Yep-that’s right.  What if the frustration you feel when trying to live a healthy lifestyle isn’t due to a lack of motivation or even willpower?  What if there was something else going on?

What if you don’t know what you really want?

Woah.  Let that sink in for a moment.  

“How could you even ask me that?” you might be thinking.  “Of course I know what I want!  I want a body that looks good in all my clothes and in pictures.  I want a body I love and I want to feel good in it.”

That’s all well and good.  But you may have simply scratched the surface into your true desires.  

Let’s experiment a bit.

Close your eyes, and picture yourself living your healthiest life.  What would you feel like?  What would be happening in and around you?  What would you be doing?  Where would you be?  Who would be with you?  

Get as detailed as possible with this picture in mind.  Then, ask yourself a very simple question:

Why?

Why do you want to feel that way?  Why did you picture yourself that way?  Why did you picture those particular people around you?  Why did you picture yourself doing certain things?

The reality is, we typically don’t sit still long enough to really dig deep into the motivation behind what we say we desire.  Because of this, we don’t truly know what we want!  

For example, when I picture my healthiest lifestyle, I envision waking up at sunrise, meeting up with friends for a morning surf session.  My body is strong and limber as I swim through the waves and balance on my board. The rush of the cool water and the waves is invigorating and stays with me for the rest of the day.  

Why does this picture come to mind?  Perhaps it reveals a longing to enjoy my favorite part of nature and share that love with those I most care about.  Perhaps it reveals a longing to prove to myself that I can hone the skill it takes to master surfing.  Perhaps what is means is, my real motivation for getting healthy is not only to look and feel good, it’s to experience connection with friends while fully enjoying this grand world-and THAT’S a powerful antidote to the lack of motivation I can at times experience.  

When what we really desire is this tangible to us, it’s tangible enough to make the necessary changes in our lives to make it happen.

This is good news.

It means you’re not worse than someone who seems to be crushing it with their healthy habits.  It means you didn’t miss out on some sort of motivation gene that others must have.  Rather, it means your motivation, your “why”, is in there, deep down.  It’s simply waiting for you to uncover it.    

Wellness coaching is the art of uncovering motivation.  If you don’t want to go through this process alone, sign up for wellness coaching today!  We love helping womxn find their motivation and live the healthy lives they’ve longed for. 

Written by Brittni Paris, Wellness Coach & Blogger

Photo credits:
Photo by Leighann Blackwood on Unsplash
Photo by Erke Rysdauletov on Unsplash