Latest / Love Your Gut / Ep. 133: Information Isn’t Mastery: The Sneaky Way Smart People Stay Stuck

Transcript

Ep. 133: Information Isn’t Mastery: The Sneaky Way Smart People Stay Stuck · Love Your Gut

• 1:50
  Dr. Heather Finley: Welcome to the Love Your Gut Podcast.
• 1:52
  Dr. Heather Finley: I'm your host, Dr.
• 1:53
  Dr. Heather Finley: Heather Finley, registered dietitian and gut health specialist.
• 1:57
  Dr. Heather Finley: I understand the frustration of dealing with GI issues because I've been there and I spent over two decades searching for answers for my own gut issues of constipation, bloating, and stomach pain.
• 2:09
  Dr. Heather Finley: I've dedicated my life to understanding and solving my own gut issues.
• 2:13
  Dr. Heather Finley: And now I'm here to guide you.
• 2:15
  Dr. Heather Finley: On this podcast, I'll help you identify the true root causes of your discomfort.
• 2:20
  Dr. Heather Finley: So you can finally ditch your symptoms for good.
• 2:24
  Dr. Heather Finley: My goal is to empower you with the knowledge and tools you need so that you can love your gut and it will love you right back.
• 2:30
  Dr. Heather Finley: So if you're ready to learn a lot, gain a deeper understanding of your gut and find lasting relief.
• 2:36
  Dr. Heather Finley: You are in the right place.
• 2:38
  Dr. Heather Finley: Welcome to the love your gut podcast.
• 2:43
  I want you to picture a client.
• 2:45
  Maybe she's sitting across from you, or honestly, maybe she is you.
• 2:50
  This client, or maybe you, has listened to every gut health podcast out there.
• 2:55
  She has saved 200 Instagram posts, no less than 200 Instagram posts, about bloating and cortisol and minerals.
• 3:02
  Last week, she created a ChatGPT project to interpret her stool test, and last night at 11, she ordered another supplement.
• 3:11
  She is busy, she is responsible, she is doing a lot, and she has not changed one thing that actually matters in a year.
• 3:20
  And here's what I mean by that.
• 3:22
  She's really busy doing a lot of things, but not a lot of things that actually create results.
• 3:30
  She is buffering.
• 3:31
  Now, I first learned about this buffering concept when I was at a conference earlier this year, and the woman who was teaching this concept was sharing how being an entrepreneur, this was a sales conference, an entrepreneur conference I was at.
• 3:45
  And she was saying being an entrepreneur is hard.
• 3:48
  There are a lot of things that you have to do that are hard, and there are a lot of things that you have to do in your business to actually keep moving your business forward, but it's so easy to avoid those things and be busy, but not be productive.
• 4:02
  There is a difference between busy and actually needle-moving productive activities.
• 4:08
  So many of us, myself included in the past, feel like consuming information is progress.
• 4:15
  It gives you that little dopamine hit of like,"I'm doing it." This could even be as simple as like commenting a ManyChat or commenting on somebody's Instagram post.
• 4:25
  Comment, you know, recipe for the recipe.
• 4:27
  Comment ferritin.
• 4:29
  I know so many of you comment on my posts.
• 4:31
  I mean, some of my posts get thousands of comments, so you keep getting that like quick dopamine hit, right?
• 4:38
  It keeps you out of the uncomfortable part, the part where something actually has to change.
• 4:45
  Now, if you are a practitioner listening to this, I want to call something out because we do the exact same thing that our clients do.
• 4:55
  So when I went back through applications for Gut Practitioner, one thing that I noticed is nearly half of them checked the box that said they were ready, but not right now.
• 5:08
  And actually, quite a few of those people did enroll later, but some of them, more than two years went by.
• 5:17
  So what were they waiting for?
• 5:19
  I think it is so easy to blame things like, I don't have time.
• 5:24
  I don't have money.
• 5:26
  I think I need to feel ready," right?
• 5:28
  I really don't think that those are the real actual reasons.
• 5:33
  But here's the thing.
• 5:34
  While you wait for something They probably are doing what a lot of other clinicians do, right?
