What are your Whys?

We’re all a collage of whys: why we exercise, why we eat the way we do, think the way we do, make the choices we do.

Losing weight only makes you lighter not kinder, not smarter, not happier. You just weigh less.

So what are your whys?

Maybe they’re Instagram inspired, past achievements to be relived, bucket list goals no matter your age, whims, wishes, wants.

Firstly I’m hoping you have some of these. I like to screenshot some and put them in a google doc and keep adding to them, remembering to keep looking at them or even better print them out on a regular basis. Instagram allows you to do one like today’s post but somehow that’s just not enough room for me. Or maybe that says something about me and it’s time to pull things in a bit.

But how can we turn these collages, sometimes called vision boards, into action boards? We all live in this ready, set… world, but do we ever go? Well let’s!

Because I feel that a lot of people are just a collage of tricks. They are hacking their bodies, and taking a supplement here, and drinking a cup of coffee for some chemical energy or alcohol for the opposite chemical down time. They’re basically interlacing tricks. But, underneath, there is no glue. Nothing glues these things together. There is a scarcity mindset that emerges. We’re more in lack than in love. We feel the need to keep doing more, full throttle, with no real direction? Training for what?!

So what’s your glue? And how do you find it?

For me it’s the feeling of what and where I want to be. Maybe it’s looking into one or more of those visuals and really imaging myself there and what I’d feel. Maybe it’s a smell, a taste, a song that puts me in a great mood, a reminder or a dream of something I’d like to relive or experience for the first time. But it’s the feeling that drives it. When you find it you’ll know it’s your glue.

The glue is there to serve us in weak moments, in the moments where we are not really wanting it anymore. We like to say we want this and we want that— success or money or achievement—but these are only temporarily desires. Once things become a little bit more difficult, the want disappears and we either take a break, or altogether fall from the process. Someone who has their glue, the feeling of what they want, can activate that automatic pilot and kick things on again to keep going forward.

However there’s a bad side. You can find yourself not really aligned with what you still want. Is it still the same as you wanted when you made this vision/action board? Is there more, more priorities? Part of the gold of the glue is the lack of need to question again and again, where do I want to go, and what do I want to do?

So the glue both serves you, it works for you, but then you’re not really in full control of the process. Install a daily centering practice—stillness, mindfulness, meditation—and reexamine your desires underneath the surface. They’re checking systems for checking in on your glue.

Your beliefs are the thoughts you keep thinking so keep celebrate what’s thriving in your life, giving yourself permission to have a good time. And now hold onto that feeling. That’s your glue!