Ask Why

It’s hard to say No except when you say it to yourself.

In the past two weeks we had a few good days of rain. The upside was that it made staying home extra appealing. The downside was that it could derail your usual routine, for example, in my case it was the morning exercise routine.

I was having one of those days – my motivation was running low. I just didn’t feel like doing it. The excuse I gave myself was: it’s raining outside. Of course, weather permitting or not, there’s a way around it. Not all forms of exercise require you to venture outside or use gym equipment. There’re plenty of other choices. Use imagination and creativity. That’s why they’re there for.

I nearly succeeded in talking myself out of it. But I stepped back, took a brief moment to ask myself this: Why did I even do it in the first place and why have I kept it up since? The answer was short and sweet: For the health benefits.

A simple act of asking myself why set the next trajectory in motion. I no longer needed motivation or any convincing evidence to exercise. I got the answer of why I’ve continued up to that point.

Before I knew it, I was walking out the door, jumping straight into doing my daily stretching routine in the rain! Well, it wasn’t too bad. I only got slightly wet. I didn’t care if it was a stupid thing to do. There’s something about rain that is quite romantic – it cleanses you. It raises your game.

That’s the thing, when you’ve formed a good habit of doing something regularly like exercise, it’ll become automatic going forward, your body needs it like fish needs water. You don’t question it again and again. But life isn’t always smooth sailing. There’ll be a time when don’t feel like it. Missing once or twice is no big deal. No one is keeping score anyway. Be aware! Soon enough, it’ll be a downward spiral or a vicious cycle. A bad habit is waving at you, luring you to the other end.

What do you value most at this stage of life? I’m someone who takes pride in self care and good health. To maintain it is non-negotiable. I like what someone said on a podcast the other day: When you don’t make a decision yourself, your body will make it for you. It can’t be more true!

I admit I’m not always on the right track. Every now and then, I’ll come up with some excuses of not doing it. A quick Q an A time with self can help turn things around. By asking yourself why, it leads you to knowing why, by knowing why, it leads you to doing why…