36. "I Am Not Motivated to Improve My Health"

You can train yourself to be more motivated. It’s true! Especially when it comes to your health - start small, create a realistic plan that you’ll actually stick to, and see the results. I know you’ve tried in the past, but knowing the five steps to create a long-term improvement is the way forward.   How to Make a Change: Pre-Contemplation Contemplation Planning Take Action Maintenance   The Chief Complaint: "I Am Not Motivated to Improve My Health" It doesn’t matter what aspect of your health you want to improve, whether it’s your weight, strength, health conditions, or overall wellbeing, you do need some kind of motivation to stick to the change. There are five steps to making a long-term change.   Your Past Doesn’t Have to Define Your Present Your past experiences with trying to improve your health can definitely impact how motivated you feel about making a change now. We end up drawing these overgeneralized beliefs that this time will be just the same. What you need to do is break it down into five steps. First, be in the pre-contemplation stage. Think about what making this positive change to your health could be and how it will impact your life. Then it’s time to actually contemplate it. Spend time realistically looking at what this improvement will mean for you and how you can make it more realistic for you. Because in order to make a long-term health improvement, the changes need to be realistic for you - yes, YOU, not the latest health fad celeb you’ve spotted on social media.   Plan and Take Action But here’s where it gets fun. Once you’ve thought about making this change seriously, it’s time to make a plan. Your plan needs to be wholly realistic. If you know yourself that working out for 45 minutes, 5 days a week isn’t going to work for you - don’t plan that in. Regardless of what health improvements you want to make, setting realistic goals is the key here. When your plan is realistic, it’s also sustainable - and sustainability is the key to long-term success. Next, take that action, my friends! You’re armed with your realistic plan, start following through. Even if it doesn’t make sense for you, the biggest piece here is you actually taking the action to do whatever it is you’ve planned out.  I want you to know, as well, that creating a new habit doesn’t happen overnight. Maintain your plan in the long-term to see your health improve. Your new habit will probably take about six months until it’s part of your routine.   Homework for Women Physicians What are some of the realistic plans you’re ready to put in place? How will these improve your health? Let me know in the comments on the episode page.   In This Episode  How to approach the subject of improving your health with pre-contemplation [5:00] Why your plan needs to be realistic in order to keep yourself motivated [9:00] How to make a long-term change [12:00] How long it really takes to establish and change a habit [13:30] What happens when you take the action even if you don’t believe it [18:00]   Quotes “A lot of times, based on the past experience that we’ve had, we draw an overgeneralized conclusion on how it’s going to go.” [2:55] “Sustainability is my favorite word. Sustainability is what we’re looking for. Because anybody can try something and get results and move on, but what we’re talking about is how we can go ahead and sustain these forever. We want forever results.” [11:11] “Action is fun! We’re getting results, we’re feeling strong. You’re going to start to have thoughts of, ‘I’m worth it. This is worth it. This is working. This feels good.’ Thoughts that create motivation. To drive you to take action to get you to the result that you want. I believe in you. I believe with my whole heart that you can get any results in your life.” [22:44]   Resources Mentioned Check out the full episode page here Join the 5-Day New Year's Reset Join the Waitlist for G.O.A.L.S Society Find Life Coaching for Women Physicians Online Follow Dr. Ali Novitsky on Facebook | Instagram  Subscribe to Life Coaching for Women Physicians on Apple Podcasts Podcast production by the team at Counterweight Creative   Related Episodes Episode 5: Setting Realistic Goals for Your Body Type Episode 6: “I Can't Meet My Weight Loss Goals” Episode 13: “I Cannot Stick To An Exercise Routine”