Ask yourself, what is it that you want and why do you want it? Why you want something is the most important thing, in order for you to get anywhere. If you don’t know why you want something, why you want to achieve something, then it’s just a pipe dream. What is it that you want to achieve, and more importantly why do you want to achieve it?

Figure out why you want to achieve it, then delve deeper. Look for the root cause. Great questions to ask yourself are:

• Why do you want to achieve that?
• How will you feel when you have achieved it?
• What would your life be like if you achieve it?
• What would it mean for you to achieve it?
• What other benefits might you experience by achieving it? For example, better sleep, more energy etc.
• How important is it to you?
• How will you feel if you don’t achieve it?
• What would your life be like if you don’t achieve it?

Establish your Why

You need to ask yourself why you want to achieve something, until you find yourself getting emotional. It should make you smile a massive smile. It should bring tears to your eyes. It should create a burn, a desire, that nothing is going to make you falter. If that burn is not there, those tough days, you’re not going to get through them. For you to be able to move forward you need to establish why you were doing it so deeply and create such a passionate deep connection that your passion for it will get you through the toughest days.

Understanding the 5 step change process

1. Pre-contemplation Phase

The phase where you have no idea there’s anything wrong. You have no interest in changing because there’s no reason to change, you’re happy doing what you’re doing. It is being happy exactly where you are not even realizing there’s any need for change,

2. Contemplation Phase

This is the stage where you realise you are not really 100% happy with where you are. You want to be somewhere else. You need to change something about yourself or your situation. You start asking yourself, ‘What is it you need to change?’ You start self-exploration.

3. Preparation Phase

This is the phase where you identify what you need to change and start thinking about start looking at ways on how to go about that change. This is where you start doing more research. You might start clicking on ads on social media, entering searches on the internet, contacting a few companies that offer the service that will help you with your change.

4. Action Phase

This is the phase where you start taking action, perhaps signing up for things and making solid decisions.

5. Maintenance Phase

In this phase you keep churning the wheels, repeating actions until the job is done.

Possible 6^th Phase

After going through all phases, you may find yourself in an addition step, phase 6. This is known as the ‘relapse phase’ where you might shift back somewhere in steps one to five. When you’re into that relapse phase you need to re-establish what phase am you have reverted back to.

• Are you in the pre-contemplation phase where you think you are happy where you are, no need for anymore change?
• Are you in the contemplation phase again? You realise you are not happy where you are or where you are heading and have to review what you want.
• Or are you back into taking a different action phase?

You might need help in order for you to establish all of this. This is where being able to work with the coach is valuable because it means they will help you identify in which part of the 5-step change process you are.

Achieving your goals

Things to ask yourself when going through the 5-step change process.

1. Give yourself a score of 1-10 and ask yourself ‘how important is this goal to me?’ If this goal is not a 7-10, understand it’s not important enough for you to chase.
2. How ready are you to change? If your score is not a 7-10 understand you are not ready for change.
3. How confident are you that you can actually change? Because if you are not confident you can change, you’re not going to. In order for you to change, your confidence needs to be between 7-10.

Set yourself behavioral goals

Behavioral goals over emotional ones. It is easier to track goals such as ‘I will exercise 3 times a week’ over goals like ‘I want to feel better’.

Smart goal setting process

Follow the S.M.A.R.T. principles when setting goals.

1. Simple

Keep things simple. Instead of a complete overhaul of your diet, just start with having takeaway once a week. One behavioral thing or one simple task that will lead to success.

2. Measurable

Track numbers to confirm success. For example, decide the number of times that you’re going to train.

3. Attractive and Achievable

Set goals and tasks that are attractive to you that you will enjoy. It is more motivating chasing something you want to gain or something you love, than something you want to lose. And make it achievable.

4. Make it realistic

Set yourself up for success. Be realistic about your goal. For example, going from a size 20 to a size 8 in 2 weeks is not realistic. Fitting into a size 8 from a size 20 in 6 months is more realistic.

5. Timely

You want to make sure that things are set in a timely manner. You need a start date, a set period of time of action and a deadline.

Identifying barriers that may hinder you from achieving your goals

You will always be faced with barriers that may get in the way of you achieving your goals.

1. Lack of time
2. Lack of motivation
3. Lack of energy
4. Competing priorities
5. Other people’s influences
6. Lack of confidence
7. Lack of resources
8. Lack of knowledge
9. Fear of change
10. Negative thoughts
11. Uncertainty
12. Lack of commitment
13. Lack of sleep
14. Lack of support

You can add to this list, or you can cut some of them out and replace them with other more relevant barriers.

What one to two strategies can you come up with to combat each of your barriers?

What are you prepared to endure?

What are you prepared to endure to achieve your goals? Because in order for you to achieve anything in life you are going to have to make some sacrifices along the way. You going to have to do some stuff that you don’t like.

For example, when a person wants a baby, they don’t want to poop and vomit and sleepless nights, but they endure these things for the sake of their ultimate goal, the baby. They recognize that these things go hand in hand. So if they want the baby, they are going to have to endure these things and make a few sacrifices. What are you prepared to endure?

• Coach Terri