Why Inspiration For Health Change Often Fails and How to Succeed (Part 1)

Ever feel inspired to improve your mood, eating habits, sleep, or fitness but find it fizzling out before any real change happens?  You’re not alone.

In this episode of Unforked, host Haley, an epigenetics-based registered dietitian and holistic mental wellness coach, explores why many of us get stuck in inspiration without making real progress.

Tune in to learn the...

• what inspiration is and simple, realistic examples of inspiration in wellness
• 3 limitations of using inspiration alone to reach your goals
• the one key ingredient to make inspiration work for you instead of against you to achieve your health and wellness goals

Let’s turn inspiration for health change into real, lasting success together on this enlightening episode of Unforked.

Episode Mentions:
How to Overcome Health Information Overload and Take Aligned Action

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• Full Episode Shownotes & Transcripts

&, Thank you to YOU, the listener, for being here on this journey together.

Haley Schroth, RDN, LD, CPT, RYT, CMWC

Integrative Dietitian Nutritionist for Optimal Mental Health & Physical Performance

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction
• 3:16 Inspiration Definition
• 4:59 Limitations of Inspiration
• 9:02 The Key Ingredient To Make Inspiration Work For You
• 11:28 Takeaways from the Episode

Transcript

Speaker 1: 1:54

Do you ever feel inspired to improve your mood, your eating habits, sleep, your fitness levels, but you never actually make the change. You're just stuck in wishing land. You're wishing it would happen. Well, in this episode of Unforked, we are going to chat about why that happens. Why do you get stuck in inspiration and feel like you cannot move the needle towards your goals? I'm Haley, an epigenetics-based registered dietitian and holistic mental wellness coach. I am going to teach you why I found that inspiration alone is not enough for most folks to achieve their health and wellness goals, and you are going to discover the key ingredient that you need to actually make progress and be successful in the goals that you've set out to achieve. Before we dive in to the main course of the episode, if you have not yet downloaded the Ignite your Mental Wellness training, you're going to want to grab it. Go, grab it. It's in the show notes. You will find out five reasons why you may be struggling with improving your mood, your energy levels and focus, and what habits to focus your energy on so you can step into that next level of health with confidence and clarity. So what is inspiration? Even I feel like it's very elusive.

Speaker 1: 3:24

The Oxford Dictionary definition of inspiration is the process of being mentally stimulated to do or feel something, especially to do something creative. My personal definition is that inspiration is the creative force that initiates action. Inspiration is like the spark or the initial awareness of what could be. It's often a mental and emotional spark. There's always emotions coming up with inspiration. Usually they're positive emotions and they are optimistic. Let's look at a quick example of what inspiration even is, so we have a better idea of what we're talking about here. So a personal example is that I was inspired to be the type of woman who could backpack 10 plus miles in the Rocky Mountains. If you know me, you know I live and breathe mountains. I love being able to see the mountains and be in the mountains, and if I go very long without the mountains I am not okay. So that was not always my reality. It was an inspiration. I had this inspiration of being a mountain girl from my dad and my grandpa, who always had me out in the outdoors doing outdoor activities as a young girl. So there's my inspiration, but inspiration clearly was not enough to get me to be the person I am today Before we find out that one key ingredient that makes inspiration work as a motivating factor.

Speaker 1: 5:10

We're going to talk about the limitations of inspiration. So these limitations, what are they? The first limitation of inspiration is a lack of accountability. Inspiration does not hold us accountable. Inspiration is, like I said, a feeling, so it's very fleeting, it comes and goes in waves. And because it's fleeting, inspiration lacks commitment and the action required for long-term changes. So in my case, it would have been really easy for me to just continue wishing that I could backpack someday, right. It would have been really easy for me to just be like oh my gosh, that would be so amazing to be the girl who can backpack, can ignite that feeling and optimism and help you figure out which direction you need to go. It doesn't hold you accountable. It doesn't hold you accountable to start that new exercise routine. It does not hold you accountable to put some veggies on your plate. It does not hold you accountable to go drink that glass of water, right. So inspiration lacks accountability.

Speaker 1: 6:27

The second limitation of inspiration is that it is distracting. Inspiration can be very distracting. I don't know about you, but I love feeling inspired because it just makes me feel so good, I feel positive, I feel like I can do anything. And oh my gosh, it would be amazing to just stay in that feeling all the time, because once you actually go do the thing, that's when a lot of times, we realize we're not where we want to be right, like we have some work to do. So inspiration being distracting is really interesting, because too much inspiration, of course, can lead to that information overload and lead to inaction, and I actually did a podcast episode on this recently. So if you go back and refer to the podcast episode that I have on health information overload, I will link it in the show notes. It is a phenomenal one to listen to if this distractibility of inspiration is a common experience in your life.

Speaker 1: 7:37

The third limitation of inspiration is that there's a lack of structure with inspiration. Right, inspiration, like we said, is just that feeling is the spark, and so that spark is just that. It has no structure. There is no roadmap or plan to show you what is possible with that inspiration. So you may know and believe in your soul, in your body, that you will live to be 100, right, maybe that's one of your health goals. One of the folks that I work with, she is wanting to be 100. That is her goal and I absolutely fucking love it. I'm so excited about this, this goal, and so you can see where where that inspiration. Perhaps you could watch some of those videos on centenarians and the blue zones and that's amazing. It's a great inspiration. But watching those videos is not actually what's going to get her to be a hundred years old right. There's a lot of action she needs to take in the middle there to be a hundred Again.

