It's Not About Willpower, It's About Your Why
Feb 21, 2021
Did you know that only 8% of people are still on track with their 2021 goals? If you are part of the 8%, well done – keep up the great work!
If you are part of the other 92%, guess what? You are NOT alone.
There are few things that make me happier than seeing people achieve their goals and reach their full potential. Inspiring people to do so is something that is very important to me and I have spent a lot of time learning from world experts and listening to my patients and program/coaching clients to figure out how to best help.
It seems that most people believe that success is reached (especially with health goals) by having unwavering willpower.
Willpower is only good for the short term, but it won’t carry you through once you get off track.
How can we tap into something that creates enough meaning to continuously work towards your goals?
What is it that will help you succeed?
Tapping into your WHY
The secret to success it knowing your WHY. You need to know WHY you are working toward a different outcome. I don’t mean the neat and tidy one-liner that you tell people when they ask, but the deep-down, unedited reason WHY you want to make this change.
How to discover your WHY
You ask yourself a question beginning with “WHY”, approximately seven times (or until you feel you have reached something that really resonates with you).
Here is an example of how this would start off for a common health goal:
Question #1: What is your health goal for 2021?
Answer: I want to exercise.
Question #2: Why do you want to exercise?
Answer: Because I want to get in shape.
Question #3: Why do you want to get in shape?
Answer: Because I want to be able to be active and strong.
Question #4: Why do you want to be active and strong?
Answer: Because I want to be able to play with my grandkids and help to care for them.
Question #5: Why do you want to be able to play with your grandkids and help care for them?
Answer: Because I want to be present in their lives and be an active participant in the memories they are creating.
Now, when the person in this example is faced with choices to make (like whether to go to their yoga class or stay home and watch their favourite program on television), they can easily remind themselves that they want to be an active participant in their grandkids lives and in order to do this, they know what choice they have to make.
Willpower is not going to get them to yoga in this example.
It will be their WHY that will encourage them to make the choice that brings them closer to achieving their health goals.
My WHY
One of my WHYs is being present, engaged and physically active with my three boys.
It’s important to me that I am able to join them for some street basketball or pond hockey without worrying about physical limitations keeping me from doing so. I may not be a competitive athlete these days, but I do continue to make choices as if I was.
Some people would suggest that this would take an enormous amount of self-discipline to do this, but for me it’s actually the consistent execution of “good habits” and a strong, clear WHY that I attribute my health successes to.
What is your WHY?
So take a moment and review your health goals (or write one down if you don’t already have one), link it to the thing(s) you value most in your life and then take it through the seven levels of WHY to figure out what is actually driving you to achieve your goals.
I strongly believe that this will be the secret to you successfully achieving your goals in 2021 and the reason you will be able to look back on the year with feelings of pride and accomplishment.