Taking the Best from 2020 to Build Success for 2021 – Part 1

me&my health up podcast episode #33 – Transcript

Anthony Hartcher 0:00
Welcome to another episode of me&my health up, ask your nutritionist. I’m Anthony Hartcher, your host, a clinical nutritionist and a lifestyle medicine specialist.

Today’s episode is on a question that was asked by a listener. And it was around a kg I’ve had a not so good 2020. But you know, really want to leave it behind me and start 2021 with huge amounts of motivation to positively change health and get back on track for a great year.

So this episode is about addressing that question from that listener. So we’re calling the episode taking the best from 2020 to build success for 2021. So what do you expect to get out of this episode, you’re going to basically reflect on your own year, the year that’s been the good, the bad, and the ugly.

And then we’re going to be talking and you’re going to be thinking about setting yourself up for success in 2021. So where do we start? Well, it’s our perception becomes our reality.

Okay, so the way in which we perceive an event, shapes our thinking around the event, it drives emotions, and therefore actions about that event. Now, we all experience the pandemic in 2020. And prior to that, in Australia, we had the drought, which led to fires, which then led to flooding.

So Australians have certainly experienced their fair share of hardship over the last year. And out of all that, that adversity that has come really great signs that as humans, we can really bond together and help one another through adverse situations, and really get the best out of the worst situation. And this is really what I want you to think about is how did you perceive the 2020? pandemic? Was it? Oh, now it’s terrible. Why is this happened to just ruined my life? Or did you see it as an opportunity to stop, reflect and adjust.

And that would result in you know, two very different outcomes. So if you saw, the glass is half empty as a result of the pandemic, then your experience throughout the pandemic would always be that have been half empty. However, if you took the pandemic, as glass half full, and you then took that attitude into the period that we’re still in today, but you know, there’s science or certainly in Australia, that we’re emerging from it, in some way, I guess until the vaccine is rolled out.

However, life is very much, in some ways back to normal, or what people say the new norm. So let’s get back to the glass half full? Well, that would have been probably a really difficult period to go through, because everything was seen from that lens. And so everything would have compounded in terms of that half full outlook. And so for example, two people could experience a job loss.

One person, the glass half full person would see that job loss as Oh, no, I have no income, it’s terrible. You know, I’m not going to be able to pay my mortgage or pay my rent, I’m going to struggle to get food. It’s all doom and gloom, whereas the other person having experienced the same event, and saw it as well, glass half full, which is, well, I didn’t really like that job. I was thinking about leaving anyway. And this has just forced my hands. And so this is a good situation in the sense that I would have sat there stagnant, unhappy in this job that I didn’t like, and really not progressed.

Whereas the pandemic has forced that hand and therefore this person’s a light enabled to reassess the situation and think, Well, how do I now go about finding something I preferred, and they start that resetting, reflecting, thinking about what they would like and start talking to people who may be in that space as to whether there’s opportunity and start preparing their resume, and so they’re taking action, and that’s positive action, because they’re moving towards something better, that’s the glass half full, whereas the other person is thinking half empty. Okay, I have lost my job, and that flows on to loss of income that flows on to how can I pay my bills and, and that then cascades and compounds that thinking is, you know, it starts to then drive how you feel emotionally that thinking, so you start feeling down and happy, you know, the world’s against me.

What happens from that world is against me is that you constantly see any event or most events that will come in, into your life is, yeah, that’s another sign of the world is against me. And therefore, you know, it gets other events beyond the pandemic, is that, you know, nothing’s working in my favour. It’s all against me, where’s that person that’s seeing the glass half full, is thinking, Well, I’m moving in the direction I want to be heading.

And that is finding a new job that I like, and I’m going to start having those conversations. And what that will start noticing is things that are going to further advance them towards their goal, because they’ve switched on what we know as the reticular activating system Raz, and that is where we, it’s a filter, essentially, to what’s important to us. And so you know, our sensory you know, so we take in a lot of information through our senses.

It’s often can be really overwhelming if we don’t have a filter. And so we have this filter called the Raz, and it will then just allow what’s important to us to go through that filter. And us to process that information. And the other sensory information is like white noise. So this person is taking in a lot more information about things that are coming into the person’s life as to what it’s, you know, how can I  you know, or they’re only, I guess, taking writing as to what is important to that, achieving that end outcome, which is a job they love. And they’re blocking out the white noise, whereas the person that’s focused on the half empty approach is got all this sensory stuff, because they’re focused on the half empty approach.

They’re allowing those signals to go into their cognition and hence, further exacerbating those feelings and that leads to certain actions that are positive. So, you know, to add a further you know, an example to this would be that that the same person’s going to see that our there’s going to be no toilet paper left and and you know, what would life be like without no toilet paper, so it drives that real irrational behaviour is that I need toilet paper, even though they may have plenty of stores, but you know, they’re thinking that’s half empty.

