Whether it’s Trim Healthy Mama (or the latest fad diet), getting work done, or whatever else your goals might include, if your why isn’t big enough then chances are it’s not happening (or it’s only happening sporadically – when you are motivated, or in the mood).
My mom (who follows Trim Healthy Mama with me), keeps asking me what my WHY is. What is my reason for following THM, or trying to get healthy, or even just eating better?
And of course, I could ramble on and on about the reasons… but none of them will necessarily keep me from falling off of the wagon.
Finding Your Why
With that being said, it’s time to find a reason to continue. To continue with THM, to continue with goals and goal setting.. preferably a big, overarching reason… but if not, then an individual reason for each goal would do just fine.
It’s not easy to find your why, or we would all have accomplished our goals by now.
Here are a few steps I’m trying to identify my reasons:
- Brain dump a list of all of the reasons to achieve this goal
- Cross off the unimportant reasons (only the list-writer’s opinion matters here)
- Choose the most important reason and write it somewhere you will see it regularly as a reminder
If Your Reasons Aren’t Big Enough
Did you try the steps above, and STILL keep falling off the wagon or completely derailing yourself from the path to achieving your goals? #BeenThereDoneThat
It might be time to widen your search for a reason to continue.
Sometimes, we need our reasons to be for someone other than ourselves – because we don’t love ourselves enough to accomplish that goal for us.
If my goal is to lose fifty pounds by following Trim Healthy Mama so that I can love the reflection I see in the mirror, that reason might not be big enough. Instead, I could try making my reason something like, I want to follow Trim Healthy Mama to lose weight so that I can (hopefully) live a long, healthy life and watch my son grow up.
Instead of the goal focusing on what I want myself to look like, the reason became about my son (instead of me).
Trim Healthy Mama was used profusely throughout this writing as an example, so it’s only fitting to leave you with a related article to help you along on your THM journey. Even after finding a reason to continue working towards your goals (THM or otherwise, but especially food-related goals) it’s easy to feel resentment towards the plan for all of the things you are “missing out on”. Read When You Resent Trim Healthy Mama for my best tips on fighting that resentment.
Have you found your WHY yet? What does that look like for you? This is a journey I’m still undertaking – suggestions are welcome, so let me know in the comments below!!
Christian, wife, “hybrid” mama, I run the site All Behind A Smile to help others like me.
[…] Looking for your WHY to keep doing the finger sticks, to keep eating healthy, to keep doing…. what ever may be on your list? This is a helpful guide for When Your WHY Isn’t Big Enough. […]