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If I Know What To Do .... Why Don't I do It? With Carly Taylor · Hardiness with Dr Paul Taylor

• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Hey everyone, it's Curly here and welcome to you. This
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: week's Mojoe Monday. So there's a question. I hear a
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: lot from clients and from friends, and it goes something
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: like this, I know exactly what I need to do,
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: so why am I doing it? So why is it
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  Speaker 1: that we should We know we should move our body
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: or get out of bed earlier, or meal prep on
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: a Sunday, so we're organized for the week, drink less,
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: spend time or less time scrolling, start the household project,
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: and yet somehow we still don't do it. And there's
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  Speaker 1: a common humanity here. So if you do relate to this,
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: you are definitely not alone, because this is really an
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  Speaker 1: information problem. You know, most people already know what they
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  Speaker 1: need to do. There's so many resources out there, there's
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  Speaker 1: so much information, especially now with social media, with so
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  Speaker 1: many influences and experts out there telling us what we
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  Speaker 1: should be doing. So most people already know what to do.
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: You know, you know that vegetables and good quality protein
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  Speaker 1: are better than ultra process foods. We know movement helps
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  Speaker 1: our body, and it helps our mood, It helps us sleep.
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  Speaker 1: We know sleep is important in so many ways, and
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  Speaker 1: we know that social media can hijack our attention and
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: procrastination makes things worse and not better. So knowledge usually
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  Speaker 1: isn't the issue. The issue is that, in that moment,
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  Speaker 1: doing the thing often feels really uncomfortable, and humans are
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: beautifully wired in our brains to avoid discomfort. One of
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  Speaker 1: the most interesting ways I've heard this described was actually
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  Speaker 1: by mart Manson, and that is self control is often
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: less about discipline and more about emotion. Because when we
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: don't do the thing we know is good for us,
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  Speaker 1: it usually isn't because we've logically decided against it. It's
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: because something feels easier and safer and more soothing for us,
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: or more immediately rewarding. This is what our brains are
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  Speaker 1: wired to. It's a default that we fall into. You know,
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  Speaker 1: the gym feels hard, so staying at home and ordering
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  Speaker 1: Uber eats feels so much easier. Going to bed feels boring,
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: so one more episode feels better. You know, it makes
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  Speaker 1: perfect sense, But I also think there is another layer
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  Speaker 1: to this. We are living in a time of extraordinary
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  Speaker 1: comfort and convenience, and while there is so much to
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  Speaker 1: be grateful for in that, it is fundamentally changed how
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  Speaker 1: we live. If you think about our parents or grandparents' generation,
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  Speaker 1: or even for me when I was When I was
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  Speaker 1: a kid, you know, if I wanted to change the
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: TV channel, I had to get up off the sofa,
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  Speaker 1: and I could only watch TV at specific times of
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  Speaker 1: the day, and I had no choice what was on
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: because there were only apart from the fact there were
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: only three channels. If dinner was being made, it generally
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: involved planning a headge, shopping for ingredients, preparing food, cooking food,
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  Speaker 1: and then cleaning up. There wasn't any delivery options. There
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  Speaker 1: wasn't any fast food delivery options, and there wasn't any
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  Speaker 1: online shopping options. If you wanted to go and talk
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  Speaker 1: to somebody, you rang the house phone and hoped they
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  Speaker 1: were home, and if that person was home, they had
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  Speaker 1: to walk to the phone. If you needed something from
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: the shops, you had to physically go out and get it.
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: So movement was naturally built into life in a way
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  Speaker 1: that it isn't now. There were far few convenient shortcuts.
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  Speaker 1: There were simply more things people had to do. Well,
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  Speaker 1: for almost everything that feels mightily inconvenient, there is an
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  Speaker 1: easier alternative. We've reduced our tolerance for discomfort because of
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  Speaker 1: all this convenience, Because discomfort used to be a part
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: of just ordinary life. Now we can avoid it almost entirely,
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: and we've become incredibly skilled at removing friction because we
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: can do so so easily. But it's often the things
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: that create growth they require friction. Being fit and healthy
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: requires effort. Strong relationships require a lot of uncomfortable conversations.
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: Confidence requires doing hard things even when you don't feel ready.
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  Speaker 1: So if you have been beating yourself up for not
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  Speaker 1: doing what you know you should do, maybe the question
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  Speaker 1: is what discomfort am I trying to avoid? Actually ask
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  Speaker 1: yourself that question, because often that's the real answer. And
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: once you can name your discomfort, that's when you can
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  Speaker 1: work with it because you know longer asking why am
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  Speaker 1: I doing or why am I not doing the things
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  Speaker 1: that I know I should be doing, Because now you've
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  Speaker 1: got more self awareness, you know why. Maybe it's a
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: fear of failure, or you feel overwhelmed, maybe it's perfectionism,
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  Speaker 1: decision fatigue, or maybe you are just mentally exhausted. But
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  Speaker 1: that awareness changes everything, because doing what's good for us
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  Speaker 1: is often less about becoming a more disciplined person and
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  Speaker 1: more about becoming someone willing to feel a little temporary
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  Speaker 1: discomfort in the service of something bigger. The easy option
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  Speaker 1: usually feels better now, but the better option usually feels
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  Speaker 1: better later. And we know life is shaped by those
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  Speaker 1: things that we repeatedly choose. And I'll leave you with
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: a quote from Marcus Aurelius. A person's worth is measured
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: by the worth of what they value. And I thought,
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  Speaker 1: maybe I'll just adapt that a bit for our modern life,
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  Speaker 1: because perhaps our worth is not just reflected in what
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  Speaker 1: we say we value, but in whether we consistently act
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  Speaker 1: in alignment with those values. Have a great week, everybody,
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  Speaker 1: and I'll catch you next week. See you