Confidence and Motivation Come After Taking Action
I often hear from my clients, “I know what to do I just don’t do it.” “I have too many decisions to make every day.” “I don’t know what to eat at each meal.” “I want to feel good about what to eat.”
These statements are about decision-making, how we feel about our ability to make decisions, and not about what we are trying to do. Most of the challenges come from not preparing your kitchen and your time to make the best meals for your health, not knowing what to make. Hear me out.
Let’s say you don’t know how to change your diet to fit your health needs. The information necessary is readily available online from the medical community. You can search POTS nutrition in the Harvard website and find medically supported information. There are even Dietitians who publish meal plans every month. Then, create your grocery list and make the best daily meals for your health.
That you are not taking this few steps speaks more to the barriers to decision-making you are currently experiencing than the details of the situation. You are likely experiencing decision fatigue and a fear of making the wrong decision. When you don’t feel well, every decision feels huge with dire consequences.
I also want to acknowledge that our lives (and maybe the current state of the world) have put us in constant decision fatigue. This is a wild time in history, and I want to acknowledge that it is perfectly logical if you are struggling to make new habits or changes in your health and nutrition. I am also struggling to do all the things. I suggest you don’t try to do all the things.
I’m continuing to lean into my routines, not motivation, to do what I need to do to take care of myself. For example, taking my supplements is getting more difficult, so I moved them to my nightstand, where I read and watch movies, usually with a glass of water next to me. I moved other meds to my desk, where I see them more easily. These are little systems to take the need for motivation and remembering out of the equation. Eliminate the barriers to decision-making by taking small actions.
Confidence comes after action.
If you are anything like me, you stare at the task that needs to be completed for weeks, months, maybe. Each time, it brings more dread and then a distraction so you don’t have to think about it anymore. I will be so hard on myself for not doing what I know I need to do. And then I spend one minute doing the tiniest piece of the task, and the biggest weight has been lifted. Can you relate?
That confidence and motivation to meal prep, go to the gym, or take your supplements comes AFTER you do the very first step. There are few times you can rely on motivation to do the things you need to do for yourself. Because let’s be honest here, that’s part of it too. To take care of your health, you have to purposefully do something for yourself and that may make you feel a way. But let’s say you’re working on that and you are truly ready to make some changes. You still can’t depend on motivation. BUT you can build your confidence by taking some small first steps.
Make it Easy on Yourself
When you look at the things you want to do for your health, what are the first two steps to doing them? Here are some examples:
Take supplements
Pick a realistic time to take them (noting timing with medications and need for food)
Place them in a spot where you will be at that time (taking pills at night before bed, put them on your nightstand next to your overnight water)
Go to the gym
Pick the days and times you when you always seem to have the most energy (wednesday and friday mornings when my partner can deal with morning tasks)
Keep your gym bag packed all the time next to the door (no looking for shoes or a snack, its already in the bag)
No Thinking Healthy Dinner
Keep a list of meals that are easy to make with the items you already have on the fridge
Always keep items for three easy no stress meals (keep these items on the grocery list every week)
You aren’t going to outrun decision fatigue and overwhelm at the end of the day. But if you (when you have the energy) set your tired, overwhelmed self up for success, you won’t even have to think. You can just do the steps regardless of motivation or confidence or energy levels. That’s how you become someone who takes their supplements every day, eats a healthy dinner most of the time, or goes to the gym twice a week. You build the muscle memory to become as automatic as brushing your teeth.
But it takes a little thinking and experimenting to find the right approach. And maybe it takes someone to talk it out with and to give you a little support.
Start right now, pick one of the following things to do right now:
Write down the first step of the two biggest health related habits you want to start.
Put on a timer for 3 minutes and do that one health related task you have been putting off.