Unlocking the missing link between intention and action, knowing and doing, goals and habits through 1 simple practice.

Why do our intentions so rarely transform into consistent actions? What prevents our aspirations from becoming achievements?  

The answer lies not in willpower or knowledge, but in a crucial missing link that's often overlooked in our pursuit of consistent behavior change.  

In this enlightening exploration of human motivation, we uncover the fundamental truth about why behavior doesn't stick until we see the connection between what we need to do and what we deeply care about.   

While Simon Sinek popularized "starting with why," we rarely apply this principle to the small, daily actions that ultimately build the next level of ourselves.  

Drawing from neuroscience, evolutionary biology, and years of coaching experience, we examine why educational systems and workplace training programs frequently fail to engage learners. The brain simply doesn't prioritize information or actions without understanding their relevance to our personal values and aspirations. This explains why we can memorize facts for tests but quickly forget them, or why we initially commit to fitness goals but struggle to maintain them.  

Through practical examples, we demonstrate how connecting habits like quality sleep, nutrition, and movement to deeper values, such as being present for your children, advancing your career, or maintaining independence as you age, transforms these actions from obligations into priorities. This isn't a one-time exercise but requires ongoing reinforcement, like taking a shower or brushing your teeth.  

Whether you're struggling with personal habits, leading organizational change, or simply curious about human behavior, this episode offers a powerful framework for making change stick.  

By repeatedly drawing bright lines between your actions and your deepest values, you'll find yourself naturally motivated to do what matters most - no discipline struggles required.  

Ready to bridge the gap between your intentions and actions? Listen now and discover how practiving your "why" can transform everything.  

Transcript

Introduction: The Missing Link

Speaker 1 0:00

Hey guys and welcome back to another episode of Change Wired Podcast. My name is Angela Shurina, I'm your host, your partner in change, transformation, personal upgrade and human evolution. And here we are on Change Wired Podcast, talking about human potential, making change stick and why emotion matters just as much as facts do when it comes to our personal and collective evolution. Guys, by the end of today's podcast, you're going to understand or see more clear this very often missing piece that allows you to go from intention to action, from aspirations and goals to results, from just random things you do to consistent habits that build the next level of you, the progress, the result that you want to see in your life. There is this missing link that, with my clients, I work on all the time, nonstop, like almost at every session. We get back to that. There is this missing link that you probably know about, at least on some level, and you probably heard about from no one else than from Simon Sinek. You know of that and yet so rarely you put it into practice in the small things, not just big things. In small things I mean getting your fitness levels up and being proud of that, or getting your career up or business up or your relationship, whatever that is, business app or your relationship, whatever that is that missing piece or not using it often enough, not making it center of your attention? That's what often stops you from again turning attention into action, your random acts of resilience into habits that last and overcome any lack of talent or opportunity. It's from intention to action. What's the often missing piece. Before we dive into what and how you can fix it, I'm going to start with a little bit of a story or personal reflection. With a little bit of a story or personal reflection, guys, is there anything that you are just curious about for no other reason than pure curiosity, something that you could dive into for hours, following every rabbit hole, like for no reason other than you know? I'm just curious about that.

Speaker 1 2:44

For me, besides my obsession with the sense of human behavior, what makes a stick reach mastery and unlock potential which I could disappear for hours? For me, the other thing is food and food science, and understanding food on all these micro and macro levels, how food works in the body and why it evolved in that way in the world. The origin of different foods, from chocolate to cheese and bread. If I had a backup career, it would be a food scientist designing human health, amplifying foods, and in my world, every food would be a superfood, like have your cake, have the foods that you enjoy and also create super health with it. So that's my ideal world. That's what I would dive into, and I believe personally that food can be your strength amplifier, making you an unbelievable superhero, or can be your weakness, and I believe that we can have both and our food system actually is in some ways getting there. Like we can eat this. You know, protein bars that taste like cookies, with 22 grams of fiber, 30 grams of protein. Well, maybe 20, 30 grams would be a big protein bar. So fiber and protein and no added sugars, nothing that affects your blood sugar. Right, we can have all this and get stronger and get healthier. So we're getting there. But anyhow, what's your rabbit hole? You can see that is mine. I could be talking about that for hours, or where chocolate comes from and how it was the food of the gods and how it makes your brain spark up. So all of that, that's my rabbit hole. Another one like. I have a couple, but they're very strong Curiosity guys.

