When motivation is a struggle, it's time to realign your why
May 16, 2024
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Discover the importance of understanding your 'why' when making changes; knowing what and how to change isn't enough. Uncover intrinsic motivators over external pressures for lasting growth and success. Reassess your motivations, rooted in personal aspirations, to achieve transformative growth.
Identifying deeply held values fuels motivation for change, enhancing psychological well-being.
Revisit and evolve compelling reasons for change to align with core values over time.
Deep dives
The Importance of a Compelling Reason for Change
Creating sustainable, positive changes in our lives requires more than just knowing what and how to change. It is crucial to have a compelling reason that drives the change process. This is because old habits and behaviors are deeply ingrained and often operate below our conscious awareness. Even when the benefits of change are clear, unlearning old ways can be challenging, requiring a strong motivation to push through resistance.
Aligning Change with Deeply Held Values
Identifying a compelling reason for change involves going beyond superficial motivators like societal expectations. Connecting with our deeply held values fuels motivation and enhances psychological well-being. Research shows that when our actions align with our core values, we experience higher levels of happiness and lower levels of depression and anxiety. This deeper connection not only supports change efforts but also promotes overall mental and emotional health.
Continuously Revisiting and Evolving Your Compelling Reason
Regularly revisiting and evolving our compelling reasons for change is essential as our goals and motivations may shift over time. It is important to uncover reasons that resonate on a deeper level, beyond surface-level desires. By delving into what truly matters to us and aligning our goals with our identity and values, we establish a constant guiding force that sustains our journey towards change.
In this episode, we’re exploring an aspect of change that can be really tricky: figuring out why making this change is important to you.
It doesn’t sound like it would be that hard. But often it takes a little digging to get at the true heart of our WHY, our compelling reason.
Whether your goals have to do with your health, finances, career, relationships, or anything else, uncovering your compelling reason is crucial. Because it not only increases your chances of success; it also bolsters your overall mental and emotional health.
Key Takeaways
Knowing what you want to change (or how you’re going to go about it) often isn’t enough to overcome the counter-pressure of the status quo.
A lack of alignment between our goals and our values causes internal conflict that reduces our resilience to everyday stresses.
When we pursue changes or goals that are about other people’s expectations or approval, succeeding may not be as satisfying or rewarding as we think
Wanting to avoid something bad is just as valid a reason as wanting to obtain something good. But it is a different sort of why.
Action Steps
Make a list of your reasons for wanting to accomplish a certain goal or create a specific change.
For each reason, ask yourself: But why do I want that? What would that bring into my life? Then what?
Keep asking that question until your answers feel connected to what you value most.
Interested in having Monica present at your next live or virtual event? Learn more.
Interested in having Monica present at your next live or virtual event? Learn more.