Happy Motivation Monday!  For today’s post, I encourage you to think deeply about your main health/ wellness/ fitness goal, and dig deep to discover the motivation behind the goal, and what you can do to achieve it. (And if you haven’t yet checked out yesterday’s post, which includes 7 ways added sugars sneak into our daily diets, it’s a good one!)You may have heard that writing your goals down makes you more likely to take action towards achieving them, and it’s true!  Just the simple act of filling out today’s worksheet will help you pinpoint the exact, tangible goal you’re aiming for, and measure your progress towards achieving it.  This exercise can take as little as 5 minutes, but the payoff will be far more – imagine how great you’ll feel when you know exactly what your next goal is, what you’ll feel like when you achieve it, and how you’re going to get there.  So get to it!  (click here for downloadable pdf version)

When you write down your motivation (the reason why you want to achieve that goal), I encourage you to think about what is truly driving you.  No one will see this worksheet but you, so there’s no judgment!

• Want to lose 10 pounds?  Don’t write down that you think you’ll “be healthier,” unless you really know what that means to you.  Is it because you worry about your family’s history of heart disease or type 2 diabetes?  Or because you know you had more energy 10 pounds ago, and you want to be able to get through your work day, play with your kids, and fit in a workout?  Or because you want to rock a bikini on your upcoming vacation and impress that person you’ve had your eye on?  Or because you want to feel awesome when you look in the mirror?
• Want to beat your personal record in the 10K?  Is it because you’re driven by an internal desire to keep improving?  Or because that is one step closer to achieving that half marathon goal you’ve always had in the back of your mind?  Or because your running partner has achieved that time and you want to beat him/ her?  Or because you know you’ll feel so great when you post that time on Facebook?

These are obviously just examples of goals you might have, and any of these answers are perfectly fine!  (Remember?  No judgment!)  But the act of writing down your motivation will give you something to keep coming back to when you’re struggling to meet your goal.

So tell me in the comments … what goals are you working towards?