Just Do It! And no, this is not a Nike promotion!

I am not sure about you but I have been told countless times by doctors, health care professionals and bosses to’ just go and do it’. Why do people think that if they say ‘you should just do it’ it’s going to solve the problem? Surly if we knew how to ‘just do it’ we would have done it by now and would not we wasting their time.

I find it hard to believe any of us choose not to go and do the things that would make us health, well and rich if we knew what to do and what was stopping us from doing them. Simply been told to ‘do it’ is not going to get to the route of the problem, rather mask the problem like pain killers do!

The question should be, ‘what is actually stopping us from getting what we want and how can we help ourselves?’ Let’s take weight loss as an example. The doctor says ‘just stop eating so much and exercise more’. I am pretty confident to say, most if not all, overweight patient know they need to eat less and move more. I mean it’s not rocket science! The true problem/question is what’s stopping them changing their present behaviour. How many people really address the deeper questions and change their behaviour for life?

We are all intelligent human beings and know what is right, the problems arise when emotions and beliefs get in the way and cause us to act in ways that are destructive to our wellbeing. If we do not address these deeper areas, emotions and beliefs, true change cannot happen. This is not to say we all have ‘issues’, what it is saying is, we have all picked up emotional attachments, beliefs and values throughout our lives. These can easily be retrained, just as easily as we change our mind about, say cloths we do and do not like. Have you ever looked back at a photo and thought ‘why would I buy something like that!’ At the time you must have liked it and now you have changed your beliefs and dislike it.

So next time you are told to ‘just do it’, have a think about the things you have always done and what your emotions, beliefs or values are around them. If you change these then the behaviour will follow suit.