1352: When Trying Doesn't Work: The Real Reason You Stay Stuck

CONSISTENT by Primal Potential

Elizabeth Benton

Money, Self-improvement, Inspiration, Transformation, Motivation, Affirmations, Health & Fitness, Mindset, Selfhelp, Weightloss, Education, Loseweight, Goals, Nutrition

5 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 13 October 2025

⏱️ 22 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

You're not broken. You're not lazy. But you might be stuck in a loop of trying the same things over and over — even when they've never worked.

In this episode, I'm diving deep into learned helplessness: why you feel like nothing works, how your brain tricks you into repeating the past, and what you can do to finally break free.

We'll unpack:

Why recycling effort isn't the same as solving the problem
How you've been overemphasizing options and underemphasizing choice
The trap of only considering what you've already tried
The epidemic of passive consumption (and why it's costing you your ability to think)

This is a wake-up call and a relief — because once you see the loop, you can step out of it.

💥 Ready to break the cycle and rebuild from a place of strength?

The 8-week DEFENSE program is where we change your operating system — so you stop defaulting to what's familiar and start acting from clarity, strength, and self-trust.

🛡️ Apply now for DEFENSE at this link. There are only 20 spots and we start the first Monday in November. Don't wait!

Transcript

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0:00.0	If you want to be more consistent, you're in the right place. I'm Elizabeth Benton. Welcome to
0:07.1	Consistent, a podcast by Primal Potential that is for all of you who feel frustrated by your lack of
0:13.3	progress or overwhelmed by all the change that you want to make in your life. Here, we stop frantically
0:20.5	chasing new habits and start
0:22.6	strategically building a structure of consistency. Let's get into it.
0:29.2	Hello, everybody. Welcome back to the primal potential podcast. I am Elizabeth Benton.
0:35.9	Today I want to talk a little bit about my take on learned helplessness.
0:43.0	And it's this sense that we're trying to change, but we're not really changing and we're
0:49.6	frustrated with the fact that our efforts never seem to translate into getting us where we want to go.
0:58.1	I want you to imagine this for a second.
1:01.4	Every week, instead of going to the grocery store in this imaginary example, you pull out
1:07.5	your options to eat from a bag. You just basically get this huge bag every week
1:15.7	and your options for breakfast, lunch, and dinner are whatever you pull from this bag.
1:21.9	And the bag is full of things you don't like, but it's still what you shop from every single week. Right?
1:29.3	You're not really a big fan of chicken breast. You're not really a big fan of spinach. You're
1:33.1	not really a big fan of broccoli or cauliflower. But every week, you're just shopping from those options.
1:39.5	And that sounds silly like nobody would ever do that. But before you convince yourself that nobody would
1:45.2	ever do that, I think you're doing that. Here's what that looks like when it's not a literal
1:51.6	grocery example. You've got these problems you're trying to solve. Maybe it is wasting your
1:58.5	time, not using your time well. Maybe it is always giving yourself a pass if it is a special occasion or a dinner
2:04.9	out or hitting snooze when you said you were going to wake up and go for a walk,
2:09.5	but you just keep hitting snooze.
	...

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