Why Education and Training Often Fail

Speaker 1 4:37

It's a strange thing that way. For me it doesn't need a reason to exist. Besides curiosity, sometimes it can become your profession, like for me, sometimes a lifelong hobby, sometimes just something weird quote unquote you talk about at dinner parties. But for the rest of the stuff in life, again, curiosity. I believe curiosity or drive to be curious is nature's way to make sure that we get out there and explore the world and all the possibilities and opportunities and all the things that we can do to change the world, improve the world, figure things out right. So curiosity, I think, has this effect. That's the why for curiosity. Now, what you are going to be curious about, that's a true question. Why is it that certain things make you curious and others don't? But besides that, the rest of the stuff, it has to have a reason. That's why we learn, we change, we achieve. Everything needs a reason, a bigger why, or in simple terms, answering the question like what's in it for me. You know, lately, I think yesterday or today I came up with a start based on all the knowledge and books and articles and videos that I've been going through. Knowledge without engagement won't stick and engagement without a system won't last. And by engagement here you can also substitute it for motivation Knowledge without motivation, and motivation is the reason to act won't stick and motivation without a system won't.

Connecting Actions to Deep Personal Values

Speaker 1 6:13

Last Yesterday I listened to a podcast episode on Hidden Brain that's the podcast with Shankar Vedantan as the host and he was talking to a neuroscientist, psychologist, now educator and author, mary Helen Imordino-Young Double first name, double last name and they were talking about why education fails so often and the main reason Because we put facts first and the why your reason to do anything last, and that's the opposite of how our brains are wired to learn and, based on my experience in the workplace, that's exactly the same reason why so many trainings in the workplace fail. Short answer like nobody cares. And that's why people or not people, but students at schools get disengaged because they just don't care. And they don't care not because they don't care about math in general and they couldn't care. They don't care because teachers don't often explain, don't help them discover how that ability to do math or algebra or whatever that is can be relevant in their life and can help them to understand better the world, what they are curious about and the problems and the things that they want to work on, how that what is taught in the lesson can be a means to those ends, to what they already care about. We, before we learn, engage, get absorbed into anything we need to understand, like what's in it for me, what's the bigger picture, why do I care about that? Now, more practical towards what you might be trying to do. Give you an example In my coaching and I've been coaching for again 17, probably already 18 years, I don't know but in my coaching career, the more I advanced, the more I understood this simple truth Until people care, they don't care about what it is you have to teach, to say or what they need to do.

Speaker 1 8:31

And so with my clients, who often feel like they lack willpower to follow through on healthy habits or any other habits, we don't start with rules and checklist and science and facts, not anymore. We start with what do I care about? Why is this important to you in the first place? And if you don't know, let's figure it out. What is important in life for you? If we're working on sleeping well, what does it mean? Does it mean more energy to be with your kids, doing well at work, learning better, becoming a one-of-a-kind expert, getting in promotions sooner because of your great ideas that depend on good sleep. Eating well. Does it mean staying and looking sharper, getting respect and social status upgrade, getting that additional boost of confidence that you often need to get out there to speak up, to share your ideas, to take on new projects like energies, everything in life.

Speaker 1 9:30

Moving well means for many people, especially who are getting into 40s and 50s and already start seeing the effects of poor lifestyle. Moving well means no pain in older age, independence in old age, adventures with your grandkids and friends and kids, being able to support your loved ones, no matter what age you are in, instead of being the one needing support. Loved ones, no matter what age you are in, instead of being the one needing support. What are we trying to do here? Why did you come to our sessions and what is important to you in life? Behavior doesn't stick until people see the connection between what they need to do like sleeping, eating well, moving well and what they deeply care about their life, their career, their family, their friends, their independence, their mission in life, their meaningfulness in life. What do they care about? That's the first question that we need to answer before we dig deeper into what and how.

Speaker 1 10:35

And that's why so much of education fails because I didn't know about you, but I still remember when I was at school. It's all about like this is what you're going to learn. These are the numbers, these are the facts of history, these are the facts of geography, these are the chemistry. This is chemistry class or physics class. Some subjects you know kind of have this natural connectedness to life. You know, maybe when you learn something about physics you start to understand, you know how certain events happen in life and you're like, oh, you know, it makes me a little bit more knowledgeable about life. But very often, like it still does not connect to what you, as a kid, deeply care about following some of those rabbit holes and curiosities and maybe having a dream or becoming an astronaut or a scientist, solving certain problems.

