Deeper Motivation

Motivation can be a powerful tool.  But life has a way of keeping you busy and the initial spark of motivation can wane.  Your motivation will need renewing.  Motivational speaker, Zig Ziglar has said that motivation is like a shower; it is recommended daily.

But how do you keep your motivation strong enough for you to continue renewing it daily?

You dig past the surface level of your motivation!

Telling yourself, “I want to lose 10- 20 lbs” before your workouts can get you started.  But at some point, that 10 or 20 lbs will take a back seat to other priorities.

To “dig” to the deeper motivation, take the time to ask yourself, “Why?”
Why do you want to lose 10 – 20 lbs? 

Maybe your doctor mentioned your weight gain, or your pants are fitting differently.  For either, why would that matter to you?

Maybe your recognition of weight gain, reminds you – with the excess weight, you aren’t feeling or moving like you use to.

Again, why does that matter?

Perhaps you aren’t able to participate in your old hobbies/activities (or) aren’t able to keep up with your kids (or) your grand kids.

Continue the “Why?” questioning until you reach something with meaning to you.  Try to ask yourself, “Why?” Five times.  The primary goal of the 5 Whys technique is to find the “root cause”.  In our case the root cause is your deeper motivation.  If you get to your answer in 3 or 4 Whys – that can be fine.  Just stay brutally honest with yourself.

Take away
When life starts piling up on top of you, an arbitrary number of lbs may fade from the top of the priority list that you juggle.  But if you discover your deep motivation your focus will remain clear.  Not that it will always be easy, but when you are worn out mental and physically knowing your deep motivational reason will keep you going!

 

Good luck – and enjoy the process.

 

More information on the 5 whys: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5_Whys