How do outside influences affect us?
There is one truth in the world we live in, the harmonious chaos that plays across all aspects of our lives can be easily manipulated to fit our own needs and desires. It’s not enough to simply say “I’ll find a way”, there is a way to take action and successfully make it work permanently. Regardless of who we are, outside influences can greatly affect how we function, work, train, and ultimately relax and destress.
This is one of the fundamentals of optimizing a single aspect of life to create a permanent shift for whatever goal you are aiming to achieve and is closely explored in my individualized plans. This is not a moment or an ultimatum of being forced to choose one thing over another, it is rather stressing the importance of empowering yourself with the knowledge to find what can best serve you and your lifestyle. This fundamental can be built on the realization that:
“We have been persuaded to accept one dimension of a definition, here we accept all definitions and humbly place them on display with our own interpretation and understanding”
-Par LaChance Founders
That is to say, words are words, I am not here to influence or impress with words, I’m simply using the words we have at our disposal to convey an idea. It is your prerogative to take that idea and conform it to be your own. Let’s repeat that. Take the idea AND MAKE IT YOUR OWN. Take the outside influences, ideas, inspirations, disparagement, and negativity and look at it without judgment or emotion. Look at it instead as a lesson, there is room in each to identify where we can learn, grow and honestly just not do it again if it does not serve.
The world of “Diet” has evolved drastically over the years, especially as our medical and scientific community progressed, we have unlocked new levels of understanding through published studies that prove and disprove what seems to be infinite theories. From the antiquated Food Pyramids to the latest versions of the Mediterranean Diet, Keto, Veganism, Flexitarian…and the list goes on! I invite you to take the word “Diet” and instead adopt the word “Lifestyle”, in my experience when we reshape the words that we use for ourselves we can start to appreciate our own individuality.
I’ve been there, swamped by the infinite ads and promotions for “Instant weight loss” and “Gain muscle today”, you’ve likely seen those words or different variations of those. Walking into any store you can be overwhelmed by the multitude of products, each boasting to be better than the rest, so how do you make a decision based on their claims? Well…we often rely on the testimonial of others through reviews, unfortunately, many of those reviews have been paid for and manipulated for the benefit of that company. That is the “outside influence” that is inherently affecting HOW you make a decision. Don’t get me wrong, who hasn’t used Yelp when they were looking up a new restaurant to try? Or searched on Amazon for the product with the most and best reviews? I definitely have, but I’ve developed over time the understanding that sometimes I need to read between the lines.
That comes by incorporating the formula of time, experience, and knowledge. Time: when you try something for yourself, how much time do you think you need to experience the benefits? Not everyone is the same and those “time periods” can greatly vary for reasons that can be stripped down to bio-individuality. Experience: have you tried it for yourself? Isn’t that ultimately one of the best ways to be able to make a decision FOR yourself, and not have that decision made for you? For example, Person A doesn’t like bananas and tells Person B: don’t eat the banana it doesn’t taste good. Person B is MISSING out on the experience of being able to make that decision for themselves based on Person A’s subjective experience. Knowledge: the end equation of the time and experience formula, when we piece together the two we can start forming our own knowledge, thereby taking control of making those decisions for ourselves!
The same “Time, Experience, and Knowledge” formula can be applied to anything that has to do with Health, Wellness, and Lifestyle. There’s nothing more inclusive than those three words as they weave in and out of our lives from the simplest decisions to the most complex ones. Try applying this formula in smaller and more manageable situations, and as you build this habit you’ll find that making decisions will return to where they always should have been…in your hands!