Want to lose weight? I bet you know exactly what to do to get to your target weight. This would not be the first time you heard – eat less, move more. So why do people fail to lose weight?
My assertion is that, like myself, you have been conditioned to work on the wrong end of the problem. When it comes to solving a problem, human beings tend to look for information. The thought being, the more information and knowledge a person has the more effective they will be at dealing with their issues. What we fail to see is that your results have absolutely nothing to do with how much you know. Results come strictly from behavior. Avoid the doughnuts, hit the gym and the weight will come off. Own equities, diversify globally, buy low/sell high on a systematic basis and you will become wealthier.
The problem is these behaviors must be repeated over a lifetime, not just on an occasional basis. They need to be done even when you do not feel like it. Ask yourself, have you ever said you were going to do something and not done it? Have you ever said you were not going to do something, then done it anyway?
So, who or what is driving the bus? Human beings are anything but automatic. Yes, working out before work would help lose weight, but getting out of bed for that early workout on a cold morning can become painful. Selling out of a stock portfolio that took a 30 percent plunge would be breaking the golden rule of investing, but you cannot sleep at night thinking about your retirement taking a dirt nap. Instincts and emotions can, without us even realizing it, take control and have you behaving in ways that sabotage your best interests. It happens in the blink of an eye.
Human beings cannot escape being human. We like to think we always act in calm rational ways, but that is not reality. Human beings react to pain, pleasure, fear, greed, biases and misperceptions. There are some things human nature serves well. For example, survival. Human beings dominate this planet like no other species. However, there are some things that our brains are not wired to do well. Consider for example long-term investing, dieting and consistent exercising. It is not that we do not know what to do, our brains simply are not wired to do them over long periods of time. Until we start working on the right end of the problem, our behavior and what is driving it, we’re not going to get the results we’re after. So for 2023, let’s make this the year we start working on the right end of the problem.