There is one special phrase that people often use that makes me stop paying attention VERY quickly.
It’s very common when people talk about exercise and highly irritating to me in this area.
However, I also associate it with people being ineffective and uninformative in general.
What is it?
“I always…”
This magic fragment will make me (perhaps unfairly) completely lose interest in hearing what you say afterward.
(Unless I’m trying to help you with something, in which case it is actually very important to me.)
Why?
Just the fact that you can state “I always” about something shows that it’s highly likely you don’t really question that practice.
It’s not progressive.
It’s not variable.
It doesn’t change according to contextual cues, so it’s rigid where it could be flexible.
“I always” VERY often comes from the mouth of those who suddenly become very quiet when you ask “so, how’s that working out for you? Improved much lately?”
“I always” VERY often comes from the mouth of people who will defend that action with a whole lot of emotion and not a lot of logic.
“I always” VERY often comes from people that leap to follow and refuse to trailblaze.
Funnily enough, when people change exercise plans and get a sudden burst of positive results they often state that there is “something special” about the thing they changed to.
Perhaps the thing that is MOST special is the very fact it is a change. Maybe it’s because you’re not doing what you “always” do?
Humans often fall into habits and regular habits can easily become something you “always” do.
Try looking at the things you “always do” and think about the reason you started doing them.
What did you want? What did it give you? Do those things still apply?
If not, then what?
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Gray