The Ultimate Emotional Investment

Welcome to my first article of 2023! I hope you had a fantastic Christmas and New Year.

But now, now we are well into 2023. That time where many are jumping on the "New Year New Me" band-wagon. Not that this is an issue. Deciding to make positive changes to your health and fitness will always be a positive thing, and hopefully you have started seeing some progress with your own goals if you started over these past two weeks.

Having said that, there is an elephant in the room. Because the "New Year New Me" is starting to become very cliche, and I understand why. It is almost expected now that the New Years resolutions made, (especially when it comes to any form of health intervention) is that it will. not. last.

I mean, I have had my fair share of 'failed' resolutions. It can be demoralising!

That is why I want to guide you through a 5 step process that will almost guarantee you succeed. It is a process that I came across when I was deep in my cycle of high 'health-kick' phases and low motivation or energy phases. At the end of the 5 steps, you will have an endless supply of emotional investment in your goals, that will push you along, well passed the first month slump.

Why is Emotional Investment important?

When it comes to decisions, you will typically make them based on what is logical. After all, when it comes to business, you know that decisions made on emotion tend to produce bad outcomes. However, with your health, logic as a driver will not be sustainable.

A lot of people create goals that are based on logic. They will say "I want to lose weight because it makes sense to lose weight", or "I want to drop a clothes size cause it makes sense to drop clothes size". These are all logic driven goals and, sadly, logic driven goals don't last very long.

On top of that, focussing on a logic driven goal requires you to depend on 'unreliables'. In this case, that 'unreliable' is motivation. If you've had or been involved in any sort of health and fitness journey before you probably already know that motivation flows, and then it ebbs and there is no consistency as to when it will do this.

So what will the Ultimate Emotional Investment give you?

Firstly, it will help you get specific. When you have very generic goals, it is very difficult to know if you made progress. Maybe your goal is to "lose weight"...does that mean you would be happy if you only lost half a pound? Technically, that is weight loss.

Getting more specific with exactly what you want to achieve, and when, will help tremendously.

Secondly, you will get clarity. Specifically, clarity with WHY you are doing what you're doing. You will become clear with your own emotions, you will become clear with your own goals, and you will become clear with the vision that you have for your health and fitness.

The Ultimate Investment Sheet

If you would like a copy of this sheet, drop a the word "Investment" in the comments and I will send it over. However, you don't really need the sheet to follow the process. You can grab a pen and paper and follow the pattern that is here in front of you. So, let's get started...

Where you want to start is fairly obvious. You will want to know what the goal is and when you want to achieve it. When I say "what the goal is", I am talking about the very end point. What does the perfect picture of health and fitness look like for you.

Even though this is your end goal, you still need to put a 'when' to it.

For example, you might want to be in a position where you are happy, healthy, and confident in your clothes for the rest of your life. That is the big goal. But you also need to know at what point you first achieve that point of being happy, healthy, and confident. Once you've done that, you can get started on creating that Emotional Investment using the 5 Whys.

The 5 Whys

Why #1: You have your big goal in front of you. All you need to ask yourself is:

"Why do I want that?"

Why #2, #3, #4: The next three whys are slightly different:

"Why is that an issue?"

With these questions, you are able to delve into things a little bit deeper. Working through these will set you up nicely for your final why.

Why #5: The final why is different question, because everything up to now has been on the negative side. That makes sense, because if everything was positive, you wouldn't want to improve. However, with this final question, you want to find the light at the end of the tunnel. To help with that, ask yourself:

"Why is this important for me to solve?"

Once you have this, your emotional investment will be complete. However, I know from personal experience that it can be difficult to start simply by reading the steps. So, let me give you an example:

Big goal: I want to lose 6 kilos

Why do I want that? Because none of my clothes fit anymore

Why is that an issue? Because I always feel uncomfortable when I go out with my family and friends

Why is that an issue? Because it is causing me to skip social occasions due to lack of confidence.

Why is that an issue? Because I used to be the life of the party, and now I choose to hideaway instead.

Why is this important to solve? Because I want to have the confidence and freedom to feel like myself again and create new memories with my family and friends.

If you think about that, from step one to step five, the difference is huge.

The big goal isn't really to lose 6 kilos, it is actually to feel freedom at social occasions to enjoy family time with family and friends without feeling conscious and to create happy memories with those people that are close to you.

Now, that is a deep rooted, personal goal based on emotion and is going to be a much bigger driver than "I just want to lose 6 kilos.

If you are making strides with your health and fitness right now, I would massively encourage you to take these steps to give yourself total clarity and unlimited drive to succeed. Whenever you feel like motivation is dipping or you just "can't be bothered", you can look at your fifth why and reconnect emotionally to your goals and purpose.