Remember when you didn’t want to do something when you were a little kid and you would say in a pathetic whinny way, “I don’t want to!” causing your parents to go into all the reasons why you need to do it or why you have to do it?  You may even have kids of your own who use that same line themselves.  I want you to think back to those “I don’t want to” moments… most of them ended with you doing what you did not want to do AND it did not kill you to do it.  Eventually you just learned that no matter how much you resisted, it would end in you doing whatever it was you did not want to do.  Why do we learn to accept that we must brush our teeth, go to bed, take a bath, etc?  Because we learn that those things are just part of life AND they are actually good for us.  We learn that clean teeth help us make friends better than snarly teeth and the trips to the dentist go a whole lot smoother when we have taken care of our teeth.  You can apply the teeth thing to the bathing, going to bed and so on.  Therefore, we accept that certain things are just part of life and we do them.

Then we grow up.  We are on our own to decide if and when we are going to do something – or not.  How many times as an adult are we faced with a situation in which we are saying to ourselves “I don’t want to” and then begin an internal dialogue struggling with why we should do it and why we do not want to do it and so on.  It happens a lot, right?  I know it does for me.  Just the other day I knew I should do something that would only take a couple of minutes to complete and literally, I heard myself in my head say, “I don’t want to.”  I realized that the inner child in me was resisting a simple task for no other reason than just not wanting to put the effort into it.  The internal conversation only lasted a few seconds, but it was enough to make me think about all of the other times I have gone through this in my lifetime.

If I remember correctly, when it came to my “I don’t want to” moments as a child, I think the response from my parents was, “you have to.”  As adults, usually we do not HAVE to do anything, instead we choose to.  Think about those things in your life you do not like to do or do not want to do, but you choose to do anyway.  Now think about the things you choose not to do even though you know you should.  Being in the fitness industry, about working out, I hear people say, “I know I should, but __(fill in the blank)__.”  When it comes to eating healthfully, there are lists of reasons why people do not do it.  What it comes down to is that no matter how good it is for them, people just do not want to.  They let that little inner-child win, and they don’t do it.  Just like when we were kids, there are consequences for everything.  Choosing not to exercise and eat healthfully results in poor health, lack of energy, reduced self-esteem, depression, higher medical expenses, missed opportunities in life and so much more.

What are your “I don’t want to” issues?  What should you be doing that you aren’t?  What would happen if you did them?  What will happen if you continue not to do them?

I think I should share my recent “I don’t want to” moment that led me to writing this… It was very simple and may seem insignificant, but bear with me.  I was getting out of my car and had a bunch of things to carry into the house.  In the center console of my car was a coffee cup and a plastic drinking tumbler I had used that morning for my Chocolate Shakeology breakfast drink.  I could not get the cup and tumbler on the first trip and when I got into the house, I did not want to go back outside to get them.  I struggled with this for a few seconds and then I realized that if I did not bring them in, then the tumbler would be stinky and gross by the next day and I would not have room for the next day’s cup and tumbler.  I really did not want to go out there and get them, but I did.  I did it because I knew that if I didn’t then the resulting chain of events would be worse than if I just did it then and got it over with.  I asked you to bear with me, so hold on… Think about all of the little things like this cup and tumbler story that you don’t want to do – and don’t do – that build up and when it comes down to it, you still have to do it and the effort required to do it is much greater than it would have been before.  It’s time to start listening to your inner voice or increasing the volume and begin to have healthy inner conversations as to why you don’t want to do something, what will happen if you don’t and what will happen if you do.

There are SO many things in life I don’t want to do and many things I choose not to do.  For the most part though, I do what needs to be done and because of it, things in my life run just a little smoother.  When I resist and don’t do it, I pay the consequences and beat myself up because I knew better and should have just done it in the first place.

I hope you turn up the volume on your inner dialogue and do not let the “I don’t want to” moments win over the right things to do.  Let us bypass the “I don’t want to” and accept that “I have to” and get on with it.

I would love to hear some of your “I don’t want to” battles and how you have prevailed!