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[00:00:00] Welcome to the Bite-Size Brilliance podcast. I am your host, Dr. April Darley, and it was really hard for me to record this episode today. It's one of those things that I didn't wanna do it. Have you just ever had one of those days where you don't wanna go to the gym, you don't wanna go to the grocery store even though you have nothing in the refrigerator to eat?
It's one of those days for me. And I normally batch podcast episodes at about three or four at a time. So if the mood like this strikes me, I can usually just pull out an episode. No big deal. But I ran out of episodes last week and I didn't feel like recording any, so here I am still in that mood. It's Friday the day I normally post episodes, so I had to, number one, wait until a thunderstorm passed because in Florida we're in our summertime weather pattern, they call it.[00:01:00]
We get anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour or two of thunderstorms, and it might be light, rain, or pounding rain. You know, you never can tell. And then we hit this phase where the sun comes out. It's like it never rained at all and it steams us like crab legs. So if you ever visit Florida or read about Florida, it's a well-known pattern that happens all across the state.
So I actually had to wait about an hour and a half before I could even record this because it was raining really hard. And of course that played into, I don't wanna be here, I don't wanna do it. And even while I was in the shower, I was like, ah, should I do it? Should I not do it? I couldn't make up my mind, but here I am.
And I am here for one reason and one reason only. You, my friend. I am here because you might need to hear this. Maybe you're having one of those [00:02:00] weeks or those days where you're just in this blast space and you are in the middle of maybe trying to dream up something new, or you're in that void space where you just feel a little blah.
But here's why showing up matters. You are creating the habit of consistency to your brain, and this is why Avid gym goers will tell you, please don't skip the gym, because even going for 10 minutes primes your brain to accept a pattern and a habit that you're trying to build. Because new habits are very costly in energy to your brain.
It's why we quit. I mean, you could have that New Year's resolution in January, and by second week of February, the gym is empty again. It's because your brain has to expend a lot of energy for you to do something new where it expends almost no energy [00:03:00] to default back to your old habits or your old patterns, and that's what you struggle with all the time.
And even if you have a well-established pattern I think in December it'll be two years of doing this podcast. And here I am where I didn't wanna show up and I even thought about skipping a week. But if I did that, it's way too easy that that one week turns into two, turns into three.
And then I quit. So in order to avoid that, take a breath. You can acknowledge the fact that you straight up, do not wanna do it. See if you can figure out why. Is it you're just in a funk? Is it temporary? Do you feel overwhelmed? But then you also want to remind yourself why you started doing it in the first place.
Why is this important to you? Why would continuing this help you? How are you gonna [00:04:00] benefit from this? And if those answers are more important to you than your blah funky mood, then go do the thing, even if it's not at full strength. Even if it's not your normal time, at least if you get up, go do the thing, you're still teaching the brain, Hey, this is still important.
Even if I can only give 15% instead of a hundred percent. So for me today, I didn't bother to put on makeup. If you're listening to the podcast, hey, you won't know the difference. But if you're watching this over on YouTube, you're gonna see me in my shiny skin. Acne, freckled glory, and there you go. I did put on lipstick because without it, I tend to look like a pale, sickly, Victorian child.
So I did make a little concession, a little bit of something, something.But that consistency matters more than your effort, believe it or not. [00:05:00] If you can just show up. Do it for a little bit of time at some reduced energy level. You still reinforce the pathway in the brain that this is important to you, and the brain will still keep your habit that you're trying to create going.
But if you give in and you don't go because you think, oh, I can't give a hundred percent, I'm not feeling it today. That's when your brain becomes a little bit sneaky and it steps into sabotage you, if at all possible. So my friends, the most important thing is some effort. Even if it's a little bit of effort, keep your momentum going because that matters more than the actual output to your brain.
Okay, so I hope this podcast finds you well and this little piece of bite-size brilliance. And please let me know what you might be struggling with below. Where do you need a [00:06:00] little extra support? And ask for it, my friend. There's people out there that are ready, willing, able to support you, and sometimes we hold back because we think we're the only ones struggling with things.
And maybe if we admitted it somehow, that would make us vulnerable. It would let people know that we're not normal in some way, but I'm here to let you know that blah mood, not wanna do it is totally normal. You're not the only one that's in that void space or that wants to give up or quit. So I'm gonna cheerlead you today and say, please show up even if you are only able to give 10%, 15%, a minimal
amount of effort show up because you matter in this world, my friends. I'll see you next week. Have a great week. Bye-bye.