• 5:41
  They took another CEU.
• 5:43
  They bought another course.
• 5:45
  They watched another webinar.
• 5:46
  And two years later, they had a lot more information, but most of them didn't feel any more ready than when they started.
• 5:55
  Two years went by, and they did a lot of buffering, consuming content, going to CEU events, et cetera, but they didn't actually do anything that produced results or helped them to grow because that is uncomfortable.
• 6:11
  So the belief that I want to unpack today is I need to learn more before I'm ready.
• 6:18
  How many of you have had that thought?
• 6:20
  By the end of this episode, I want to make the case that learning more is very often the actual thing keeping you from getting results.
• 6:31
  Because, especially if you're a clinician, when you blank on a complex client, it is rarely because you don't know enough.
• 6:40
  It's because you haven't done it enough.
• 6:43
  So this is part three of my practitioner series and the last one before HTMA goes live.
• 6:49
  If you're listening to this on the day it comes out, it's this week on Friday.
• 6:54
  So let's just jump right in.
• 6:57
  I think we use the word learning for two very different things.
• 7:02
  One is knowing what to do, the other is being able to do it without thinking about it, and only one of those comes from consuming.
• 7:12
  So think about something simple, like tying your shoes.
• 7:15
  You probably don't remember learning to tie your shoes, or you don't remember the whole process, right?
• 7:21
  You definitely didn't, like, read your way there, Somebody showed you, and then you did it 100 times badly, right?
• 7:28
  But you got a little bit better every time you tried.
• 7:31
  We're working on this with my kids right now.
• 7:33
  Until one day, you could just tie your shoes while having a conversation with someone instead of saying,"Hold on, I need to concentrate." That is mastery.
• 7:43
  It's the point where the skill doesn't take up any of your attention anymore.
• 7:49
  Gymnasts, for example, they don't get great by watching more routines.
• 7:54
  Ice skaters don't get great by reading about how to jump, right?
• 7:59
  They practice on purpose one small piece at a time over, and over, and over, and over again, and usually with a coach telling them, Tweak this, change this, try it this way." So now bring that back to your clients.
• 8:14
  I talk to so many practitioners that have stacked up so many CEUs.
• 8:19
  They've done webinars.
• 8:20
  They've read books.
• 8:22
  They can tell you what a calcium to magnesium ratio is supposed to mean.
• 8:26
  They can interpret HTMA testing, GI map testing, whatever it is, and then a real client sits in front of them, and they freeze.
• 8:34
  They second-guess every pattern.
• 8:37
  They don't lack the knowledge, they lack the reps.
• 8:41
  So more input actually most of the time makes freeze worse.
• 8:46
  So every Facebook group, every PDF that you've downloaded, every lab rep tells you something slightly different.
• 8:54
  And so, in my opinion, the more you consume, the more voices you have in your head when you sit down with a client, and the harder it becomes to trust your own read on it.
• 9:04
  So I say this with a lot of love because I've been there.
• 9:08
  I still do this.
• 9:08
  We all do this.
• 9:10
  Another download or course might feel productive.
• 9:14
  It feels like the responsible thing to do, but a lot of time it's actually protecting you from something, which is the discomfort of being wrong on a real person.
• 9:25
  It's buffering.
• 9:26
  And in my experience, the smartest, best clinicians are the most prone to it because you care.
• 9:34
  You're type A.
• 9:35
  You care about being right.
• 9:36
  You care.
• 9:37
  You're a people pleaser.
• 9:38
  You want to help people, right?
• 9:40
  So if you have been in learning mode forever, the thing that I want you to think about is thinking and learning won't make you ready.
• 9:48
  Doing it will The next thing that I wanna talk about is if information isn't what makes you ready, what actually does?
• 9:57
  Think about a runner.
• 9:58
  Nobody becomes a runner, or maybe we'll use swimming because I was a swimmer.
• 10:02
  Nobody becomes good at swimming by reading about it, right?
• 10:07
  You become one by putting on the bathing suit, by getting your cap on, putting your goggles on, even on the days that you don't feel like it, including the cold ones.
