WHY?!?!

The importance of WHY!

Why do you want this? Why do you get up in the morning?

Why is the big word behind any reason to do anything in your life, not just in fitness.

Over the years of being a personal trainer, I have encountered clients who have a WHY and those who do not have a WHY. This word is so important behind the goal setting process.

Want to lose weight? WHY?

Want look good in your little black dress? WHY?

Want to be healthy and fit? WHY?

Last year was one of the most distressing of my life. I had to have both my hips replaced. Before it happened I was very down as I knew I would have to give up the things I loved the most. Football, Running, Strength training, Lunges and squats!! Ok not too disappointed about the last two on the list there but you get the picture.

Before I had the first hip done in July last year, I was already setting myself a goal. That goal was to get back to work for the start of sept. Why? Because I knew I would be having another hip replacement 4 months after and I wanted to work as much as I could as often as I could to get as much money behind me as I could.

So, I had the surgery and with my goal in mind, it made me focus on my rehabilitation and where I had the WHY in mind, I knew I couldn’t be lazy and skip a day of rehab as it would put me back.

Sure enough I hit my target, I got back to work after 5 weeks and by the start of September and worked non-stop up until the second hip in November. Again I set myself the same target of returning to work by the 1st of January. But such is life, it didn’t quite go to plan this time. I was rushed back to hospital for emergency surgery as I had an aneurysm that had burst in my thigh, my leg was filling with blood and suffocating the muscle. I was extremely fortunate not to have lost my leg and I was very lucky to make it out of the surgery at all due to blood loss. I woke up in intensive care with my leg still open, requiring to more surgeries to close the leg.

What now?!?! My plan had been shattered by an absolute disaster. During the 10 days I was in hospital, I began to plot my next move. How was I going to get myself out of this mess? It wasn’t clear at first, but I began my rehab like I had done before and just kept busy with that whilst thinking about what was now achievable. A friend of mine who runs a sports coaching company offered me the chance to get some work in with him for 2 hours a day in January and said I could do it on my crutches. BANG! There was the first small target set, get strong enough to work with my friend.

After a couple of weeks, I began to feel a lot stronger and felt like it was time to push on, next target was getting back to personal training. Where I had been off for almost 3 months now, I had lost most of my client base as they had found their own routines, which is understandable. This gave me the opportunity to start a fresh and move to a new gym which made sense financially whilst I built up my client base from scratch. February was the target! WHY? Because I had a holiday in Las Vegas booked with my dad in April to celebrate our 30th and 60th birthdays and I needed to pay for it!

So it is now mid-September, Vegas was amazing! My target this year was to have 4 holidays! WHY? because I didn’t have any last year due to obvious reasons and wanted this year to be a year to remember! I will be going on that forth holiday next week when I go to Benidorm with my best friend to celebrate his 30th birthday.

Fitness wise I defiantly lost my motivation, all I’ve ever trained for I football and it was now absent from my life. I found myself just going through the motions in the gym and not really putting everything I could into my sessions and even taking 3-4 days off training at a time. So fast forward to today! I have signed up to a boxing match which will be in aid of cancer research on the 12th of November! WHY?? Because I want to do something completely out of my comfort zone, something that none of my friends have ever done and it’s for a good cause. I have also done it for me, to give me the boost back that I needed in my training, knowing that I can’t skip a session with 8 weeks to go until the fight or I’ll get my head slapped off. I’m extremely nervous but also very excited as I feel this has given me a new lease of life after everything I went through last year.

Having that why built into your goal setting progress, gives your goal a purpose, a reason to do it, and you know you will not get there unless you do what is needed of you.

After I complete this goal, what is next?? And more importantly, WHY???

What is your WHY??