Speaker 1 11:28

And it's very important at school and in the workplace and in the coaching arena and when we work on projects or changing culture or innovating, on working on anything, it's very important for a human psyche to understand. Why is it important, what's in it for me, what I call I motivation, what am I going to get of it and what's the bigger picture, what's the bigger reason? How am I going to help the world go around and get better and how is it important for me to be socially usable or be of service, right what I call we motivation. So as on this podcast episode on hidden brain and tune in to it. It's the latest podcast episode and I'm going to pick up the book as well. But the point is tune into this episode because there they talk about specifically education and how so far we've put facts before feelings or before meaning, before reason, and that is why we struggle with so much disengagement at school and that is why we struggle with so much disengagement at workplace, because we don't do good enough job of creating a clear path in people's minds from what they want to get out of life, of themselves, of this career, to the actions that they need to take today, to what they're learning.

Speaker 1 12:55

And if you were to ask me just remembering facts for a week or two weeks, like why does it matter if it doesn't stick? And back to my quote that I came up with knowledge without engagement or without why? And motivation won't stick. And if it doesn't stick, then what's the point? You know you've probably been there Like you learned a bunch of things for a test or for history classes which you felt like had no relevance to your reality. As a kid you learned a bunch of dates and quotes and facts of history and then in two weeks you remember none of that. Like I remember I had to memorize so much stuff in geography classes and because I never thought that it was relevant, even though I'm such a travel enthusiast like I couldn't understand why all of this stuff matters to me in the first place and because of that I barely remember anything from geography classes. Like I'm lucky that planes know where to fly, otherwise I would end up in a different part of the world instead of where I intended to go. Right, so you can see. And if it doesn't stick again, why does it even matter? So what educators or education community starts realizing that if we don't make kids or in workplace adults care, then nothing else matters.

The Science of Engagement and Motivation

Speaker 1 14:23

Because human brain does not remember, stuff does not learn, stuff does not change until it has a clear answer to why it matters. And the reason why it works this way is because without a reason, expending energy and wasting your energy wouldn't make any freaking sense. In evolutionary biology, during our evolution, energy is the key to everything. Without sufficient energy, we die, and so we don't have a good enough reason to spend our energy on anything, learning, taking any action, then our brain gives a red signal to learning, engaging, and that's how you get a bunch of disengaged people, either at workplace or at school, who don't engage with the material, don't learn anything, don't change anything and because of that don't really get any results. And education system actually fails at producing people who do great work in life and improve the world, and workplaces fail to get all of the human potential to develop people and create the best solution they're possible of. Because of this disengagement and just not helping people to understand how what they do matters and, because of that, not maximizing the ability of the brain to learn and do its best work.

Speaker 1 15:52

So the takeaway for you, guys. But before we get into takeaway, don't forget please to share review this episode to help me to do it together, to reach more ears, so together we could improve the world, make people better, unlock more human potential. If you care about that, guys, if you care about more people unlocking more of their potential to create better world, all of us together, then please do share review rate. It matters to be an action taker in this world, otherwise nothing changes. But back to the practicality of today's episode. So the practical takeaway, guys.

Speaker 1 16:31

If you are struggling to do something consistently, or somebody else you know struggle with studying or changing something in their life or in their career, if you are a leader trying to engage your team or the whole demo organization, change culture, and your first step to that is making a very clear path between what you or people need to do to what you deeply, truly, honestly care about, what's in your heart, and it's not once and done. That's where a lot of people get it wrong. It's like repetitions in the gym or brushing your teeth or taking shower. In order for result to last, in order for your teeth to stay clean and you stay clean, you need to take it daily, so the same, with motivation. What I got really good at in my life and what I help my clients to get really good at is, on a continuous basis, to draw this bright line between what they care about and what they need to do.

Practical Takeaways for Lasting Change

Speaker 1 17:42

And even Nietzsche said people who have big enough why will figure out how, and it's not an exact quote, but very close to that. What it means is even then, the most profound philosophers understood one fundamental truth about humanity Without a reason why, without care, nothing else will change will move, upgrade and get better, and we're not going to learn and change. So what do you deeply care about? And then how, what you need to do? Can you connect to what you care about and then see the rest unfold and you never struggle with discipline or motivation again? Hope this was helpful, guys. Thank you for listening, for tuning in. Please share this episode and till next time, which is actually gonna be really soon and we're gonna have a guest. So stay tuned. Till next time. Keep changing, keep growing, keep knowing your why.