What’s Your Reason Why?
Improving our health basically comes down to our habits – those small decisions we make and actions we take throughout the day. Repeated behaviors that are almost automatic.
Charles Duhigg, in his bestselling book The Power of Habit, refers to the habit loop consisting of a cue or a craving (say the mid-afternoon slump), the routine (a cigarette or a cup of coffee) and the reward (stimulation). But in order to change the habit and build a new routine for when the cue or craving strikes (like a glass of water, or a walk around the block), you need to have motivation – a reason why. You need a goal to work towards in order to put in the hard work it takes to build those new habits until the healthier actions become automatic.
Here’s five common reasons that drive people to make focused efforts to improve their health. They are by no means the only reasons or even the best reasons. Maybe you just woke up one day and decided to change something in your life. I’d love to hear about your own motivations in the comments.
This is also a mantra for why alcoholics quit drinking but the sentiment is the same. Quitting alcohol by the way (at least as a daily or weekly habit) is an awesome start to better health!¹
If you wake up feeling tired or feel a slump in the afternoons. If you get a lot of coughs and colds or just feel lethargic much of the time. If your body aches without much physical activity or you’re having trouble sleeping or digesting food well.
It may be a motivation all by itself or it might combine with something else on the list below. We may have grown used to our aches and pains or put them down to age, but once we understand that our health and overall wellbeing is almost entirely in our hands we can start to think about change.
A journal can be a helpful tool for later comparisons. Wellness comes gradually and if you’ve normalized the way you previously felt you may not notice as matters improve. Write down some daily notes for a week on measures such as how much sleep you got, how you felt on waking, how productive you were, any negative thoughts, any symptoms like a headache, digestive upset or pain.
Then revisit the entries a few weeks after you’ve made a change or two.
This is the reason I started on my own changes 15 years ago. I was a single Mom to two young boys with a lot of stress in my life. A Mom at our small school died of breast cancer leaving three children under the age of 12. It really shook me up as I have a lot of breast cancer in my family. I didn’t smoke or drink but I knew I was high risk. I didn’t want to leave my boys alone.
Often it’s the grandchildren who become a motivation for the older crowd who want to have the energy and mobility to help with childcare duties and activities.
Love is a great motivator. But it has to come from you. It doesn’t usually work for a loved one urging you to change as the goal becomes their goal not yours. You have to be fixated on your goal and being of service to others can be very rewarding. Even if it’s to make sure you are there at their high school or college graduation, or their future wedding.
Beyond your children’s activities, you may have a personal goal to run a marathon, travel the world or go skydiving. Managing a chronic condition or being sick and tired (see #1) can limit your activities and aspirations. There are even some jobs or hobbies that require a base level of health and fitness like firefighting or gardening.
Perhaps you’ve been wanting to take up golf or pickleball, go hiking in the mountains or stroll along a beach. There is so much of life to see and embrace, we may be driven to tackle the current limitations of our body to realize our dreams.
Fertility is a hot topic nowadays or at least the problems many young couples have in conceiving a healthy baby. Getting pregnant is a common motivation to get healthy - preferably at least a year before you start to let nature take its course.
Maybe you have already tried for a baby and were unsuccessful. If a doctor has given you a loose diagnosis such as PCOS (polycystic ovary syndrome) or a low sperm count, that is a clear wake-up call to get healthy. In most cases the situation can be rectified through rigorous lifestyle changes.
Being overweight or underweight can be a sign that your body is not working well. The data actually shows that being underweight for your height is actually a bigger health risk than being overweight, unless you are squarely in the obese category. But many people do not like how they look or want to fit into certain clothes perhaps they wore in the past.
This motivation may be connected to #3 if say you have a family wedding to go to and don’t want to have to buy a new suit!
In the Afterword to The Power of Habit Charles Duhigg recounts the story of a reader who only realized he had developed bad habits around food when on a work trip he happened to step on some scales that were outside the bathroom at a rest stop. He weighed 340lbs! It was the number that got him into action.
For many people the wake-up call comes when they get diagnosed with a major condition like diabetes, kidney failure, multiple sclerosis or even cancer. Maybe it’s simply a doctor announcing you need to be on statins or blood pressure medication, and you have the good sense to recognize that putting a drug in your body likely leads only to a downward spiral.
Unless you are in imminent danger of death, there is usually a way to improve your health through changing your habits and embracing natural remedies that address the root cause of the diagnosed condition. Toxin removal and addressing nutrient gaps is key. Sunlight. Sleep. Movement. These features all play a role. Habits are the agent of change.
Identifying your motivation may be all that you need to get started and gradually change your poor habits into healthier ones.
But some habits can be harder than others to break, and one more ingredient may be needed: belief. Belief that you can change. Community can greatly assist with this aspect. It’s worked for Alcoholics Anonymous. But it can be as simple as a single buddy, best friend, spouse, or neighbor. Just to add some accountability and encouragement when the going gets tough.
So let me know what was your reason why and how did you do it!
