Where I work, one of our teams has the motto #KnowYourWhy. This is brilliant, if you can follow it. To succeed, you need to know why you want to succeed. Some say that to get to your true why, you need to answer “why” you want to do something seven times. I didn’t need to do this here but because I discovered my why.
Over the weekend, Naomi Osaki lost in the third round of the US Open Tennis tournament. She is a player with an incredible amount of talent. She won the US Open last year and the Australian Open this year. Yet after her loss, she made the following statement – ““I feel like for me recently, when I win I don’t feel happy, I feel more like a relief. And then when I lose I feel very sad. And I don’t think that’s normal.” To me, this is an example of someone who is searching for her why. If you don’t know your why, your likelihood of success is low.
To be effective, your why is something you must have. It cannot be a should. The difference between “I must lose weight” and “I should lose weight” is the difference between success and failure. I long thought I SHOULD lose weight. But when I looked at that picture, my should became a must.
Yet, my why is more complicated than a picture. I have long known that obesity is significant risk factor for many health issues. Yet, I have been fortunate that most of “health statistics” were within normal range. I also know a lot of your health is dictated by your genetics. Because I was adopted, I knew very little about my genetics until recently. Add to all of this, in November 2020, my state was one the leaders in the county for COVID19. Everything I was reading about COVID19 pointed towards obesity being a significant comorbidity. My oldest brother had just died from COVID19. Though I didn’t know it when I made the decision to take action, my other brother soon would contract Covid19.
In the end, all these factors motivated me to not be a statistic. I was scared that my years of not caring for my body would finally catch up to me. I wanted to take control of the things I could control. I resolved that I must lose weight. In addition to better health, I didn’t want my sons to bury me when they were young like I had to do with my father. I didn’t want my wife to be young widow. I wanted to see my youngest son graduate from high school. I even worried about who would take care of my dog if I died. I knew I didn’t look well. What I finally admitted was that I didn’t feel well either. I was depressed (perhaps not clinically but still down). My why is that I wanted to lose weight and become healthier for me but mostly to make sure that I am around for my family. Every day of my journey, I remind myself that this about a better health so I can enjoy life with those that I love. They are my why.
So, to sum up the last couple of posts, to get where you are going, you need your map. Your map includes your why and your what. In a perfect world, you would write them down. Though I didn’t initially write them down, every morning I said to myself my goal weight. I looked at the picture and I thought about why I was doing this. Knowing my why, made the challenging days easier. Once I had these two steps set, I was ready to tackle the next phase which is how. This is where I started gathering facts but more about that later. Have a great week!
Healthy Happy Harris (HHH) 