Speaker 1: 8:46

I could be dreaming of backpacking in the mountains all damn day. I could do that for the rest of my life and just wish I was that person or I could have done that right. And so I had to learn those skills and I had to have a plan to make that happen. I had to learn about wilderness. I had to learn about bear safety, how to fuel myself on those long, intense days of workouts, essentially oh my gosh, the elevation, the heat. You're burning a lot of calories and you could get dehydrated really fast. So I had to adapt and change my diet. I also had to learn about all the gear. What do I pack? Do I need a new backpack? Which that was a whole situation in itself, right. Lots of trial and error there. I don't know if you're a backpacker if you've ever been, but finding the right backpack is a oh so important, but it is a pain in the ass at least it was for me. So that lack of structure is a limitation to inspiration. Because that roadmap is not there, I had to go find the roadmap myself to learn how to backpack my client that wants to be 100 years old. She had to find a roadmap, and part of that is working with me, but regardless, she had to find a roadmap right.

Speaker 1: 10:15

So the one key ingredient is action, and so getting into that one key ingredient of action, we now know it's action is not like some oh my gosh, this is a wild idea, wow Haley. Like some oh my gosh, this is a wild idea, wow Haley. It's plain old action. Taking action is the way forward. And if we go back into the backpacking example, of course the inspiration started my journey into taking those outdoor adventures and backpacking 10 plus miles out in the Rocky Mountains. Right, it was the consistent action, though, that allowed me to learn the skills like driving through the rough terrain. To even get me to the backpacking trail. I had to learn how to pick the trails and how to backpack all of those things right. I had to take a lot of action, just like my client has to take a lot of action to be 100 years old.

Speaker 1: 11:13

So now that we've learned that the one key ingredient to take you from inspiration into success with your health and wellness goals is action, what are some things that you can take away from this episode? Number one is to identify small actionable steps that you can take away from this episode. Number one is to identify small actionable steps that you can literally start right now. So what is one small thing you can start working on today? If you're my client, whose goal is to be 100 years old, maybe her one small step is to start an exercise routine that incorporates some strength training, because previously there's only been like some walking and light movement going on. So maybe strength training is her next step. The next small win would be to set up an accountability system, so that could be a friend that's super supportive, some sort of group. It could also be a coach, as in the example of my client. Clearly, I'm a part of her accountability system.

Speaker 1: 12:21

And the third small win you can take away from this episode is to create a structured plan to guide those actions that you're taking. You have to have some sort of structure like we talked about to your inspiration in order to be successful in reaching that goal. Versus just feeling optimistic about it, feeling inspired right, there has to be some sort of roadmap or plan to get there. So, creating that plan that can be done on your own, and it can also be done with the help of your coach or your other folks that are in your accountability system. You do not have to do all of this alone. It is easy for me to just lay this stuff out, but it's a lot harder to actually go and do it right. So in this episode today, we talked about the definition of inspiration, we talked about its limitations in terms of accountability, distraction and structure, and we also talked about how action is the secret sauce.

Speaker 1: 13:30

Action is crucial to achieving your goals. I know it seems like duh Haley, but trust me, it's a lot harder than it looks and I'm sure if you're listening to this right now, you've probably felt this and you have probably felt a time where you've been inspired and just had a really hard time moving from inspiration into action. If you're interested in filtering through all of the noise of inspiration, that can be very distracting and overwhelming. If you are looking for an accountability system and somebody to help you tailor a specific structured plan to reach your health and wellness goals. Maybe you're looking to improve your mood. Maybe you're looking to improve your energy levels. Maybe it's your focus. Maybe you're working on stress management that is affecting your weight.

Speaker 1: 14:27

Whatever your health and wellness goal is, if you are interested in holistic, epigenetics-based nutrition and mental wellness coaching, I am here for you about coaching. Even before you book a session, just shoot me an email. I'd be absolutely happy to help you figure out those next steps and find the right solution for you. I want you to remember that inspiration is what gets you started, but the action is, of course, what is going to bring you to your success in your health and wellness goals. But the action is also what makes you feel accomplished along the way. It's the progress, not perfection, thing. Right? The action is what makes you feel good and get those dopamine hits day to day, because it feels good to be moving forward. Right, it feels good to be moving forward rather than stuck in inspiration.

Speaker 1: 15:39

On the next episode, we are talking about how to bridge the gap between inspiration and action taking, so be sure to tune in next week. It is going to be a phenomenal one. I hope you have an incredible day. My friend and I will see you in the next episode. Thank you for listening to Unforged. You can find all resources and links from this episode in the show notes at thefulfilledforkcom forward slash podcast. If you enjoyed the episode, we'd love if you'd send it to a friend and rate and review the show on either Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Then email us a screenshot of your review to howdy at thefulfilledforkcom for a one-time credit to use towards our wellness services at the Fulfilled Fork Chat soon.