Contrary to what you may think based on the title of this blog, I’m not going to talk about the nutritional value of onions! Staying motivated is critical to achieving your fitness goals. Any meaningful change is tough to implement, and you have to stay motivated to maintain your course and obtain the results you are looking for.
I’ve found that identifying your true “WHY” is the most critical component of keeping your motivation high. The key is digging a few layers beyond a superficial “WHY” and finding the real reason that will keep you motivated. I call this peeling back the layers of the onion until you find your real “WHY”. I’ve had people tell me they want to lose 20 pounds because their doctor told them they needed to. I have rarely seen people with this “WHY” actually achieve their goals because it’s not a powerful enough motivator to get them through the grind of losing 20 pounds. This example shows you what a powerful “WHY” actually looks like: Let’s say you’ve identified that cooking dinner on Monday night is the one habit that will have the biggest impact on reaching your fitness goals. Now imagine you’ve just had the worst Monday ever. You had a flat tire and were late for work. Your team at work didn’t reach your goals and now management has your team under the microscope. When you arrived at school to pick up your child, their teacher called you into the classroom to let you know your child’s behavior has been unacceptable. Then on your way home, your spouse called and let you know they will have to stay late at work and need you to take the kids to soccer practice. You finally get home at 8pm with cranky kids who, along with you, are starving. You have no interest in cooking and open up the gurb hub app. Then you walk into your bathroom and look at your mirror. You wrote your “WHY” on your mirror, and when you read it, you close your grub hub app, walk into the kitchen and start to make dinner.
That’s a powerful “WHY” and that’s the type of “WHY” you want to find if you truly want to achieve your fitness goals! Now take action- allocate 15 minutes this weekend to sit down, peel back the layers of the onion, and find your “WHY”!
