Latest / Dr. Derek H. Suite MD - The SuiteSpot / Take Action Tuesday: The Unstoppable You 2/7

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Take Action Tuesday: The Unstoppable You 2/7 · Dr. Derek H. Suite MD - The SuiteSpot

• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Greetings and welcome.
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Sweet Spot where science meets soul.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: I'm Dr Derek Sweet, I'm your host and you're in Take Action Tuesday on the Sweet Spot making the first move.
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: But today, today, it's about follow through because, let's be real ideas, they're easy action.
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: Well, as a board certified psychiatrist and someone who works with a lot of athletes and performers, I can tell you action is where the rubber meets the road, and action is also where a lot of folks get stuck.
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: So why do we talk about it, why do we think about it and why do we plan for it, but never do it?
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: That's the weirdest thing.
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: Have you ever been in that situation?
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: You've talked about something, you're thinking about it, you're planning for it, you're doing all of these seemingly preparatory steps, but nothing is actually happening.
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: Well, science has some answers for you, but don't worry, I also have some solutions as well.
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: All right, so let's dive right in.
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: This is the three psychological reasons we don't take action and also how to beat them.
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: The first reason that we don't take action is procrastination.
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: You know the I'll start tomorrow or I'll get to that.
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: That's from behavioral psychology.
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: They talk about the idea that we have to understand that procrastination is not laziness, even though tomorrow is a liar and we know that the truth is not in it and nothing is going to happen.
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: We have to not see procrastination as laziness, because we make people even less inclined to do work if we're blaming them.
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: Procrastination, from a neuroscience and psychological perspective, is more of a battle between our short-term and our long-term brain.
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: You see, the research is showing that we delay action because our brains want to prioritize immediate comfort over future rewards, and sometimes the future rewards involves taking an action that has a lot of work involved in it and drudgery, and we sort of don't want to do that, and we'd rather get the nice dopamine hit of just doing something like scrolling or going out for a drink or hanging out with friends.
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: So yeah, thank your dopamine for that.
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: That's what's going on.
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: You're just getting dopamine hits in order to not do the work.
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: So here's the solution.
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: You've got to make it ridiculously easy.
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: According to what the behavioral psychology folks say, you have to just take one tiny step If you want to work out.
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: Don't worry about like how many reps you have to do.
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: Just put your sneakers on.
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: All right.
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: If you need to write a report, don't worry about like how is it going to flow, and the transitions of what you're going to write?
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: Just open up the document and sit in front of the computer, these tiny actions.
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: They will trick your brain into motion and that's the way you can begin to take one step in the direction, one action in the direction of getting it done.
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: Because, as because, as Benjamin Franklin said, you may delay, but time will not, and I think Rumi also put it this way the problem is, or the trouble is, you think you have time but it's always ticking.
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: So, all right, we looked at procrastination and we gave you a very, very quick, tiny action that you can do.
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: And then what's the second reason that people don't take action here on Take Action Tuesday?
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: You know what it is it's the desire for certainty.
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: What if it doesn't work out?
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: What if it goes wrong?
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: If we don't have certainty, sometimes, according to cognitive psychologists, that will make us paralyzed in our spot we will not want to take action because we want it to be certain.
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: The brain loves certainty.
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: It's why we overthink, it's why we overplan, it's why we overworry, because we want it to be certain.
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: But here's the truth Nothing great and I mean nothing great really happens, with certainty being guaranteed, before you even try it.
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: Science tells us that our brains are wired to fear the unknown, with good reason.
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: But even if I tell you that the unknown is full of potential, it's full of all of these amazing solutions and surprises for you.
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: If it's unknown, it can be a little bit daunting.
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: So we have to think this way as a solution.
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: You say to yourself everything I want is on the other side of fear.
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: And you know what I had to do.
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: I had to take messy action rather than try to have this pristine future that I can never get to.
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: I've got to take a messy step.
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: I've got to take one step, because my clarity will come from the action, not the overthinking.
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: And my wife, darcelle, had the best line ever to get me through medical school and it was done is better than perfect.
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: I'll just repeat that and a shout out to you, darcelle Done is better than perfect.
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: Sometimes I'm writing an essay or I'm working on something and I'm tinkering with it.
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: I'm like I'm not sure, I'm not sure, I'm not sure.
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: And she would just say, look, done is better than perfect.
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: So keep that in mind, because a year from now, you will wish you had started.
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: What you put off today, okay.
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: So all right.
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: What have we done so far?
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: We have talked about why people are not taking action, and we said that the first thing is that they procrastinate and that the second thing is that there's this desire for certainty, and we looked at reasons and ways, I should say, and solutions to get past that.
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: And then the third thing.
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: The third thing is the comfort zone, something I know very well.
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: I don't feel like doing it right now.
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: I'm good right here.
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: You know that's the idea of the comfort zone.
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: So, look, neuroscientists and evolutionary biologists say that our brain is just designed for survival, not success.
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: Now, I don't want that to go by you.
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: I just said that your brain is designed for survival, not success.
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: It wants you to stay comfortable, it wants us to conserve our energy, it wants us to avoid risk.
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: But here's the kicker Growth never happens inside the comfort zone.
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: We always have to step outside of our comfort zone to get to that next level that we're looking for, to take the great action.
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: So what's the solution?
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: You've got to disrupt the pattern.
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: The moment you feel resistance, the moment you feel yourself clinging to your comfort zone.
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: I want you to count 5, 4, three, two, one and then move.
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: Okay, just do a countdown from five to one and then just take an action.
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: All right, I got to give a shout out to Mel Robbins on that one.
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: That was just a great, great, great, great intervention.
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: So your brain follows momentum, my friend, not motivation.
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: So give yourself this countdown and take an action, because comfort is the enemy of progress and you don't want to stay in comfort.
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: Okay, look, that's all we have for now, but I'm going to tell you, if you're listening to this and you've had something that you've been putting off, this is your sign.
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: Whatever it is, take one action now, not later, because this is Take Action Tuesday, and Tuesday waits for no one.
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: Go take that action.
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: All right, I'll see you tomorrow for Win it All Wednesday.
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: This is Dr Sweet.
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: Thank you for joining me, thank you for being here, thank you for listening, and if you want to learn more, just join me on Instagram, on Twitter, join me on LinkedIn and you can even catch me on threads.
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: Peace.