Photo by Gary Walker-Jones on Unsplash
I don’t doubt you do a lot of different things in your life. But have you ever stopped to ask why you’re doing them?
Whilst it may sound obvious, if we’re not clear about what we want, the chances of us getting it are nigh on impossible. We can easily end up meandering through life. We get ourselves into activities, relationships and jobs without really knowing why we ended up there.
But to have a truly meaningful life, it’s so vital to get really intentional about what the ‘why’.
For me, I had a reexamination of a few different areas of my life. Most notably, I had an appointment with a personal trainer at my gym for the first time. Health is an area that has really gone up in the priority list for me. I’m about as physically active as I’ve ever been, and I feel healthy too. Yet I also have actually gained a bit of weight rather than losing it.
Whilst some of this is weight gain is muscle, evidently there’s some level of misalignment. Talking to a personal trainer made this fact obvious, and so now I’m shifting to actually addressing my nutrition in a much more meaningful way.
My biggest challenge is satiety. I generally eat clean and at home these days. Yet dealing with hunger is very difficult. I can eat healthy, but the issue for me has been still feeling hungry. So the switch up now is really focusing on increasing protein in my diet.
The magic touch is making it fit into my life and my peculiarities. I’m happy to eat very similar food regularly, so I’ve ended up stocking up on tin lentils and beans rather than carb heavy food of oven potatoes. The key here is that I know I can make it easily without much thought, but with some flexibility for creativity. The two are key for me. Early signs are positive, though I think I need to add more texture – I crave crunchy foods. Perhaps I can add some peanuts or croutons on top.
This theme also came out with my coaching clients. When we are so caught up in our world, everything feels so complex. There are so many different things to consider amidst the external pressures and opinions around us. When I first ask people what they want, the answer is often just a solution to the problem in front of them. But that’s not what they want. Well, not really.
Deep down, our desires can be actually very clear. Usually, these things are spoken from the heart, rather than the mind. The sign of this is that they’re usually short, simple statements, rather than complex ones.
For example, it’s the difference in me saying:
“I think I should lose some weight because I am getting older and my BMI is high, so the doctor advised me to do it so I probably should. It will also stop people commenting on my weight”
to:
“I want to lose weight.
Why? I want to be able to do more acrobatic moves in pole dance and fit into a wider range of clothes.”.
It’s very clear, and simple, and the difference is even more stark when saying it out loud. The next step after this is putting in place the ‘how’. But we can only put in place the ‘how’ when we’re clear with the ‘why’.
The magic to making great change in our lives is getting clear around our desires. It cuts through so much of the noise in our lives, as well as our own internal b******t.
If this is something you’re looking at help for, drop me a message.