. I've also found it useful on my own journey just to have some friends I can talk to about what I'm doing. Some people do better with a one-to-one sponsor or coach to whom they can be accountable.
Part of the reason I'm doing this blog challenge is to keep myself on track with a lifestyle which supports health and vitality. As a recovering perfectionist, I'm learning to give myself permission to take some risks in being a bit more vulnerable in my writing. I'm aware that people don't just want information. They want to make a connection through personal stories and experiences of both success and failure. It's part of being human after all.
My challenge to myself in this final six weeks of this daily writing is to find more ways to confidently express and share my journey with readers in a way that supports all of us to more authentically be who we want to be. I can't promise that I'll be successful at it, but I'll give it a try.
thank you
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome Jody.
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