“Pain is the ultimate motivator.”
“Make a commitment to yourself and do your best to live it everyday. You might fail, and fail again, but it’s the effort that matters.”
Kamal Ravikant, The Rich Roll podcast (episode 515)
Reflections
Disjointed thoughts on my experience with pain and the recent commitment I’ve made to myself…
Freshman year of college: difficult relationships, rigorous studies, weight gain. Took control over the one thing I felt I could control, my weight. Began exercising excessively and developed restrictive eating habits. Behaviors led to isolation. Found myself surviving but definitely not thriving. Came across the idea of disordered eating, which opened my eyes to my unhealthy habits and the damage they were causing. Began my journey of applying intuitive eating practices.
Became a wellness coach. Found myself more drawn to conversations about food and nutrition. Could empathize with those who had similar struggles to me. Eating healthy was the bigger pain point, for myself and others. Wanted to figure out how to adopt healthier eating habits as I thought that would get rid of my pain. Wanted to find an approach to eating that didn’t restrict me from the foods I loved and helped me achieve my health and fitness goals. Came to believe food was the solution to many of my problems. Thought it was a means to ending my suffering.
Took a job as a nutrition director. Lacked experience and adequate knowledge for the job. Was eventually let go. Took a huge hit to my confidence. Always felt somewhat inadequate for not having all the answers and being let go validated these feelings. Decided to go back to school for nutrition to become an expert in the field. Thought if I attained a Master’s degree and became a dietitian, then I would have the answers and no longer feel inadequate.
Graduate studies increased my knowledge but in a way left me with even more uncertainty. Walked away from the experience with more clarity surrounding what to eat for health and fitness but was almost more scared to voice my opinion. Felt saying the wrong thing as a so-called expert would lead to even greater scrutiny.
Think this fear stems from feeling like I’m unable to articulate my thoughts well in conversation. For me, articulation requires a lot of thought, a lot of time, and a lot effort. This is probably why I take to writing more than conversation. Writing gives me space to think through my ideas before expressing them.
Left corporate job in 2018 to start a nutrition consulting business. Five years later, I still have yet to officially start a business or do any consulting. Outwardly, it doesn’t appear I’ve put much work into this endeavor, but I’ve spent more energy on it than any other pursuit in my life.
Spent endless number of hours thinking and writing over the last five years. At the beginning of this endeavor, I set out to write a book detailing how I had improved my quality of life over the last handful of years. Believed much of my success came from gaining nutrition knowledge and adopting healthier eating habits. As I worked to articulate how my healthier eating habits led to greater physical and mental wellbeing, the complexity of the mental wellbeing component was revealed.
This is when the writing of my book came to a halt and my research project began. Dove deep into the realm of physics, chemistry, cognitive science, and philosophy to better understand a specific component of mental wellbeing — happiness. Five years later, I have more questions than answers. Beginning to think some of these questions may not be answered in my lifetime.
What I’ve learned so far is this: It seems our pursuit of happiness is rooted in our innate desire for growth. It’s the feeling we label happiness that keeps us striving for continuous improvement and its fleeting nature keeps us on this path; the path of evolution.
My musings on this topic helped me uncover the approach I believe is responsible for much my growth and happiness over the years. The approach is this:
- Explore the world with an open mind
- Apply an informed approach to life
- Transform your approach to meet your evolving needs
It’s fitting the approach’s acronym spells eat as it was my journey to adopting healthier eating habits that prompted its discovery. I still have much to learn about happiness, but for now, I commit to applying the EAT approach everyday as I work towards a fulfilled and happy life.
