This is an excerpt adapted from the new upcoming book, Transform Your Body Transform Your Life. Watch me talk about this concept on video.

Every successful transformation starts with your why, and more importantly, a strong ‘why behind your why’. It’s what allows you to think beyond the first milestone, and focus on creating real, meaningful change. 

It becomes the anchor to your life, and helps you get through the day when you don’t feel like showing up. 

With a strong why, and why behind your why, you know the benefits to your life are too important to not succeed on this path, both in the short and long term. 

To find these answers, it takes a certain level of introspection. What you’ll notice is it’s rarely a physical reason – that’s only the surface level added benefit. It always goes way deeper.

At the start of any journey, there’s a trigger. This could be anything from a passing comment, looking at photos, or having trouble fitting into your clothes. These triggers force action, and are not necessarily the same as your deeper why. But they will trigger thought, and bring focus to understanding your true why.

Your why could be anything. Some of the most common answers we hear are:

• Improve your self-confidence and self-esteem.
• Feel, look and perform at your best.
• Battle old insecurities, anxiety and/or depression.
• Offset future health issues.
• Create generational health.
• Recover from a bad break up or loss.
• Form an outlet or anchor in the day.
• Boost productivity and performance at work.
• Inspire your family.
• Regain control of your life.

Very few, if any, of these are physical reasons. And when you start identifying the real muck that caused you to be in this state, and experience your trigger, you begin to understand that your body is a representation of your mind. You learn that focusing on the physical will be the vehicle to the greater good in your life. You’ll realise that the physical is the foundation and springboard to propel you forward in all areas.

To identify the muck, there’s three questions to ask yourself:

• Why have I got here?
• What am I uncomfortable about?
• Who do I want to become?

In order to truly transform, you have to identify the muck to then eliminate it in the five phases of the transformation journey thereafter. When answering these, expect some home truths to highlight where you’ve been struggling in your life, and what poor lifestyle choices you’ve been adopting to fill the void, find comfort and even seek ‘protection’ from the outside world. 

It can be any state of distress and discomfort; a bad relationship that doesn’t serve you; an unfulfilling career that causes daily stress; a childhood memory or experience that continues to haunt you, subconsciously or not; even boredom.

The reason isn’t always obvious, but it’s this pain point that forms your why to make a change.

Now you know how and why you’re on this journey, the next step is to uncover your why behind your why, a critical exercise to facilitate a real long-term transformation.

Here’s how to do it.

Turn your Wi-Fi off, put your phone away, grab your journal, and spend at least 30 minutes answering the following:

Why is achieving [insert goal] important to you?
Why is [insert outcome] important to you?
Why is [insert outcome #2] important to you?
Why is [insert outcome #3] important to you?

Try to reach at least ten connections here. Each connection will link to your highest priority in life, which could be your family, career, health, education, business, and so on. The closer you link your journey to this, the stronger your why will be when life gets in the way.

An example I always like to give our clients is when I completed this exercise during a maintenance period of my life where there was no tangible physical goal. Without having my strong why, it would have been easy to deprioritise myself and fall out of shape.

Here is how I answered it:

Why Is Staying In Shape Important?

Being lean and strong is important to me because it makes me feel great, and gives me stress free ‘me’ time.

Why Is This Important To Me?

It helps me be productive, in flow, and grow the business.

Why Is This Important To Me?

So I can better serve my clients, my team and my family. 

Why Is This Important To Me?

So my clients achieve better results.

So my team has a stronger client base to work with.

So I can be more present with my family, and provide them with security.

And so on…

If I don’t train, none of this is possible. I wouldn’t be able to perform at a high level. Instead, I’d feel stressed, low on energy and unproductive. For me, the physical is the foundation. I have to take care of myself to take care of others. 

When I think I’m ‘too busy’ to look after myself, I connect to my ‘why behind my why’, and it always forces me into action.

What’s your why, and your why behind your why? 

Is it for your self-confidence? Is it for your children? Is it to battle your old insecurities?

This exercise forces big picture thinking. It takes you out of the day-to-day emergencies of life, and into your future state. It unlocks the visionary, and what’s important to you.

So if you want to create a strong underpinning to your journey, block out some time, grab your journal, and go through these questions I’ve discussed here.

I guarantee that if you can connect with these exercises, everything will change for you. Your mind, body and life will transform.