In my twenties, I set out to “be healthy”. As basic as it seems – I really had no idea what this meant, and quite honestly I’m sure I connected being healthy with my weight and my waist size. My family history was not one filled with healthy individuals and the slight shift I took many years ago has led me to the place I am today – the road I traveled to get here was not one of ease, but one of many lessons and many steps backward. An undoing and an unlearning of many false belief systems. A willingness to be coached and taught. A vulnerability to let people see me for who I am and who I am not. And many many mistakes along the way.
If I could share one tip that has re-shaped my belief about being healthy I would tell you it’s when I found my Why? I will also preface this by saying my Why has changed many times along this journey – but the key has been always knowing what my Why is at every turn of the road.
So how do we find this why? Is it hidden and Why is the Why so important?
With so much information swirling around on the internet, coming from the experience of our peers, books and social media its no wonder we are absolutely confused, misinformed and fearfully stuck doing absolutely nothing.
Do you feel stuck? How many times have you started a new program, diet, accountability group, paid money to join a gym, filled your grocery basket up with “organics” only to throw them out for sitting in the fridge too long?
If you’re raising your hand – Stay with me for a few minutes and let’s walk through a few steps that will help us break these patterns of stuckness (is that a word?) we all fall victim to.
Here is a newsflash: We will stay stuck until we find our Why.
If you’ve ever been in a vehicle that is stuck in the mud – wheels spinning but going nowhere – you know it takes only a slight shift to gain traction, at times it takes the help of another vehicle or a rope to pull us to this place. And once we gain traction – our gas pedal gives us the power to get up and out. We need a shift. It only takes a slight nudge in a different direction. Consider your why your shift. Your reason, your mission, your purpose and consider this that nudge you’ve been waiting on to get you un-stuck. Let’s go.
Renew Your Mind
Most of us have given way too much real estate in our minds to false ideas and beliefs around health and wellness. From the time we were young we’ve had ideas about what it means to ‘be well’. Maybe you’ve thought it was being a particular weight. Maybe it was a particular clothing size. Maybe it was eating a certain way or following a certain diet plan. Whatever ideas you’ve picked up along the way – we MUST be willing to learn or re-learn what is true for us now. We must be willing to renew our minds. Thoughts such as “I know this already” or “I’ve tried this before” only bring a destructive and stagnant mindset. Instead, try asking yourself, “What can I learn from this? or How can this work for me?” Our minds resist change, but our goal here is to renew our minds – training them to take on a growth mindset is key in this renewing. We want to find that deeper purpose – that reason that moves us toward our soul shift. The connection that sparks the energy inside of us and keeps us moving toward our why.
Be transformed
This is the effect of renewing our minds – transformation. We only see the true transformation when our mindset shifts from the place of stuck and stagnant to the place of freedom and growth. Transformation brings us to our Why. We are new. We no longer live for the purpose of our old self motives. We look inward for the fulfillment that fuels our mission. Our motives, purpose, and intentions drive us as the transformation continues to happen.
We know WHY we wake up each day.
We know WHY we nourish our bodies with foods that fuel us and feed us.
We know WHY we move and sweat and push ourselves to exercise.
We know WHY we read content that speaks truth to our hearts and points us to Christ.
We know WHY we foster positive relationships.
We know WHY we were created in the first place and this is now our driving force for life.
Do you see it?
The Shift. It’s breaking through the stuckness and giving purpose, power, and perseverance to our existence. It’s our Why.
I challenge us all to begin to think about this WHY. If you wake up each day, go through the same motions over and over with not a different result. With no growth. With no progress toward your dreams, your goals, and your purpose. You need to find your WHY. Fix your attention on the One who gives us our WHY and be renewed and transformed to walk boldly into your purpose each and every day.
“So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.”
Romans 12:1-2 The Message