• 10:16
  I can't tell you how many times, especially in high school, growing up in California, there are, no indoor pools.
• 10:22
  We practiced outside 365 days a year.
• 10:26
  Rain or shine did not matter, as long as there wasn't lightning, 4:45 AM swim practice most days before school.
• 10:34
  Do you know how many times I actually wanted to go to that practice?
• 10:37
  Mostly none, right?
• 10:39
  But I did because I knew how it was actually...
• 10:43
  I could see what was on the other side.
• 10:45
  I wanted to swim in college.
• 10:46
  I wanted to make the team.
• 10:48
  I wanted to make the state championships.
• 10:51
  Whatever it was, I knew that in order for me to be the best swimmer, breaststroker possible, I had to put in the reps.
• 11:00
  And so I showed up in the rain, no snow in California where I was, but in the rain, rain or shine, cold or not, to do the practice.
• 11:10
  And I think that the same concept applies as a clinician.
• 11:14
  So specifically on Friday, I'm teaching about HTMA.
• 11:18
  I really think that If we talk about HTMA testing for a second, confidence with any test, but HTMA, for example, works the same way.
• 11:27
  It comes from doing it.
• 11:29
  the 20th time you do it, it's gonna get easier.
• 11:32
  The question that I would encourage you to ask yourself is, Am I waiting to feel sure?" went to read a chart or when I'm reading charts, is that actually the thing that's gonna make me sure?
• 11:44
  Certainty is something you get from actually doing the work.
• 11:48
  It isn't the ticket that you need to get started.
• 11:51
  And the way that you get there is one piece at a time.
• 11:54
  You don't try to master all of it together.
• 11:56
  When I was a swimmer, it wasn't like I learned breaststroke in one day, right?
• 12:01
  I learned how to do the kick, how to do the pull, and even when I was at the peak of my swimming career, I was still making tweaks.
• 12:12
  I was still getting better at it.
• 12:14
  And that's the beauty of being a practitioner as well.
• 12:16
  So you're looking at one ratio, one pattern, one client conversation, and practicing until it becomes automatic.
• 12:23
  Then the next one.
• 12:24
  That is what we do a lot in Gut Practitioner.
• 12:27
  It's not just, like, more content.
• 12:29
  It's reps, getting feedback.
• 12:31
  And honestly, your first case can be you.
• 12:35
  This is what I did.
• 12:36
  When I was at my wit's end with my GI symptoms and went back to school, I just made myself my own test case.
• 12:43
  I would practice on any family member, any friend who would let me, so that I could get good at what I was doing.
• 12:51
  And you get that practice without practicing on your clients, right?
• 12:55
  So there's a lot of fear, I think, that sits under all of this, but I don't hear a lot of people, mentors, whoever, saying it out loud.
• 13:04
  And it's like, what if I misread something and I hurt someone?
• 13:08
  Obviously, we'd never want to do that.
• 13:11
  I totally understand that, and it means that you care.
• 13:15
  It means that you take this seriously.
• 13:17
  But that uneasy feeling is also just what learning a hard skill feels like.
• 13:22
  The same way the first weeks of becoming a swimmer, runner, starting a new workout plan leave you sore.
• 13:29
  It doesn't mean you're doing it wrong, and that's why having support is so helpful.
• 13:34
  You don't want to blindly interpret tests that you don't know how to interpret.
• 13:38
  You need support.
• 13:40
  It allows you to get reps in with someone checking your work, so you have that safety net to help you make sure that you're not doing that So I wanna bring this back to the client from the beginning, because this is not just a career thing.
• 13:54
  This is not just a clinical thing.
• 13:56
  knowing isn't doing.
• 13:58
  Everyone knows that you should drink more water, or everybody knows that you should get eight hours of sleep, right?
• 14:05
  Your clients have listened to the podcast.
• 14:08
  They have Googled or ChatGPT'd their symptoms.
• 14:12
  They've cut foods out.
• 14:14
  They are not short on information.
• 14:16
  Honestly, most of our clients, I would say, they can speak more confidently about GI-related stuff than some healthcare practitioners.
• 14:25
  But clients buffer too.
• 14:27
  So if you're a client listening to this, this part is for you.