And that fear is really driving their behaviour and so constantly, things from the environment. Exacerbating that fear like behaviour which exists in our leads onto those feelings that are not great, you know, when we’re in that fight or flight fear situation, our serotonin which is our mood stabiliser, feel good, happy neurotransmitter that is actually decreased when we are stressed.

So, this then leads on to actions that are further I guess, going in that direction, for example, yes, they become irrational, they get to the supermarket, the toilet paper is running out. And you know, they can’t get their hands on the toilet paper. And that can result in actions that they could later regret because their actions of survival, I need that toilet paper more than you, My situation is worse than yours. And so it can lead into those sorts of situations of argument, which we actually saw it play out during the pandemic.

And so I’m hoping I’m painting a picture of that perception and how important that is, and that shapes our reality. And, you know, our behaviours as a result of that. So really, I want you to reflect on your year and how you saw it, and how you could have seen the world differently. For example, I very much have that half full mentality. And so my experience was, yes, I lost my income, my income completely dried up. And I was thinking, Well, what can I do with my skill set that will have support such society?

For example, you know, what can I do to further help others around me, because that motion is, you know, all that outlook of what can I do is driving that karate thinking as to how I can support them, it then drives that positive emotion around, I’m doing something, I’m doing something about this, I’m not focused on what I’ve lost. I’m focusing on how and what I can do to improve the situation. And so I thought, well, I’m educated in health.

And I can therefore share that education to others via a one to many platform, which was at the time, you know, like, So, I ended up doing webinars, I had to cut to the chase. But at the time, I’d never done a webinar. And I was thinking, Well, you know, I’ve never done one, I don’t know how to do one. And so I, I actually, I just looked at various platforms that are out there, I obviously, because I wasn’t getting an income, I didn’t want to pay for them. So I was looking for free platforms. And, you know, I came across a platform that I could do for free, that I could then share with others for free. And then I started running these webinars.

It was really good in the sense that I felt like I was doing something I was contributing, I was helping others. And that gave me that sense of, Well, this event isn’t so bad. It’s now taking me into a space that I’d never been in before, such as running webinars. And I was thinking, well, that’s a good thing to do in the future as well, because I can help more people than what I do in one to one consulting.

So as a nutritionist, I was doing a lot of one to one consult consults, that stopped, because people had that freeze when they entered the 2020 pandemic. And then I thought, well, I need to do something. Otherwise, I’m only going to feel sorry for myself because I didn’t have any income. So I started running webinars. And I had the outlook that if I ran these webinars, that the good would come from them.

Eventually, I didn’t know how come back to me or whether ever would come back to me, but I just put it out there that I was doing good and so therefore, good should come back. It’s that karma. And those webinars led into me doing this podcast. So without the 2020 pandemic, I don’t know whether I would have started podcasting, I may have that maybe year down the track, as opposed to it really forced my hands. Like it forced that person that lost their job to think, Well, I didn’t really like their job, I’m going to find a one that I do, like, and so that’s what the pandemic helped me with was.

Well, I think, you know, I pretty much saw myself as eventually getting into podcasting, but it drove me quicker to it. Because I had no choice. I had nothing to do, other than, you know, to support the family support the kids with their education, but I felt like I wanted to do more and contribute more. And, and that’s how I applied my skill set. And to help others, you know, what podcasts are on immune health podcasts and sleep.

I ran webinars on the same around webinars and stress management, and they’re all available on my YouTube channel, which is me and my wellness. So you can still see all those webinars. They’re up there, and they’re in the raw format of me, you know, learning as I went, and I have webinars that didn’t go well, I had internet that dropped out and I had to reconnect and I just kept persisting because I knew it was something that I could do and I really wanted to contribute and not only helped me get through it mentally, but also to help others get through it.

The best they could get through it given the situation. The other thing I took home was exercise, you know, new new forms of exercise. So during COVID I was missing my gym, I didn’t have my gym to go to I love going to my gym, I love doing my strength training, I love doing classes, and I love doing a mixture of classes, yoga, Pilates hit classes. So body Pump those sort of variety of classes. And so I was really confined to doing a guess weight, not weight bearing exercise, but body weight, have forms of exercise.

And I was looking for something to get into as something different because I knew I’d get quite bored of just running and doing some push-ups and sit-ups. And so I was my kids, karate went online, and then I was invited by the instructors to have it you join us online, you know, it’s available, you can do it with the kids. And so it became something I did every Thursday on set day with the kids online. And I actually really enjoyed it, it gave me that area of new and challenging so it added excitement.

It was helping me with my strength. My as you know, stretching or flexibility is a better term was helping with my focus. So that mental health because you know, in Karate, if you’re not focused, you can’t get the combinations, right, and you just look uncoordinated. So you need to focus. And so when it resumed back to when we were able to do things physically, I actually went back to visit, you know, I started physical classes, and it’s something I’ve kept up, and I’m still doing it today, and I love it.

