This statement was a bit of a revelation to me when I first read about the theory in "Awaken the giant within" by Tony Robbins but it makes total sense when you really think about it. All human behaviour can be explained by using this concept, we all move towards things that we perceive as pleasurable and away from those things that we see as painful experiences, and we will do far more to move away from pain than we will to gain pleasure.
Recently I gave up my private health practice to concentrate on making some serious life changes but for the past 10 years I have been working with people who live with the increasingly common chronic condition called Type 2 Diabetes. Over the years I have seen thousands of patients who have been referred to me for one reason or another, however the common thread with each and every case was that the person presenting was experiencing a health problem that they had either been responsible for causing or were not taking responsibility for managing. I know that sounds a bit harsh but believe me when I say I am an expert in the area and it was rare for me to see someone who had only developed the disease due to their non modifiable risk factors. The majority of the patients were over their healthy weight and living a lifestyle that had caused and had significantly contributed to the deterioration of their disease. Many of these patient were coming at the end stages with severe complications, taking bucket loads of insulin via injection therapy and having to prick their finger to test their blood sugar level up to 6 times per day. Now if that's no enough to make you put down the doughnut and head straight to the gym I don't know what will. However on the contrary to that exact advice, the majority of patients I was seeing were not participating in any physical activity, were not eating healthy diets and were full of excuses as too why they could not get out of their own way!
I might sound cynical and arrogant and not very compassionate, however after many years of the same story I have become a bit of hard arse about it. That's not to say I'm any angel but that's my point exactly, if I can hold all the nutritional knowledge available, understand the role of exercise, have studied inside and out the pathophysiology of the human body and how diabetes occurs, I know the risks but I still don't live life like I expect my patients to. So why do we do what we do? or more accurately why don't we do what we know we should do in order to live the most healthiest lives possible? Why are we not concerned with taking care of our health and taking responsibility ultimately for our own lives and our own choices? Because believe me when I say that if we wanted things to be different they would, we all do what we do to gain something either as a primary gain or secondary gain. We get something out of either not doing or doing the things we do, in most cases this will be to gain pleasure or to avoid painful experience. So over the years I tried to do my job to the best of my ability however I suffered with the sense of feeling very helpless in being able to motivate people and move them to take action, to make sustainable lifelong changes that could not only save them from amputation but save their lives. I always felt like I was banging my head up against the brick wall. No amount of information or education seemed to make any long term difference. Some people would make small changes in the short term but 9 times out of 10 at the 6 month review they were back to where they started from or failed to get off the starting blocks in the first place. Many people would never return for their follow up appointments because they felt to embarrassed, ashamed, afraid or simply had their heads too far buried in the sand of denial and avoidance to want to face up to the fact that they were unsuccessful at implementing any change. I tried so many different approaches, the direct approach, the soft approach, the goal setting approach, the counselling approach but every attempt I made just seemed to have minimal impact. Sure I built lots of rapport and gained some lovely professional relationships with some of my patients. Many of who I became very fond of over the years, however as far as success stories go, maybe a handful that actually ever took their diagnosis seriously and turned their lives around permanently.
In this context its quite easy to apply Tony Robbins theory, my patients all perceived that changing their lives in the radical way that was required was far to painful an experience than the pleasure they would gain from being a healthier version of themselves. The steps required for change would mean giving up certain things (high sugar, high fat foods) and eating a wholesome, well balanced diet and lowering carbohydrate intake (bread, pasta, rice, fruit etc) for some reducing alcohol intake, eliminating soft drinks and fruit juices, eating smaller portions and actually moving, yes doing some exercise. Not just an occasional walk around the block actually getting their heart rates up and moving everyday in some way that would produce a positive physiological response. Sounds too hard? obviously for most people yes. Of course I am generalising a bit here, not everyone falls into this category, some people get the diagnosis of diabetes or pre diabetes and they spring into action, as Tony Robbins says, they can reach their emotional threshold or stack the pain to the point where they cannot and will not endure another day or another moment with the threat of ill health. They decide that they will not continue to experience the pain any longer. So how do we move ourselves if we need to make change from procrastination to action and how do we then continue to steer our lives in a way that will sustain the changes forever? There is a complex network of factors in play here which could be better explained by the authors of my psychology text book however what I am learning now in my life coaching course is that we can learn to change our behaviours using our own internal drivers and by changing our beliefs. Yes its that simple, we can all decide that we will no longer tolerate the situation for another moment and start to build and recognise the leverage (reasons why things cannot stay the same) and use this leverage to propel us towards our goals. I plan to touch on this further in future blog posts, as its obviously a massive topic that needs to be chunked down into bite sized pieces however I will say that I am putting myself up as a guinea pig to see if I can actually use these techniques to change my current health and reduce my waist line. I have been carrying an extra 8-10kg for around 4-5 years now and for my future health I will be getting rid of this excess this year well more precisely my goal is to be rid of it by May. Ambitious, yes it is but am I determined? you bet. I will outline my plan of attack in my next blog post and give you updates. The most important part of this process for me is building leverage around the health factor, me being overweight is putting me at risk of developing chronic health problems, its not about vanity or wanting to fit in to societies expectations, believe me I am wise enough now to know that using appearance as leverage will never work long term. Sure I am looking forward to fitting into my clothes again but its more important to me to feel good and avoid developing cancer and diabetes. Its also important for my kids to see me as a healthy example and a positive role model. So if you recognise some of these pattern of procrastination in an area of your life you know needs to change, come of the journey and experience what could be a revelation of the power you hold within yourself.
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