The Power of WHY?

Today did not go as planned.

Today was one of my few days each week that both children are supposed to be at preschool at the same time for a few hours. As it always is on days when I am anticipating alone time, my schedule was packed with to-do list items that I was saving for some un-interupted time so that it wouldn't take me all day to do something that should only take 20 minutes without interruption. On top of that list, as always was a marathon training run, which I always do first thing after dropping the kids off.

But, one child woke up sick and could not got to school. Scrap the plan. Except there were still things that had to get done today, so poor sick kid had to run the necessary errands with me. By the time we got home we were both tired and I was in no mood to go fire up the treadmill. So he watched a movie and I took a much-needed nap, pretty much giving up on the idea of getting my run in. Get me off my schedule, and I'm toast.

A little later, I had the tiniest spark of motivation. Feeling a little more rested after my nap, I remembered WHY I am training for this marathon {developing discipline and leading by example}. And after not being able to run last week due to a ridiculously silly toe injury, I remembered not to take for granted that I actually could run today. I grabbed that tiny motivational spark and got my butt on the treadmill and pounded out my miles with my sick kiddo laying on my yoga mat next to the treadmill signing along to my tunes. Marathon training, mommy style!

Here is the point though, and it is not about running. 

It does not matter what you are pursuing in life, 

you need to have a compelling reason WHY. 

Because otherwise, when the initial excitement wears off, you probably will not stick with your goal. I know this well. I have run several half marathons in the past. And despite good intentions, I did not train for any of them aside from an odd run here and there. My motivation for running them was just to have something to do to keep me active and because running was the cool thing to do back then. The problem with that is that there are lots of other things that keep you active that aren't as boring as running, so I would just do those instead. And let's be honest, I just don't care enough about being "cool" to put myself through countless runs I don't want to do! Maybe there were other deeper reasons I kept signing up for these races, but I hadn't really tapped into them enough to draw motivation from them when I didn't feel like training.

I have previously allowed myself to believe that if I really didn't like doing something, then whatever it is probably is not a "good fit" for me, and I should just do something else instead.  But then E.M. Gray says, "The successful person has the habit of doing the things the failures don't like to do. The successful person doesn't like doing them either but his dislike is subordinated to the strength of his purpose." Gray doesn't let me cop out of doing something simply because I don't like some aspect of it. I don't always feeeeeeel like putting the miles in, so I must not be cut out to run an endurance race- No! But...

I need my purpose to be stronger than my dislike for the task at hand. 

So that on days like today when things don't go according to plan and it requires extra effort to find the necessary motivation to do what needs to be done, I can use the strength of my WHY to overcome my dislike for the task at hand. 

What goal are you working toward right now?

Do you have a strong and compelling reason WHY you want success? 

Whatever your goal, I encourage you to set yourself up for success by spending some time tapping into your own personally compelling reasons WHY you want this and remind yourself of those reasons frequently! I know you can do it!