As I browse through tons of blogs about achieving your goals for 2011, I start questioning whether I’m reading the very same article over and over again! Was this copied and pasted from someone else’s blog? What sets this article apart from that one. And is there really any secret to how to achieve your goals that someone hasn’t discovered yet? Sure, I’ve even posted a previous blog about setting goals and achieving success, but the more I coach people in their fitness and business lives, the more I realize there is a KEY ingredient missing from many of their goal setting plans…..
WHY…. no, I’m not asking you “why”, I’m telling you “WHY”. When I ask many people what their reason is for wanting to achieve their goals, most answers are “surface” answers; meaning, they are the most obvious reasons such as, “I want to lose 10 lbs.”, “I want to pay off debt”, “I want to go on a vacation” or “I want to look and feel great”. All of those reasons are valid reasons, but they are not strong enough reasons to want to stick to the goals set. All of these “Why’s” can be easily neglected, put aside and forgotten about when “life gets in the way”.
If your “Why” is stronger, deeper and more important than anything else that can get in the way, then you’ll make it a high enough priority to follow and achieve your goals! Let me set up an example for you for better illustration.
ME: What do you want to achieve?
Jane Smith: I want to lose 10 lbs.
ME: Why?
Janes Smith: So that I look and feel better
ME: Why?
Jane Smith: Because I want to feel love and acceptance
ME: Why?
Jane Smith: So that I know I am worthy of love and acceptance
ME: THERE YA GO!
How about you work on discovering you and your self worth by loving who you are first! Don’t allow yourself to identify YOU based on your past or your current circumstances that surround you. Know that YOU were already made “perfect”. And in the course of life you may have been dented, damaged, hurt, humiliated or abandoned. But know that you were intended to love YOU. Then, you can work on achieving your fitness goals as a result of loving yourself and NOT so that you will come to love yourself.
That’s it? Well yes! I’m not saying it’s easy to do. Seek the truth about who you are on a regular basis. Whether it’s through quiet time, reading spiritual and personal development books or accountability groups. Whatever it takes…. discover who you are, love you and learn to love others. Then you will achieve greater success with your goals!
So go back to asking yourself “WHY”. Then ask yourself enough times to get to a reason strong enough to be the basis for setting your goals and achieving them!