• 14:30
  You buffer through another random supplement, another protocol, another episode, like maybe podcast episodes, and it keeps you out of that really uncomfortable middle part.
• 14:42
  I talked about this in, I think it was episode one twenty-eight, when I talked about a client who said,"My results never seemed to last." A lotta times, the information is never the problem.
• 14:54
  Every result, every process, uh, part of the human experience is the hard middle.
• 15:01
  When you are supporting a client, specifically maybe with minerals, you see it all the time.
• 15:07
  There are some rebalancing symptoms.
• 15:09
  You have a client who drops off around month three, right before things would've started to shift.
• 15:15
  If all you're doing is educating, you will lose clients right when they get uncomfortable.
• 15:21
  They need someone who can hold them through it, and what I've noticed is it's really hard to help a client push through a doubt that you haven't worked through yourself.
• 15:30
  If you can't sit with your own discomfort of not being sure, it's gonna be hard to sit with the discomfort of your clients.
• 15:38
  So I'd want you to tell your client and tell yourself, like, This might be uncomfortable.
• 15:44
  That is not a sign that this is not working.
• 15:46
  It actually is possibly a sign that it is working." Sometimes things have to get messier before they actually change.
• 15:54
  So If reps are the answer, the next question is like, well, where do you get them without getting burned again?
• 16:00
  Because I know that is so many people.
• 16:02
  Like, you paid for something, you were oversold, under supported, maybe you're a little gun shy.
• 16:08
  That is fair.
• 16:09
  first I would say if you are a clinician, get better, not more, right?
• 16:14
  A dull knife will make you work twice as hard.
• 16:17
  Buying another knife, doesn't fix it either.
• 16:19
  like, more tests, more panels, more protocols, more complexity.
• 16:24
  Building the skill is what makes the tools that you already have actually work.
• 16:30
  If you listen to part one of this series, that's just the toolbox and the blueprint again.
• 16:36
  So second, just like a quick checklist that you could use to judge, any training or thing that you're thinking about doing is like, Is it evidence-based?
• 16:45
  Can they show you why?
• 16:46
  Is there case support or just recordings?
• 16:49
  Do you have CEUs?
• 16:50
  I feel like that's really important for a lot of our clients.
• 16:54
  what happens after the course ends?
• 16:56
  third, you don't need a wide open calendar or, a private practice to do this.
• 17:03
  So school taught you without actually paying you, which sounds like so crazy to say.
• 17:09
  You were paying.
• 17:10
  Mentorship lets you learn on the clients that you already have so that you get better when you're working instead of putting your practice on hold to study.
• 17:20
  so how you see investing in yourself tends to shape how your clients see investing in themselves.
• 17:27
  if you have trouble investing in yourself, how do you expect your client to want to invest in you?
• 17:34
  So I wanna tell you about two clinicians because I think they show this better than I can explain it.
• 17:40
  The first one we will call Chris.
• 17:43
  Chris had been an RD for 15 years when she jumped into gut practitioner, and she said she felt like she knew very little about the GI system going in.
• 17:53
  In her first couple months, she said,"I was so overwhelmed.
• 17:57
  like everybody knows more than I do.
• 18:00
  everybody seems to be way ahead of me." She had to work through that discomfort.
• 18:06
  Putting yourself in rooms where people know more than you is the best thing that you can do, right?
• 18:11
  You don't wanna be the smartest person in the room What ended up happening is this woman, she pushed through it.
• 18:18
  She studied, she practiced, she got in the reps.
• 18:22
  Now she has a thriving private practice.
• 18:25
  But had she been too scared to be uncomfortable, that would have never happened, right?
• 18:31
  The second is another, gut practitioner gal, and I remember this so distinctly.
• 18:37
  Early on, she sent me an email, and she said,"Everyone on the calls seem to, like, rattle off, like, all this information, you know, all these things that I've never heard of.
• 18:46
  Like, I feel so behind." And what I told her was, like,"Why don't you just start with yourself?" Because it would have been so easy for her to, check out, and that's why I was so glad that she emailed,'cause she's like,"I don't even know where to start," How do I start even integrating this information?" What I told her was, We're not just trying to sit here and consume information.
