Category: Mindset

How you think about health shapes how you experience it. This category challenges all-or-nothing thinking, perfectionism, and the idea that willpower is the answer to everything. The goal is to shape your mindset build a healthier relationship with progress, setbacks, and long-term change.

  • Success Science: Tools for Setting Goals That Will Stick

    Setting goals is a powerful tool for personal and professional growth. Whether you’re striving for fitness, academic achievements, career advancements, or personal improvements, having a clear goal is essential. One popular and widely used method of goal setting is the SMART framework. But even with well-structured goals, many people struggle to stay motivated and see their plans through to completion. That’s where understanding the science behind goal setting and incorporating additional techniques, like WOOP, can make a significant difference.

    What Are SMART Goals?

    SMART is an acronym that stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. It’s a practical method to create clear, attainable goals with a structured plan to reach them. Let’s break down each element:

    1. Specific: Clearly define what you want to achieve. Avoid vague statements and be as precise as possible.
    2. Measurable: Establish criteria for measuring progress. How will you know when you’ve succeeded?
    3. Achievable: Make sure your goal is realistic and attainable, given your resources and constraints.
    4. Relevant: Ensure it aligns with your long-term objectives and values.
    5. Time-bound: Set a deadline or timeframe to create urgency and accountability.

    Example of a SMART Goal: Instead of saying, “I want to get fit,” a SMART goal would be, “I will complete a 5K run in 30 minutes or less within three months by training four times a week.”

    Why SMART Goals Might Not Be Enough

    While SMART goals provide a structured way to set objectives, they often lack the deeper motivational connection needed to sustain effort. One way to strengthen that connection is by digging into the reasons behind your goal using a technique known as “The 5 Whys.”

    The 5 Whys Technique

    This approach involves asking yourself “why” repeatedly (typically five times) to reach the core reason behind your goal. Originally developed as a problem-solving technique in manufacturing, it’s equally effective for personal reflection. Here’s how it works:

    1. State your goal: “I want to lose 20 pounds.”
    2. Why? “Because I want to feel healthier.”
    3. Why? “Because I’m often tired and out of breath.”
    4. Why? “Because I’m not as active as I used to be.”
    5. Why? “Because I’ve neglected exercise since starting my new job.”
    6. Why? “Because I haven’t prioritized my health.”

    By the fifth why, you often reveal a deeper, more personal motivation. This process not only strengthens your connection to the goal but also uncovers obstacles you might not have considered. Some people find asking “why” seven times even more effective, but the idea remains the same: drill down to the root motivation.

    WOOP: An Evidence-Based Approach to Goal Setting

    In addition to using SMART goals and the 5 Whys, consider the WOOP method, developed by psychologist Gabriele Oettingen. WOOP stands for Wish, Outcome, Obstacle, and Plan. This method is particularly useful for mentally contrasting your goal with potential challenges, leading to better preparation and problem-solving.

    How to Use WOOP:

    1. Wish: Identify a meaningful goal.
    2. Outcome: Visualize the best result of achieving your goal.
    3. Obstacle: Consider what could get in your way.
    4. Plan: Develop an “if-then” plan to tackle obstacles as they arise.

    You can learn more at WOOP (woopmylife.org)

    Combining SMART and WOOP for Success

    Using SMART goals to set a clear objective and WOOP to mentally prepare for challenges provides a comprehensive approach to goal setting. Additionally, incorporating the 5 Whys technique helps ensure you’re deeply connected to your goal and its true significance.

    The Science Behind Goal Setting

    Research shows that goal specificity and planning significantly enhance success rates. Mental contrasting (visualizing both success and obstacles) is linked to improved motivation and better outcomes. Additionally, forming an “if-then” plan (implementation intention) strengthens your ability to follow through when obstacles arise.

    Conclusion

    Goal setting isn’t just about writing down what you want to achieve; it’s about truly understanding why you want it and preparing for the challenges ahead. By combining SMART goals with WOOP and digging into your core motivations using the 5 Whys, you create a strong foundation for success. Next time you set a goal, take the extra time to connect with it on a deeper level—you’ll find that clarity and commitment make all the difference.

  • Dreading the scale? You’re focusing on the wrong metric

    “Should I weigh myself every day?”

    If stepping on the scale in the morning and hoping for a certain number to appear feels like a daily test you might fail, that’s a sign—not of failure, but of misplaced focus.

    Weighing yourself daily can often lead to disappointment and a loss of focus on what actually matters in your fitness journey.

    The scale isn’t useless. But it is limited. And when you treat it like the ultimate authority on your progress, you’re setting yourself up for frustration.

    Your body weight can fluctuate several pounds day to day. That’s not fat gain or fat loss—that’s normal physiology.

    Hydration, time of day, sodium intake, sleep quality, stress, digestion—even what you’re wearing—all of these can shift the number without reflecting any real change in body composition.

    So don’t emotionally attach yourself to that number. It doesn’t define you or your success. What actually matters is the trend over time.

    For most people, that means pulling back, not weighing yourself every day, and using a more structured approach—weekly or bi-weekly check-ins under consistent conditions. Same day, same time, same routine. Now you’re collecting data you can actually use.

    Because gaining control of your health is a lifestyle change—not a race with a finish line.

    Shifting Focus

    But even then, weight is just one metric.

    If your energy is improving, your strength is going up, your sleep is more consistent, and your habits are becoming automatic—you’re making progress. Whether the scale reflects it immediately or not.

    By shifting your attention away from a single number and toward your long-term behaviors, you set yourself up for results that actually last.

    And for some people, weighing in too often becomes more than just a habit. If stepping on the scale is causing stress, anxiety, or obsessive behavior, that’s not helping your progress—it’s interfering with it.

