Stop Wasting Your Energy — Here’s What to Do Instead (with Dr. Diana Hill)

What It Covers

Clinical psychologist Dr. Diana Hill presents seven research-backed strategies to redirect energy from unproductive patterns to values-aligned actions, using frameworks from acceptance and commitment therapy to help listeners break free from exhausting behavioral loops.

Key Questions Answered

• •Curiosity over judgment: Practice open-minded attention by journaling five current thoughts, five feelings, and five behaviors, then draw the experience without language to gain flexible perspective and identify new possibilities when stuck in repetitive patterns.
• •Values alignment: Connect goals to intrinsic values through writing exercises before pursuing them. Research shows students who wrote about why grades mattered personally alongside SMART goals achieved significantly better semester outcomes than those using SMART goals alone.
• •Behavioral variation principle: When stuck, deliberately try everything in your repertoire except current approaches, mirroring autonomous robot design. Evolution requires variation, selection of what works, and retention—cycle through these three steps repeatedly rather than intensifying failed strategies.
• •Embodied decision-making: Use the HEART check-in (Hunger, Emotions, Activity, Rest, Tension) to access bodily wisdom. Research shows financial traders with higher interoceptive awareness of their heartbeat make better decisions and earn more money than those disconnected from physical signals.