One of my favorite quotes that has stuck with me from studying NLP is "people are doing the best they can with the resources they have." What does this mean? It simply means that human beings are rationale. Yet simultaneously we humans are literally RUN by our emotions.

Its important to understand the concept of CAUSE and EFFECT. In life, ANYTHING we do, even what we think, is a cause that will produce an effect. If I punch a wall, then I will hurt my hand. The effect would be a hurt hand, the cause is punching a wall. The RESULTS we produce in our life are EFFECTS of CAUSES set in motion! So here's the challenge though, THERE IS A GAP BETWEEN MOST OF THE EFFECTS WE LIVE WITH and the CAUSES THAT PRODUCED THEM. Sometimes it TOUGH to trace back the cause of certain effects in our life. So what do most human-beings do? We dilute ourselves and pretend that effects in our life didn't have a cause and it happened 'just because' or because of 'luck' or 'genetics' or whatever! We falsely attribute the cause.


So what does this all mean? And how can it be applied? Well let's connect the two concepts with this example. How can people STILL not exercise? Isn't it crystal clear that lack of exercise is the CAUSE to tons and tons of emotional and physical pain? So what's going on here? Are people INTENTIONALLY self destructing? The answer is NO. I FIRMLY believe that people are doing the best they can with the resources they have. Knowing something or hearing something INTELLECTUALLY does NOT give us the RESOURCE needed to take action or base our decisions upon. What does give us this resource? OUR EMOTIONS!!!!! When someone makes an EMOTIONAL CONNECTION around cause and effect relationships, they have the resource needed to shape their decisions. So when someone just 'knows' that exercise is good and not-exercise is bad, it WILL NOT COMPEL THEM to do ANYTHING. However, when someone FEELS that exercise equals health, vitality, lack of disease, sexiness, etc. they WILL BE TOTALLY COMPELLED to take action! So here's the bottom line: people ARE doing the best they can with the resources they have, but INTELLECTUAL KNOWLEDGE is NOT a sufficient resource.

Why is this? Because we are EMOTIONAL beings. Plain and simple. Some of you might be saying, "no dude, I'm totally just logical. I make decisions on 'logic.' " Well guess what? No you don't. If you're human, you make your decisions based on emotions. Being 'logical' is ultimately a feeling. If you're a 'logical' person, you value the FEELING of being logical.

Isn't this true? I mean, I see it ALL the time. Look around you. When is someone compelled to make a change in their life? Isn't it when FINALLY something happens that hits them emotionally? When they realize that the foods their eating is making them feel like S***? When They realize they're sick of feeling unattractive and they make the connection that the CAUSE is their lifestyle. When they go to sit down and their pants rip open exposing their lard covered, cellulite bum bum and they realize the CAUSE is their lifestyle? When a smoker goes to the doctor and sees the inside of his lungs and makes the emotional connection that smoking is going to KILL him?

Seeing things, getting visual evidence, hearing things, and getting FULLY EDUCATED allows us to make EMOTIONAL CONNECTIONS. For instance, when I was a kid I saw my uncle die of cancer. He was a 6'4 man who when I saw him weighed around 90 lbs and had lumps over his entire body. Do you think seeing that created an emotional connection for me? When I asked what CAUSED this, everyone told me tobacco. I made an EMOTIONAL connection that tobacco = death. Have I ever messed with tobacco products? hahaha. HOW COULD I?????!!!!! So how can someone who STILL SMOKES despite having an intellectual understanding of the effects of smoking do it? THEY HAVEN'T MADE AN EMOTIONAL CONNECTION.

So what's the point of all this? Well we have GOT to understand that we are literally RUN BY OUR EMOTIONS. If you want to make a change, you MUST GET YOURSELF to make an EMOTIONAL connection between the cause and effect relationship. If you're want to start eating for PERFORMANCE you have got to get yourself to FEEL what your life will be like if you DON'T! How will it feel to FEEL lousy? How will it feel to feel unattractive? How will it FEEL to realize that you have SOLD YOUR LIFE SHORT and settled? How will it feel............etc. etc. etc.

We've gotta understand this in order to make a conscious decision to change.

Hope this helps someone.

Sam