How to Deactivate Your “I Don’t Care” Button

How often have you promised yourself that you were going to start eating healthily TOMORROW but then found that when tomorrow actually came around - you were sad/stressed/tired/lonely and in that moment, you just wanted to eat something comforting and unhealthy. You hit the “I DON’T CARE RIGHT NOW” button - deciding that in that moment you didn’t care about your goals and that you would prefer the short-term pleasure/comfort that eating unhealthily would give you. Or how often have you committed to going to the gym 3/4 times in the coming weeks or maybe to doing more work for a project but then when it came to the time to do that work/go to the gym, in that moment you hit the “I DON’T CARE RIGHT NOW” button and just didn’t bother - choosing instead to relax/do something else.

Many people have goals for their lives and their health but they are not achieving those goals because they hit the “I DON’T CARE RIGHT NOW” button far too often. Consistency with things such as your diet, going to the gym, working on a project - are what get you results. So by not keeping their word to themselves and by choosing the short-term pleasure/comfort over the long-term gain over and over again - they are not achieving what they want to achieve. Yet just like any short-term high - drinking alcohol/taking drugs, going on a shopping spree or having a one-night stand - choosing short-term pleasure over long-term happiness can often leave an individual feeling guilty and down.

So if you are hitting that “I DON’T CARE BUTTON” too frequently`- what can you do? When I work with clients, I equip them with a range of tools that they can use to deactivate that button. Here are a few that you can try for yourself:

1. Write down somewhere very clearly why you want to make changes in your life and make sure you reference this list frequently. In that moment that you are tempted to hit that “I DON’T CARE RIGHT NOW” button, it is a good idea to go and read this list once again. The list could detail your lowest lows, it could show you what would happen if you keep choosing the “short-term high” over your long-term goal and it could also show you how your life would improve, if you consistently made the choices that best serve your long-term goals.

2. Realise that it is NOT YOU telling you to hit that “I DON’T CARE” button - it is just a part of you that wants short-term relief. Play out in your mind how you would feel in 1 or 2 hour,s even in a day, if you DID choose that short-term relief (often guilty and annoyed) and how great you would feel if you didn’t choose that short-term relief.

3. Reward yourself in other ways. Often when someone is turning to something like alcohol or food to feel better - it is important that they find other ways to feel good. Regularly booking in massages, going for walks... or finding other things to do that can also be considered a “reward” or “treat” are really important.

If you would like some help to stop pushing that “I DON’T CARE RIGHT NOW” button - you can contact info@thefoodpsychologyclinic.co.uk to book in a free 20 minute consultation.

“Instead of looking at the past, I put myself ahead twenty years and try to look at what I need to do now in order to get there.” - Diana Ross