After a challenging couple of months, I’ve recently had to make a lot of really difficult lifestyle changes.

It started slowly as my work/life balance went out the window. But it didn’t take long for my health to start falling apart. I wasn’t sleeping, my Meniere’s symptoms were the worst they’ve been in years, and all this at a time when my wife and I have a baby on the way.

I had to make some changes to get back on my feet.

In the last month alone, I’ve completely eliminated sugar from my diet, started meditating every day, exercising more, and I put a lot more energy into reducing stress on a daily basis.

It’s finally paying off now, but none of it was easy.

Every single change was a struggle and a daily battle of will power and discipline.

Mental Override:

I recently came across a powerful concept that really helped me to make some of these difficult changes. It’s a simple idea called mental override, and I first learned about it from an inspiring man named Aubrey Marcus.

Aubrey is an author, podcaster, and the CEO of a massive health and nutrition company called Onnit.

He explains that mental override is the ability to overcome your thoughts and urges to take control of your body and make difficult decisions. And it’s a skill that you can practice and get better at.

In a recent interview, Aubrey explains:

“You just manually push that go button all the way down and do something that you know you don’t want to do. Because we’re so good at negotiating and justifying and having these little arguments with ourselves. And sometimes you just need that ability to just go, “Okay, we’re doing this.” I don’t care, your scared, that’s cool. You’re going to be alright. Mental Override. We’re doing this.”

And as simple as this concept is, I love the image of mental override as a button you push down with your mind. Because in every difficult situation, you always have a choice. The right choice might be insanely hard to make for any number of reasons, but it’s still a choice.

Chronic Illness and Difficult Decisions:

I like this idea so much because when you live with a chronic illness, a lot of your choices are difficult.

It’s hard to make lasting lifestyle changes. It’s hard to cultivate new, healthy habits. It’s hard to do the things you want to do when your illness can flare up at any moment. It’s hard to make good decisions when your energy is limited and has to be managed carefully. It’s hard to push yourself when fear invades every aspect of your day.

But we can always choose to push the mental override button down and do the difficult thing, or make the change we need to make, or face the thing we’re afraid to face so we can do the things we want to do.

I’ve used this over and over again in the last few weeks to help me get back to my healthy habits and routines. Cutting out sugar from my diet was insanely difficult, and I started it before going on two back to back vacations. It would have been so easy to just give up the diet while I was away with my family. But I pushed the button down, over and over again, and made it through.

I did this with exercise and meditation too. I kept pushing it until I didn’t have to anymore, until they were just a part of my daily routine.

Final Thoughts:

The idea of mental override helps me to remember that I am making choices – that I’m not just living at the whim of my impulses. And after a few weeks of practicing, it’s already getting easier to mentally push the button.

I hope you guys like this idea as much as I do! That’s all from me today. Have a great day everyone!