Healing Pessimism - The Biggest Mistake in Getting Results

When you start any process of improving your health, what’s the first thing that comes to your mind? Is it something positive, or something negative? If it’s something negative, you’re probably slowing down your results before you even start. I see so many people that go out there and start new diets, new exercise programs, or a chiropractic treatment plan, and they’re already bracing themselves for a lack of results or a relapse to get back to where they are currently. The very fact

Bumps on the journey to better health are expected, but your response to them can make the difference between success and failure.

that you’re bracing for it makes things more likely to have a negative outcome.

It comes down to the old quote, “if you think you can, you’re right. If you think you can’t, you’re right.” It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you believe you will not improve your health, you can do so many things technically right, and you will get a bad outcome. If you believe you are actually going to get a positive outcome, you can do a lot of things technically wrong and get a good outcome.

If you think of all of the people who don’t have back pain, and the people who have never been in a rut in their health, a lot of times it’s not because they’re doing a lot of things right. It’s that they’re not doing one thing wrong, which is the expectancy of things to go downhill. This isn’t some woo-woo, power of positive thinking hogwash; when you are recovering from an injury, relying on compensations makes you likely to be re-injured. When you are making diet and lifestyle changes, turning them into habits requires mental willpower that only comes from optimism, not pessimism. When you are down in the dumps about things not going the way they should, your body language changes and puts more strain on certain muscle groups.

Big wins always come from small wins. You can’t lose 100 lbs of fat before you lose 5 lbs of fat. Celebrating your small wins along the way will make the journey that much more enjoyable. If you find yourself getting discouraged, consider lowering the threshold for what is considered a “win”. From there, you’ll be able to build upon your wins and get in an upward spiral towards better health.

– Dr. Scott Minton