I feel more driven right now than I ever remember in my life. And in so many ways, I don’t even know where to begin. But I realized that so much of this drive comes from being motivated by the reasons behind my goals. My WHYs. That has inadvertently become my motto for 2016, focusing on my WHYs. And it has developed from being surrounded by a team of amazing women who care about each others WHYs and help each other focus on them, cheering each other on along the way as we set goals around them.

Without a WHY, goals can just feel like giant, unattainable dreams that are just floating around in Fantasyland. Or they can feel like burdens that bog you down or deprive you of things. I can have a goal to get in shape, but without remembering WHY I want to get in shape, all I think about it how difficult it is to workout when I’d rather sit on my butt. I can have a goal to read my Bible more, but if I don’t remember the reason WHY as being to grow in my relationship with God, to draw nearer to Him and find my peace and purpose in who He created me to be, I might choose to waste time on mindlessly scrolling my Facebook newsfeed or Pinterest instead of filling my mind and heart with God’s word if I just think about it as a goal to read more. And I LOVE to read! But how often do we get sucked into these mindless time-wasting activities, things that CAN be fruitful and have a positive impact, but turn into life-suckers. I don’t want the mindless things to be my life-suckers, I want the fruitful things to be my life-suckers. I want to have the icky stuff sucked out of me as a result of being filled with the good stuff, the things that will improve my health spiritually, mentally, physically, emotionally. I don’t want to live a life of distraction, I want to live a life of intention. And the only way to do that is to remember WHY I am choosing to do the things that I do.

When it comes time for me to do my workout for the day, and if all I think about is the fact that I’m tired and that working out is hard and will make me sweaty and sore, just telling myself that I should because it’s my goal is NOT going to make me feel motivated to do it. That might work for some people, but not this girl. BUT, if I remind myself that my reason WHY I want to workout is because I want to feel awesome and not like a slug, and that I am happy about the fact that picking my kids up is easier than it used to be, and that my clothes fit me better than they did 6 months ago, and that I want to set a healthy example for my kids because I want them to grow up living and loving a healthy lifestyle for themselves and their families later in life, and that I always want to be in good health for them in order to keep up with them and be the best possible mom I can be… THAT is what’s going to fuel my fire and get me excited about pushing play. THAT is what drives me.

When it comes time to choose between a greasy cheeseburger and a salad for lunch, and if all I think about is the fact that I should eat the salad because it’s healthier, that’s just going to make it feel like I’m depriving myself of the greasy cheeseburger. But if I remind myself that the reason WHY I’m eating salad is because it will make me feel awesome instead of gross, and that the burger will decrease my energy and add pounds to my body that I don’t want, and that it will only make my goal of getting in better shape ever harder, that’s going to make that burger less appealing. Don’t get me wrong, sometimes I’m going to eat the greasy cheeseburger, but as the norm I want to be healthy and allow myself treats now and then. But if those treats become my norm, I’d be cheating myself of the opportunity to be the healthiest version of who God created me to be. And THAT would be depriving myself of the life that I want. 

Goodness, that’s not ever scratching the surface of my WHYs! So, cheers to the new year and a bucket full of WHYs to keep me motivated in my goals that are far bigger than resolutions. Resolutions are great, but let’s face it, they’re usually temporary. I’m choosing to redesign my life today in a way that shapes my future towards becoming the best possible version of me, the person that God created and intended me to be. He gives us the freedom to choose, which is both beautiful and scary. What will you choose to do today to design the life you want tomorrow, 6 months from now, 10 years from now? What you do TODAY matters. Find your WHY, find your motivation, and make the most of this life that you have. You only get one. Make it count. XO ~Kristin