By Paul Boehnke, Certified Professional Coach

What Should We Do If New Year’s Resolutions Are Falling Away?

Not following through on New Year’s resolutions is almost as prevalent as New Year’s resolutions. We all have hopes and dreams for what we want the coming year to be. Losing weight. Getting in shape. Changing our diets. But why is it often so difficult to see those hopes and dreams through to fruition?

As a certified life coach I find that the biggest obstacle that keeps my clients from doing what they know they want and need is motivation. I’m not talking about getting cheerleaders on the sidelines encouraging you. I’m not even talking about the motivation that comes from the fear and threat of something bad happening. Rather the motivation that has real staying power is the motivation that comes from deep within.

When my clients tell me what they want to change or accomplish, I always ask why they want that. And when they give me an answer, I ask them why THAT is important. And then why they want that. And why that is important. And why…

If we ask these questions enough times we’ll eventually get to the real reason someone wants to do something. When we arrive there, we’ll probably uncover two things: how they’ll feel emotionally when they accomplish it and which of their values the accomplishment honors. Knowing these two things turns motivation into inspiration. And inspiration is much more powerful than motivation.

When people take action from a place of inspiration and based on what they value, that action is more sustainable. And when they realize that the feeling they want is actually available to them right now (a topic for another blog post), it makes honoring their values more fun.

Does that mean that knowing the real motivation, the inspiration for making a change magically keeps you following through? No. It will still take self discipline. It will still take consistency and persistence. But being crystal clear about the true reason you want the change provides huge support to the self discipline, consistency and persistence. And it helps you feel the satisfaction along the way, yet one more encouragement.

Asking yourself the questions to uncover your real motivation and inspiration can certainly work. However, we all have a tendency to avoid asking ourselves the hard questions and to accept answers which go only so deep. Discovering why you really want something is much easier with the help of a coach. Talk to your trainer about what you really want. They can help you. If you think there’s something deeper still that’s remaining in the shadows, I’d be happy to help shine a light and bring some daylight and hope to your fitness journey.

Don’t give up on those resolutions yet. There’s still hope.

Paul Boehnke

As a classical musician, Paul Boehnke learned performers’ tricks to train his brain to think what he needed it to think when he needed it to think it. And when he turned those same skills to taming the negative thoughts of his inner critic voice, he realized he had the power to not only transform his own life, but the lives of others as well. As a certified coach, Paul specializes in helping his clients transform the little voice in their heads that argues for their limitations into a champion of their potential.

You can contact Paul Boehnke at paulboehnke.com