In this powerful episode of Next Act Ninjas, host Rachael Van Pelt unpacks the often overlooked yet devastating impact of external demotivation. She dives deep into how societal expectations, social media comparison, and even subtle family critiques can derail your physical health, mental clarity, and financial security.
Ever felt your motivation drain away after seeing someone else's success or hearing subtle judgments from family and friends? You're not alone—and it could be sabotaging your healthspan and wealthspan more than you realize.
In this powerful episode of Next Act Ninjas, host Rachael Van Pelt unpacks the often overlooked yet devastating impact of external demotivation. She dives deep into how societal expectations, social media comparison, and even subtle family critiques can derail your physical health, mental clarity, and financial security.
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If you're tired of letting external negativity dictate your health goals, wealth-building decisions, and overall joy in life, this episode offers the clarity and encouragement you need to reclaim your momentum.
Chapters
00:00 The Impact of External Demotivation
01:29 How Demotivation Hurts Your Healthspan
03:52 Social Media Worsens Demotivation
06:01 How Demotivation Hurts Your Wealthspan
09:07 Breaking the Cycle of Demotivation
13:07 Guard Against External Demotivation
Hey, hey, welcome back to Next Act Ninjas, the go-to podcast for mastering your health and wealth longevity. I'm your host, Rachael Van Pelt. Today, we're diving into a topic that's often overlooked, but critically important to your longevity, the debilitating impact of external demotivation. I know you know what I'm talking about. It's those moments when your motivation plummets.
You see someone else achieving something amazing. Maybe it's the body you've been striving for or the financial freedom you've always dreamed about. And instead of feeling inspired, you end up feeling completely deflated. No more wind in your sail, kills your mojo and your momentum. Today, I'm going to unpack why this happens, how external demotivation negatively impacts your health and wealth and, most importantly, how you can break free from its chains.
One of my favorite quotes from Steve Jobs is, "Don't let the noise of others opinions drown out your own inner voice." Powerful, isn't it? Yet how many times do we let external noise drown out our dreams? And that noise attacks both our physical and our financial well-being.
First, let's talk about what it does to your healthspan. As you know, healthy aging isn't about vanity, is it? It's about maintaining your mobility, your longevity, and your quality of life. And yet, external demotivation from cultural negativity can derail healthy aging, faster than we realize, I think.
Have you ever had a friend who subtly judges your new healthy eating plan or smirks at your newfound enthusiasm for yoga or daily walks. The judgment can be incredibly subtle. They'll say something like, "I'm getting too old for that." when they're the exact same age as you are. Or maybe they say something like, "Hey, relax at this age, I think we've earned the right to indulge." And suddenly that goal feels silly, doesn't it? Maybe even futile. You think, "Yeah, you're right, it's too late to change old habits." Your resolve weakens and before you know it, you've skipped a week of exercise or you've reached for comfort food instead of the nutritious meal that you'd planned.
Even more subtle is that demotivation that comes from family. Maybe your spouse or partner isn't on board with lifestyle changes and they unintentionally sabotage your efforts. Or maybe your adult children tease you about your "health kicks", not realizing how deeply their words affect your motivation. It's incredibly important that we recognize how this subtle sabotage affects our motivation. It's easy to overlook just how much our family influences our mindset.
And then there are the cultural expectations. Society constantly bombards us, even in our golden years, with impossible standards for beauty and fitness. These unrealistic expectations often lead us to chase quick fixes instead of patiently building sustainable habits. Or maybe we don't even try for fear of looking stupid. It's exhausting, isn't it? When we try to fit into these molds, we lose sight of what really matters to our healthspan, like having enough energy to play with our grandkids, enjoy new experiences, or just simply waking up feeling great every day.
And social media just magnifies the issue, doesn't it? It floods us with images of seemingly ageless celebrities or influencers who are living unattainable lifestyles. While logically we know these images are heavily curated, they still chip away at our self-esteem and our determination. The constant comparison leaves us feeling inadequate, and this ultimately harms our long-term health.
I have to say from my own experience, I almost didn't produce this podcast because of that feeling of inadequacy. I know I'm nothing to look at and yet to post on YouTube, I need to be on video. But everywhere I looked on social media, I saw beautiful people, mostly young, posting. This reality would have completely deflated my motivation and my mission if not for the people in my life who supported me.
Of course, social media also fuels our fear of missing out, FOMO. We scroll through our feed and we see friends or acquaintances living large, traveling the world, mastering new hobbies, or achieving peak fitness. These curated posts create a deep anxiety around whether we're missing out. Are we traveling enough? Are we playing enough? Are we financially secure enough? Suddenly, our life is not enough. Our future becomes overwhelming rather than inspiring.
Moreover, this FOMO-related anxiety often traps us in "analysis paralysis". With so many possible directions for our Next Act, we end up stuck, unable to decide what to pursue or how to prioritize our efforts. Rather than making progress, we spend our days in an endless cycle of research and planning and second guessing. The paralysis itself becomes demotivating. It robs us of the joy and spontaneity that our Next Act could offer.
Loss of motivation impacts our wealthspan too. You know the phrase "keeping up with the Joneses"? It's not just a pitfall for young professionals. It's alive and well for those of us in the 55+ crowd, especially when friends start talking about luxury cruises or new cars or vacation homes. The pressure to keep up can be immense. It pushes us to spend beyond our means and sacrifice the peace of financial security for the temporary approval of our peers.
