The power of ‘why?’
Let’s talk about why you want to lose weight. Why do you want to be fit? Why do you want to be healthy? That is the biggest question that eludes so many people because they jump straight into the how do I do it, instead of understanding why? Why do you want to change? What is that feeling? What is that emotion that’s going to push you to make that change? The ‘why’ needs to be attached to a feeling, it needs to be attached to something that you know you’re going to achieve.
Here’s an example, there’s no point in saying “I’ll lose 10 kilos” – that’s nice but you need to attach that to something else, something bigger. For instance, “I want to lose 10 kilos because I know that I’ll have more energy to run around with my kids in the backyard”. “I want to have the confidence to join my mates for a kick of the footy” I no longer want to feel self-conscious when I go shopping with my girlfriends”. These are compelling WHY’s! So, you need to make sure you attach some emotion to the reason why you want to change, why you want to lose that weight, why you want to get fit and why you want to be healthy.
…but where do I start?
You need to have a step which you can take in order to change the way you think about it. You know we’ve had people come to us here at Better Than Ever and say “I’ve got to lose about 50 kilos” they think to themselves, in the past I used to weigh less, I used to be fit but now that I’m older I’ve let it all go. We always ask them – so why can’t you be fit and healthy now? Age has no barrier, there are no limits, what limits you is your fear of change. You need to overcome that; you need to overcome the reason why you haven’t taken that step. You get to that point, the point where enough is enough and everybody gets to that stage, everybody is either in denial or ready to make that change.
Let’s breakdown this big WHY into something that you can do immediately. The immediate step is simple, you need to action your thoughts, ‘why’ begins as a thought, an idea. When you start you think to yourself, I should lose some weight, I should get fit, it’s an idea and if you don’t act on it within 5 seconds as Mel Robbins states in Five-second Rule Book, it’s gone and you’ll just be thinking about it day in, day out. You need to action it right away by writing it down on your diary, journal, on a piece of paper or a post-it note and stick it on the mirror in your bathroom. Then every day you know you’re looking at it and you’re realising that’s the reason why I’m doing this, this is the reason why I want to lose weight, why I want to get fit, why I want to be healthy.
In some cases, people get to a point where something significant happens that creates a shift. This may be a death in the family, or a friend of similar age and you realise, oh gee that’s close to me if I don’t do something I might end up like that person. It could be that time you go to put that skirt on or that pair of jeans and it didn’t quite fit so you suck in your stomach and then all of a sudden the button bursts and you feel embarrassed. It could be something that someone says to you like “oh gee you look like you put on a bit of weight” and this could be quite hurtful. Everybody’s got that trigger, everybody’s experienced that trigger that makes them say ‘I need to make a change.’
You may find yourself talking to your family or friends about you why so that you’ve got the support that you need to take that first step.
As well as writing down your goals at the start of each and every day, you should also be reflecting at the days end. It doesn’t cost anything, it just requires you to get a piece of paper and a pen and document everything. Take that step. Make the first step, the best step that you need to make in order to change your life forever.
Just remember in order to get the results that you want to achieve and experience your why and make that sustainable, you need to take action. Once you do that and you continue to action it daily, it becomes like concrete and it’s a constant reminder to yourself.
As we always say, results start here and everybody deserves to be Better Than Ever!