I LOVE this video! It literally inspired me every day in some of my deepest and most challenging moments. This man faced incredible adversity. I cannot imagine but his reason for not giving up was deeply rooted inside. I relate to this song because I was where he was but in a different way. I had quit living. I had given up. I had been imprisoned in obesity for decades. I could no longer enjoy my life and forgot what living was. When I got the weight off despite my own voice telling me I couldn’t, it set me on fire! It set me free! I began tackling other things, like fitness, and I began rebuilding a very weak body. Because I didn’t want to lose my physical abilities as I age, I got moving. I listened to this song repeatedly. Starting with one little walk every day, I began learning how to run but not just physically! I began to teach my spirit to run again and simply to believe! In the face of many who did not believe in me or that I could do certain things the way I was choosing, I did it anyway. It all began when I changed my WHY! I hope you’ll listen and become inspired. Never give up!
Have you lost your passion? Have you never had one? I have been there on both counts! Let me tell you, when you find that fire in your belly, it will change your life and maybe even those around you! Being ignited towards a destination brings purpose to our lives and gives us a reason to jump out of bed in the morning! As Simon Sinek says, “Start with WHY!”
What if you have a reason why? You know what you want or need to do but doing it is the problem? That’s another conversation altogether. Perhaps it’s your plan? Maybe you need more discipline? Or maybe you don’t have a strong enough “why”!
“When the WHY is absent, imbalance is produced and manipulations thrive. When manipulations thrive, uncertainties, instability, and stress increases.” -Paraphrased from Simon Sinek’s book, Start with Why.
Isn’t this so true??? If we are not super clear about why we need to do something (or perhaps why we don’t do something we need to do), how in the world can we reach our goals or help someone else?
If we don’t have a good enough reason why we need to keep hammering away at whatever it is, our mind will also manipulate us with all sorts of excuses! This manipulation will produce uncertainty about our goals or ourselves and maybe even stress because we aren’t where we thought or want to be. Next thing you know, you’ve talked yourself out of it, around it or lost it altogether, which just leads to disappointment. Reframe it! Instead of staying stuck in self-defeating disappointment, revisit your why. Once you know why you are doing it, you can establish your plan and then the work begins!
I know this from experience. This, of course, applied to my journey with weightloss (you can read/watch/listen on my Transformation page), but it also applies to daily life! Here’s an example. When my kids were younger, I used to get annoyed at the fact they didn’t seem to get up on time for things I needed them to do. However, they always got up on time for school or work! Their “why” was pretty strong for those things and created inertia necessary to get it done, even if they didn’t want to. The consequences of not doing it were too great. We do the same thing. Most of us have a very strong reason why we need to get up and go to work every day, even if we don’t want to! We make the time and put in the effort and get the job done. So why is it so hard in other areas of our lives?
It’s important to have a strong and dedicated reason for doing something. Keeping that belief towards your goal or vision is what helps you stick with it when you may not want to! If you need money, you get up and get to work. If you need to get your house organized, you get cleaning and sorting! If you need to reconnect with important people in your lives, you reprioritize your time and make a plan. If you need to conqueror losing weight or getting in shape, you make the time every day, no matter what, to chisel away at it.
The beauty of “chiseling away” is that it is a process and one of discovery. It does not happen all at once. It is a slow and deliberate job that takes time and effort to get to the finished product. It’s much like learning a song on the piano. Coming from a music background, this makes sense to me. I couldn’t just sit down and tackle a difficult song. I had to analyze it, practice it in bits – repeating some sections over and over until I could get it, I call this “living with a piece”. I wrestled with a piece of music I wanted to learn (hearing and knowing what I wanted the final outcome to sound like), until it became part of me and until it was accomplished. Sometimes my reason was for a deadline, like a recital or performance and other times, it was simply for the enjoyment of it or for self improvement.
This process of practice and daily work benefitted me greatly in losing weight and getting in shape, but I first needed a pretty good reason why and the right information. I had always had reasons in the past, but it was mostly just to “lose weight”. This time around it was different. My “why” became much deeper and bigger than me. When things got tough, when temptations presented or life crisis occurred, having that reason deeply set inside as to why I needed to stick with it is what got me through every tough situation. I keep this why close to my heart. If I ever lose it, it is all to easy to fall back to old habits. It is daily work and commitment.
Having a really good reason “why” behind your goal, especially if your health or your life depends on it, is something we need to keep front and center in our lives and visit it daily. It is the one thing that will keep you going and remind you why you need to do it for the rest of your life.
- Establish your “Why”
- Keep it Front and Center
- Remind Yourself Daily
0 Comments