“When you know your why, you will know the way.“
Michael Hyatt
We want a lot of things. Do you ever think ‘I want to be healthy’, ‘I want to lose weight’, ‘I want to be fitter’? We want, we want, we want. But why don’t we always achieve what we want?
Everyone I know wants to be healthy and if we all want to be healthy but our health as a population is in such decline, then something is going wrong. I have learnt there are many reasons for this which I will share on my blog, but one life changing reason is that we don’t fully understand WHY we want to be healthy. A reason deeply personal to us.
Change must have a ‘why’, a purpose. And it must be for YOU. Not for anyone else.
If committing to and achieving health goals is difficult for you, don’t worry. The reasons may run deep and you may not have connected it to a purpose. Why do you want to make that change? What will it give you? If you would like to dig a little deeper there is a tool called the 5 Whys which is a thought exercise that helps us find a deeper motivation to change. Without deep motivation and purpose, we are unlikely to succeed.
Finding our WHY enables long term lifestyle change.
The Healthy Homosapien
Take the 5 Whys challenge!
For the purpose of providing an example specifically for this post, I asked my husband to take the 5 Whys challenge. I asked him what health goal he had and he said ‘I want to lose a bit of weight’. A very common goal. But one that usually doesn’t come with a strong enough ‘why’ to enact longer term change. That is until you ask the 5 Whys.
Why #1: Why do you want to lose a little bit of weight? “To feel better and to look better.”
Why #2: Why do you want to look better? “I will feel better within myself.”
Why #3: Why is feeling better within yourself important? “Because I know that I will be healthier and have more confidence.”
Why #4: Why do you want to be healthier and have more confidence? “To have a longer life – a quality life. To do all the things I want to do.”
Why #5: Why is it important for you to do all those things? “That is what life is about. To have a fulfilling life – that makes me happy.”
As you can see, each ‘why’ brings with it more motivation and reason behind the goal. The first reason was to look good, but as we dug a little deeper, we found that losing weight meant a whole lot more than that. It is about being healthier, living a long fulfilling life that brings happiness. Looking good will never be a strong enough reason for change, you need to look deeper to find a reason that will naturally motivate you. A reason good enough to drive real long term change.
So what change do you want to make? Take the 5 Whys challenge and start exploring your WHY.
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The Healthy Homosapien 