Article originally posted at Project Lion Mind by Anthony Dyson

What’s you WHY?

This week we are going to create a “WHY” that will become our main motivational theme in our journey, whatever that may be.

Having a “WHY” is extremely important in any journey and super important for our application of a fitness/ training/ competition goal.

Our “WHY” is what we will hold onto when we have a bad day, when things don’t pan out, when it all seems too hard.

There will be temporary motivators along the way, like quotes and stories or impressive athletic performances, that will help give us little spurts of energy and determination but the thing that will keep us going through everything is having a solid and meaningful “WHY”

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So this week we will spend some time creating our own “WHY”

It may take 15-30 mins or it may take longer, it doesn’t matter. Spend as much or as little time necessary as this is a very important step in our overall journey.

We will start with writing down any words that mean anything to us and our goals.

Start with some power words like “Will” or “Can” or similar.

Then maybe throw in some characteristics that will help fulfil our goals like “Endure” or “Resilient” or “Persevere”.

Then we can even add in some of our motivators like “My family” or “Myself” etc.

We don’t need all of these parts to make a “WHY” but a few of them will help the process.

After coming up with a collection of words, let’s start putting it into a sentence or two. Again, it doesn’t matter if we come up with 1 or more sentences as long as they resonate with your goals.

For example, one of mine is not mine at all, but from one of my favourite books, Pound the Stone by Josh Medcalf.

This mantra, and the title for his book, comes from the stone cutters creed:

When nothing seems to help, I go and look at a stonecutter hammering away at his rock perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred and first blow it will split in two, and I know it was not that blow that did it, but all that had gone before.

-Jacob Riis

From this, one of my personal why’s is:

• “I will Pound the Stone every single day to be able to provide my best self to those around me.”

EDIT: After spending some more time and making some more notes I came about my process a little differently than first prescribed. With my mind dump of words I came up with a How and a Why and then I joined them together to create a sort of Mission Statement.

Why- “To inspire change through example.”

How- “I will pound the stone every single day, mentally and physically.”

Mission- “I will pound the stone every single day, mentally and physically, to inspire change through example.”

You don’t have to follow this process but I found it as the best way personally to have a meaningful statement.

Simple but powerful when I need it. To me, this reminds me everyday that if I’m not making forward progress then I am certainly no closer to “breaking the stone”

This “WHY” could mean a multitude of different things to different people but for me it relates directly to training and competition and living an active life.

I have transformed as a person thanks to my physical journey and that is what I try to inspire in others daily.

That’s my biggest why. To Inspire.

To be in a position where I can provide my best self daily to people and share all of those things that have made my life better and inspire that journey in others.

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Now that we have a “WHY” we need to see it and ingrain it into our daily lives.

There is a few options here so I’ll list several but its really up to personal preference.

• Phone background
• Fridge
• Gym banner or blackboard
• Office poster

Basically anywhere that we will see regularly. This bits up to you.

For myself, I just have “Pound the Stone” on our gym blackboard so I see it everyday and know why I’m there.

So that’s my “WHY” and my process to finding it.

Now it’s your turn!

Let me know how it goes.

Dice