Why Willpower Is Not Enough

In a recent conversation, we discussed why in their health journey so many people struggle with the start-stops, dropping weight, and putting it back on.

This, for many, has led to the exhausting fight with what they see in the mirror, what they hear in their mind, and how they feel inside their body leading to frustration, a lack of confidence, and asking if the diet is the wrong one, or am I just weak? Where is my willpower?

The issue I’ve found is that we think the deepest concern or problem is whether my willpower needs to be better, stronger, healthier; or the validity and usefulness of the diet is in question.

In my experience and understanding of neuroscience, the true answer to long-term success in a health program or any other behavioral change is not so much about having the wrong program or a lack of willpower, it is because of our relationship to pain caused by habits of thinking.

It strikes me that we are not resisting eating well, working out, or getting enough sleep. What we are resisting is the perceived pain and the avoidance of that pain because we just don't want to have to deal with it.

We see this occur with:?????

• Stress-We are so busy; we feel we don't have time for one more thing.·??????
• Fear-Fear of failing and fear of putting the weight back on. ·??????
• Trauma-Past traumatic events, many we may not even be aware of or discount their impact on us. We are not enough or worthy.·??????
• Physically Done In-Exhaustion and fatigue.

When we are in any one of these conditions, there is a subconscious aversion to perceived pain. In the avoidance, there is a deeper relationship to chocolate cake over the potential benefits of taking consistent action in the health program, the “chocolate cake” wins out.

If you lose weight but you don't change your mindset, you are destined to put the weight back on again.

It strikes me that this conversation is not exclusive to weight loss.

It is also found in the subconscious battles we have with procrastination, impatience, comparison, needing to be right, avoiding conflict, lack of self-care, overthinking, and many other behaviors, driven by habits of thinking that many of us are struggling with.

When we learn how to bring our habits of thinking into alignment with our weight loss programs or other desired changes in our lives, we can create something that is second nature and sustained.

This is why we ultimately have habits of thinking issues in our decisions—not willpower or execution issues.?If we understand how we think, we understand how to create more effective decisions.

If you are hungry to experience sustained success in your health journey and other desired outcomes, please DM me.

Frustration is not a good alternative.