March 27, 2021 by Molly Patrick

One of the things I’ve learned this year is that it isn’t so much about reaching your goal, it’s more about who you become in the process. When you show up every day and work towards your goal, especially when you don’t feel like it, THAT is where the sweet nectar lives.

If reaching our goals was easy, they would not be goals, they would be our current reality. The fact is, the work that is required to reach our goals can suck sometimes.

We will be required to do things that we don’t feel like doing.

We will have many thoughts about why we, for sure, can’t do it.

Our brain will convince us that we have no idea how to do it.

We will turn every hesitation into a sign that we should definitely NOT be doing this.

We will be antsy and nervous and uncertain.

We won’t feel good enough.

It won’t be smooth, and we’ll tell ourselves that we should absolutely give up.

We will look for reasons to stop doing it.

The most helpful thing I've learned about this process is that all of this is perfectly normal.

This is how the primal brain works. It wants to keep us safe and out of danger in order to survive. The problem is, sometimes the primal brain misinterprets our discomfort.

For example, it can’t decipher the difference between batch cooking plant based food when we usually eat takeout, and a poisonous snake about to attack. It’s all the same to the primitive brain, and it will holler and shout and tell us ALL about why all challenges, even the ones that are good for us, are a terrible idea.

This is great to know because when you’re working on your goals and you start to freak out about how you can’t POSSIBLY do it, all you have to do is acknowledge that not-so-helpful voice in your head, and then keep going.

Be open to the guaranteed discomfort, and your whole life will change. You will reach your goals, but more importantly, you will expand as a human along the way.

I tell you this because I set some big goals for Clean Food Dirty Girl at the end of last year, and I have experienced the kicking and screaming of my primal brain for the past three months.

The colorful assortment of “I can’t,” “I don’t know how,” and “I'm not good enough" thoughts have been both hilarious and terrifying. It has been a huge help to know that this is just part of reaching my goals. No biggie. I keep my head up, and I keep moving forward.

We haven’t reached our goals for Clean Food Dirty Girl yet, but I am now a person who can get to work without being thrown off by discomfort. And THAT is half the battle.

A few weeks ago, my team and I decided to merge our Plant Fueled Meal Plans subscription and our Plant Fueled Recipes subscription into one big juicy subscription, and give all of our subscribers unlimited access to every single Meal Plan in the portal (while still releasing a new Gourmet plan and a new Simple plan each week).

Even though logically, I knew that making this change would significantly increase the value of our subscription, my primal brain still offered up some very convincing reasons why this was not a good idea. I acknowledged those suggestions and I kept moving forward with the plan.

We announced this change to our subscribers and our private Facebook group yesterday and the feedback has been off the charts amazing. Our subscribers are pumped, we have lots of new people signing up, and I love that our past Meal Plans are now going to be enjoyed more often. Honestly, I was shocked at the outpouring of love that we received after the news. I was buzzing with joy all day yesterday.

It would have been easy for me to listen to those not-so-helpful voices in my head and not go forward with this change. But I have big goals, and big goals don’t just happen. You have to get to work and make them happen, especially when you don't feel like it.

I have plenty of new plans in the works, so my primal brain will have lots of opportunities to freak out. I will continue to acknowledge those freak-out thoughts and I might even thank them for trying to keep me safe. And then I’ll tell them to settle down because momma has work to do!

Have an incredible weekend, and remember, don’t believe everything your brain offers you.

Molly