Can I tell you a secret about my work as a health coach?
There’s a misconception that health coaches prescribe a diet plan or exercise regime to their clients. In fact, that’s not what I’m up to at all. The reality is that most (not all) people come to me knowing exactly what they should be doing to have a healthy, vibrant, powerful life. And yet they just aren’t doing the things they know would propel them towards their goals. They are getting in their own way. So then my job becomes to help my clients not with a meal plan but with motivation, not with diet but with discipline, not with exercise ideas but with overcoming self-sabotage.
Have you ever been all hell-bent and determined to change something in your life and initially attack it with passion then somewhere along the way drop it to the side, perhaps looking back at it every so often with regret or shame? Think New Year’s Resolutions. The honest truth is that improving one’s life and health takes work and often that work can be uncomfortable and unfamiliar. It can be easier to get in your own way, and not move forward towards the goals you're apsiring to. When faced with discomfort it’s absolutely normal for we silly humans to interfere with their own progress.
We are indeed slaves to our yearnings for pleasure, comfort and ease.
An incredible human privilege is to set goals for ourselves – although champion self-saboteurs don’t even get as far as setting goals due to subconscious fear of failure. Most goals of any girth take some chutzpah to achieve. When putting in the effort towards accomplishing these intentions our “critter brain” (the less evolved part of the brain that is concerned with safety) will inevitably protest and cause us to continue getting in our own way. Fortunately, as humans we also have the ability to hone our awareness of the critter brain’s complaints and override them.
Without awareness of the primal brain’s subtle strategies to keep us safe and comfortable, we might not be able to identify and intercept our ways of self sabotaging.
Some of the classic flavors of sabotage are procrastinating, not showing up to the task at all, quitting and numbing out (using over-shopping, over-drinking, over-eating, over-sexing… you get the picture).
Any of the above tactics sound familiar? Have you ever desired an outcome so desperately that you just didn’t even attempt to get there? Or maybe you quitted almost as soon as you started? When I hear a client express impatience to meet a goal, I often have to remind them that the most productive way to arrive at the finish line is through slow, steady persistence. Start now, show up, don’t numb out, stay the course, don’t give up.
What do you truly desire to create in your life? Why hasn’t it happened already?
Just for a moment, close your eyes and imagine what your life would look like if you were able to put down the need for immediate comfort and begin to eliminate all your forms of self-sabotage. You could begin to change the speed at which you accomplish our biggest goals!
By Elise Fabricant
That, my friends, is what I am here to help you with as a health and life coach. Interested in learning more? Contact me today to schedule a Free Total Transformation Discovery Session on the phone to start to identify how your self-sabotage has been impeding your vibrant life and what to do about it. Connect with Elise on her website here!
Get out of your own way and practice yoga with Elise now!
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