    At Jones Health Coaching, the focus is simple:
    Build the habits that drive results, and let the results follow.

    Because long-term change doesn’t come from reacting to a number—it comes from consistently doing the things that move your life forward.

    Use the scale as a tool, not a judge.

    So, if you’re thinking “Should I weigh myself every day?” Zoom out. Focus on the fundamentals.

    That’s how real progress happens.

  • Health Is Not a Moral Failing: Why Willpower Isn’t Enough

    Health is not a moral failing because the cards are almost always stacked against you. Willpower isn’t enough.

    Trying to “get healthy” in today’s world often feels like swimming directly against the current while food and supplement companies, diet camps, fitness organizations, medical research headlines, and that one guy you work with who moonlights as a personal trainer cheer you on from the shore. Everyone has advice. Everyone has certainty. And somehow, when it doesn’t work, the blame still lands squarely on you.

    There is a deeply ingrained tendency to moralize health — to assign virtue or failure to outcomes that are profoundly biased, contextual, and unequal. We pretend that health exists on a level playing field when it very clearly does not.

    The Quiet Judgments We Make (and Internalize)

    Weight and body size are an easy example. We make snap judgments about people’s habits, discipline, and character based on how they look. At the same time, we can swing so far in the opposite direction — defending body positivity without nuance — that we fail to support improvements in holistic health altogether.

    If someone relies on quick, processed meals, we assume laziness or indifference. What we rarely ask is:

    • How many hours are they working each week?
    • Are they exhausted and trying to buy back time with their kids?
    • Is life simply heavy right now?

    Mental health is treated similarly. We often tell people that exercise and proper nutrition will dramatically improve mental health outcomes — and while that may be true, it’s rarely helpful when someone is in the depths of it. When it hurts to breathe, when the world feels dark and overwhelming, information alone does not move the needle.

    Instead, people are left with the same conclusion over and over again: I must be the problem.

    Discipline, Shame, and the Illusion of Control

    The word discipline gets thrown around so often that anything less than perfect adherence is considered failure. There’s no scale. No spectrum. No acknowledgment of progress.

    And while it’s easy to villainize the health and wellness industry for this, I don’t think this is always a conscious moral failing on the part of individuals within it. Much like survival throughout history, relevance today often depends on belonging to a tribe. A school of thought. A camp with rules, identities, and certainty.

    Tribalism gives us a sense of superiority. It allows us to confuse different with wrong. And once we do that, it becomes very easy to assign moral value to health outcomes. After all, isn’t it just survival of the fittest?

    This mindset fuels narratives that make me wince:

    • “Good” versus “bad” foods
    • Hustle and grind culture that ignores the silent epidemic of chronic stress and sleep deprivation
    • “No excuses” messaging so rigid it creates guilt around missing a workout for your child’s birthday party or anxiety over a box of Christmas cookies

    None of this exists in a vacuum— and it’s why willpower alone isn’t enough.

    When the Industry Fails, People Blame Themselves

    The truth is, I fell for many of these traps myself.

    I was obese — objectively, not dramatically — and I responded the way so many people do: by trying to fix everything as fast as possible. I bought programs, supplements, and chased information with urgency and fear. The speed at which I tried to change my body and learn everything I “needed” to know felt like free-falling through quicksand.

    By the time I realized I was unnervingly skinny, it became painfully clear that proper education was either missing entirely or hidden behind premium-priced paywalls I couldn’t access at the time.

    As I’ve grown older and immersed myself in physiology, behavior change, and chronic disease research, one thing has become obvious: critical foundational information is often sidelined in favor of sexier solutions like nutrition plans and exercise programs.

    Domains of health are treated as if they must compete with one another. And that fragmentation is exactly how we end up with staggering rates of chronic illness, obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and burnout.

    Why Moralizing Health Backfires

    When someone tells me they’ve “failed” at their health goals, it’s almost always because they’ve internalized this moral framework and placed too much weight on willpower. They believe they lacked discipline. They believe they didn’t want it badly enough.

    Accountability matters — but responsibility cannot rest entirely on individuals when the system itself is failing them.

    How could we expect everyone to succeed when health is treated like an unfair, unwinnable competition? When only those who “win” are deemed worthy of being healthy?

    You cannot willpower your way through chronic stress, sleep deprivation, environmental barriers, or nervous system dysregulation. Telling people to “try harder” often produces the opposite of the intended effect.

    Moralizing health breeds fear, guilt, doubt, anxiety, and avoidance. It does not create sustainable change.

    A Different Way Forward

    Health must be treated holistically and objectively.

    Objectivity allows us to become curious again — to experiment without shame, to learn without fear, to approach our bodies with something closer to childlike wonder rather than constant judgment.

    This perspective has fundamentally reshaped how I coach.

    I can no longer ignore:

    • Social determinants of health
    • Elitist ideology in wellness spaces
    • Rigid frameworks that don’t bend for real life
    • Misinformation and constantly shifting “truths”
    • The failure to truly follow the science
    • The way “willpower” and “motivation” get weaponized in health spaces

    Health education is a right, not a privilege.

    When we stop shaming people for where they are, when we focus on behavioral psychology and foundational health, when we remove people from the uphill battle that modern wellness has become — that’s when change becomes possible.

    If You’ve Ever Felt Like You Failed…

    This post is for the people who may not have even recognized how deeply health has been moralized. For those who didn’t realize that shame alone may have been holding them — or their clients — back.

    If reading this makes you breathe a little easier, feel a little more grounded, or look forward with a bit more hope, then it’s doing its job.

    You are allowed to start.
    Allowed to try, to fail, adjust, and try again.
    You are allowed to persevere.

    Health is not a moral test you pass or fail. Willpower is a tool—not the foundation.

    And you are not broken for struggling in a system that makes it harder than it needs to be.