• 19:09
  The best way you're gonna learn this is if you practice." so she actually started, like, making herself her case.
• 19:16
  and then she started, doing step by step, posting, getting feedback, getting coached, coming to office hours.
• 19:23
  Now, she also has a private practice where she has a full caseload of clients because she went through the uncomfortable process first.
• 19:34
  So the biggest thing that I want you to hear from both of those stories is neither one of them were waiting until they, like, knew all the information, right?
• 19:44
  They were ready and ready to grow and willing to be uncomfortable so that they could be really good clinicians.
• 19:52
  So to kind of close this episode up, what were all of those clinicians waiting for?
• 19:59
  Some of them for more than two years that I talked about at the beginning of the episode.
• 20:03
  So many people, I'm ready, but maybe not yet," right?
• 20:07
  I think most people, when they have that thought, they're waiting for permission, permission from maybe themselves or somebody else to start before they feel ready.
• 20:18
  So if you need that permission, here it is.
• 20:21
  And I wanna give you one thing that you can do this week.
• 20:25
  Please stop saving random Instagram posts.
• 20:28
  It's not helping you.
• 20:29
  It's giving you a quick dopamine hit How often do you actually go back to those things?
• 20:33
  You are never going to.
• 20:35
  That is not how you're gonna learn.
• 20:37
  Please don't sign up for another random PDF that's just gonna have more information.
• 20:44
  What I want you to start doing is actually do something that is gonna help you learn the information and practice it.
• 20:51
  notice, what feels the most uncomfortable about that.
• 20:55
  maybe it's, like, doing a process that you're not familiar with or having to, set up some kind of system in your business that you are uncomfortable setting up.
• 21:05
  Or maybe it's just like, okay, I've wanted to try maybe HTMA testing or whatever it might be, but I've just been, so nervous about how the ordering process works and, like, what happens.
• 21:18
  You're never gonna know until you actually do it, right?
• 21:22
  So if you want practice and you want to practice learning and integrating, that is exactly what I'm teaching on Friday in Your HTMA Edge.
• 21:33
  It's Friday, November 6th.
• 21:35
  You will learn the patterns on HTMA.
• 21:38
  You will learn exactly where to start, and you will also know how to use this test next Monday when you have a client in your office should you choose to do that.
• 21:50
  My goal in providing any kind of training is not to just give you more information, because you probably don't actually need more information.
• 21:58
  What you actually need is integration and practice.
• 22:02
  So I will leave the link in the show notes here.
• 22:05
  But I hope that this episode resonated with you.
• 22:09
  Whether you are a practitioner or a clinician Look in your life for areas where you are buffering.
• 22:16
  If you've ever gotten to the end of the day and you're like,"I was so busy, but what did I actually do?" That's a pretty good sign that you're probably buffering away from something.
• 22:27
  as a clinician, what this could look like is, consuming information, scrolling content, reading blogs, googling things, whatever it might be.
• 22:37
  As a client, what this could do or what this might look like is, possibly kinda same things, like avoiding changing your routines and instead, doing the same things over and over again, but consuming information, saying things like, I'll do this when I'm less busy," right?
• 22:57
  Or, When this happens, then I will." So instead, you keep buffering by, like, I'm just gonna try a random probiotic," or,"I'm just going to, continue cutting foods out," or,"I'm just gonna continue buffering by avoiding the hard change that I know I need to make." I know for a lot of our clients, one of the hard changes that they need to make is to their screen time and their scrolling habits, right?
• 23:24
  That's a big example of buffering, Instead of doing the hard thing and creating a new bedtime routine, I'm buffering by scrolling, thinking that it's gonna make me feel better, but it doesn't actually.
• 23:36
  So look for signs in your life of buffering, and just pick one action that you can take so that you're moving yourself away from that, knowing that sometimes it gets more uncomfortable before it gets better.
• 23:49
  So I hope you enjoyed this episode.
• 23:52
  I hope to see so many of you on Friday on Your HCMA Edge, and I'll catch you next week on the Love Your Gut podcast.