Think about it for a second. How often do we see friends living lifestyles that seem enviable from the outside? Has that ever led you to overspend or maybe make an impulsive financial decision? Maybe you felt pressured into a costly social engagement or a high-end vacation or an expensive hobby just so you could fit in or maintain appearances. These choices, of course they provide temporary pleasure, but they also lead to financial stress and anxiety.
And of course we can't forget about the doom and gloom economic headlines. There's always someone predicting financial disaster. Sometimes all it takes is a few headlines to demotivate and paralyze us. If you let these pessimistic market views dictate your actions, you may shy away from sound investments or stop saving altogether because, hey, why bother if everything's going to collapse, right? Here's the truth though. Markets always go up and down. Over time though, they tend to go up and to the right, meaning markets eventually recover and grow stronger. If we allow those negative headlines to demotivate us and influence our financial decisions, it will devastate our long-term financial health. It will kill our long game.
What's worse, the impact of financial stress doesn't stop at your wallet. It trickles into your relationships, emotional wellbeing, and overall quality of life. Persistent worry about finances can strain marriages, affect friendships, and diminish your capacity to enjoy life.
Even more alarming is the toxic synergy between your physical and financial health. Financial stress often leads to poor health choices, like reaching for comfort foods or being more sedentary. And those unhealthy behaviors lead to chronic fatigue, mind fog, and rapid cellular aging. As a result, poor physical and mental health makes it harder to earn income, manage investments wisely, or even enjoy life fully.
Just think about someone who's burdened by debt. They often feel too stressed to prioritize exercise or sleep or proper nutrition. And that just exacerbates the underlying health issues. Chronic health issues then, they don't simply reduce productivity, they send medical costs through the roof, which just worsens the financial pressure, doesn't it? It creates this vicious cycle that we really just need to disrupt.
So how do we do that? Well, there are a few powerful strategies we can implement to break the debilitating cycle of demotivation.
The first thing we have to do is reflect on our inner circle. Do the people in your life mostly uplift you, or do they drain your energy and enthusiasm? One powerful step is deliberately choosing to spend more time with people who
actively support your health and wealth goals. Seek friends that celebrate your milestones, encourage your ambitions, and inspire you by their examples. And stop spending time with those people who demotivate you. Jim Rohn has been quoted as saying, "You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with." think we have to make sure those five people up-lift us. Life's hard enough without our inner circle dragging us down.
Second, knowledge is power and it's your strongest shield against external negativity. But you have to be careful about who you listen to. Just like you have to be smart about the friends and family you let into your inner circle, you have to be thoughtful about the influencers and the media outlets that you let in.
Invest time in finding sources that you trust for reliable, credible information. Be incredibly selective, especially now in what some are calling the "post-truth" era. Misinformation and fear-based narratives are rampant. AI-driven algorithms are only making it worse with their pinpoint accuracy. They're serving you media and ads perfectly tailored to your greatest fears and your secret desires.
That doesn't mean you have to be a digital Luddite, but it is in your best interest to curate who you listen to because information can either be used to educate or manipulate. So make sure that you're listening to things that are educational and uplifting. Continuous learning builds resilience. It builds confidence. It empowers you to make decisions that truly serve you, not someone else's agenda.
And third, you don't need to recreate the wheel. You don't have to figure it all out on your own. There is immense value in asking for help. You can massively accelerate your learning by leveraging the expertise of a guide, a coach, or a mentor. Sure, there's an abundance of free information out there. Do-it-yourself has never been easier, but as I mentioned, there's plenty of misinformation that you have to wade through if you want to get to the good stuff. Moreover, it can take years of learning and trial-and-error to get the results you are after on your own.
Just to give you some perspective, my experience in health and wealth longevity cost me 30 years of my life and nearly a quarter of a million dollars. I have invested a lot of money and a lot of time to be a good scientist, coach, realtor, investor. But the good news is you don't have to invest that much. You get a shortcut simply by listening to this podcast each week or hiring me as a consultant for a one-on-one support.
Consulting with experts is one of the best ways to accelerate your learning and get faster results. What's great is they can help you get crystal clear on goals, create strategies, and stay accountable, all with your unique situation in mind. So don't underestimate the power of professional guidance. It's an investment that pays dividends long-term.
And that's it. Just those three things will help you break the chains of external demotivation. Curate an inner circle of friends and family, and of course, media that doesn't sabotage you. Armor yourself with knowledge and don't be afraid to ask for expert help. It won't just fast-track your results, it'll keep you motivated.
Bottom line, there are all kinds of external sources of demotivation. It's subtle yet pervasive. It can be completely debilitating, but we can guard against this and actively pursue people who support us rather than sabotage our motivation. Keep imagining a future where external negativity has no influence over your gusto for life. Visualize an overflowing abundance of wellbeing that lasts as long as you have left on this earth. Feels great, doesn't it? Let's commit to making that future a reality.
Thank you for joining me today for another episode of Next Act Ninjas. Please subscribe, share, and leave a review. It really does help us reach more amazing listeners like you. And if you ever need some help getting unstuck, don't hesitate to hop on my calendar for a free consult. You'll find a link in the show notes. Until next time, live well, love more, age less, my friends!