So when I reflect back on 2020, it really helps grow me as a person, it’s helped my business in terms of building my personal brand because I’m podcasting, I’m doing webinars. And I really think as a result of taking that action, and seeing the pandemic as half glass half full, it has helped me in terms of that good is starting to come back.

Since, you know, Australia has very much, you know, started reducing restrictions. I’m in New South Wales, so I’m not I was, you know, I was fortunate that I was in New South Wales and not Victoria, that then has then driven business that I often think, well, it could have been because I was proactive during the pandemic, as opposed to going dormant. And I, I did hear a supplement rep say to me that the ones or the practitioners that were active and trying to do something positive, in a sense, keeping practising in some form, and that was for me was educating.

They are really busy now, post the lockdown period, whereas those that went quiet and pulled back and didn’t, I guess, do much around that pandemic, or that isolation period, then now quiet. So, you know, I could then say, as a result of me being proactive, that has led to my business growing and being better and prosper, prosperous thereafter. So I think you get this gist of how did you see the pandemic, and you know, whether you could have seen it differently.

And maybe that’s an action for going forward is, when adverse situations come into your life? You can either see them as half empty, and pour me what about me? Or you can see them as, what is this going to teach me? What can I learn from this? How can I take this event and be a better person, be a better parent, be a better partner, be a better employee, be a better boss or manager? How can I improve my fitness and there’s been so many conversations I’ve had with, you know, variety of people around the pandemic and what’s happened and some have really, either become really healthy and you know, in some cases, some people I’ve spoken to have lost 2020 kgs 20 kilogrammes over this period of time, that is a lot.

The pandemic actually gave them the time to do exercise because they weren’t commuting so they invested their commute time into themselves and to being healthy. And what else the pandemic did for people around health was that you know, you could no longer eat out and dine out you know, you could order UberEATS or you could embrace cooking with the family and so those families that embrace cooking and did it as a family activity really got healthy.

Because in terms of what was available in the supermarket, there was plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables what was being you know, I guess in high demand and low available ability was very much the process foods, the foods that you could freeze. So if you embrace the cooking side of things, you had this high availability of fruit and vegetables, you ate more of them. And as a result of that, you got healthier, you know, you may have lost weight, you got fitter, you had better cognitive function, you could actually cope with the problem better, because you your body was functioning better, you’re sleeping better, you were exercising, you’re eating well, and as a result, you had better emotions, and better being able to drive action that was more positively associated with positive emotions. So that is really where I, you know, wanted today’s podcast to be as a reflection on 2020, how you saw it, how you could have seen a difference and look for the good out of 2020.

So what is it in 2020, that is improved that you love that you thinking, Yes, I embraced this exercise, I am now training outdoors, and I love training outdoors, I wish I had have always done that, or I’m no longer commuting, I really enjoy the flexibility of working from home because I can, you know, keep up to date with my chores or my errands, I can spend more time with the kids. And that’s been a great positive for parents, in some ways, some sort of thinking is probably too much time.

But others have really seen it as a bonding opportunity to bond with their partner. And I’ve heard cases where their relationship is only enhanced as a result of the pandemic. And obviously, in some situations has gone the opposite direction, but maybe for the better. If you know, if you see the glass is half full, maybe that relationship wasn’t great.

Going into the pandemic, the pandemic just worsened. And it forced you to make a decision to leave that relationship. So that could be a great positive for 2020. And a great thing to take out of 2020 is that it helped me in this way. So how has the pandemic helped shaped you as a person in a positive sense, we can forget about the negative, it’s happened, it’s done.

But what I want you to do is take away the positives. And thank yourself for you know, the actions that you take, in order to drive that positive change in your life, whether it be health or around relationships, or around your work, whatever it was. And now going into 2020, I want you to think about what would you like to change? What habits have you picked up during this period that you’re thinking, I don’t like that. And that’s going to be the segue into the next episode. So stay tuned.

Next episode, we’re going to talk about habits and how to create new sustainable beneficial habits, and how to let go of habits that are non-desirable, and you don’t want to sustain. So that’s going to be the next episode, part two of this episode about how we can take the best from 2020. And, and take that into 2021 to make 2021 a successful year. And that’s what we want to do is create success in 2021. And we’re going to do that by this habit changing episode.

So stay tuned for the next episode. It’s about how you can change those habits that you’ve picked up that you didn’t lie and regret that 2020 One’s a new year and new you and I’m going to help you in the next episode to creating that best version of you. So if you enjoyed this episode, please like, share this episode with others. And leave a review for me because the more reviews I have, the more I can share my passion for health and wellness with others and achieve my goal as I want to enhance and enlighten the well being of many people as possible in my lifetime.

Thank you for listening. And stay tuned for the next episode of me&my health up ask your nutritionist take care.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai