Child: why?

Adult:  (after the 100th time this hour) Because I said so.  That’s why

“Why?” is one of the greatest questions you can ask and I believe it is something that we should all ask more.

Why is that? (see what I did there?)

I am a firm believer that the question, “why?”, is the determining factor for any number of life choices.  I mean, Why do we do anything?  Why do we eat the foods we eat, play the sport we play, choose the church that we go to, the schools we and our kids go to, or any number of other conscious decisions?  The reason why is that we either believe that the choices we actively make will help us improve some aspect our lives, we really haven’t though about it, or we really have no clue why we’re doing something.

Many life habits are formed young and they are something that we just “do” without ever putting much thought into them.  I suggest that we ask why we are doing the things that we do.  Let’s look at examples:

1.  Exercise and training:  Why?  What are your goals?  Is your exercise choice getting your closer to your goals?

You may be shocked to find out that many people’s chosen exercise plan (if there is any plan at all) may not be the best plan for meeting their own specific goals.

2.  Nutrition:  Why are you eating what you are eating?  Did you make your food selections based upon your goals?

You can probably make small changes to your daily nutritional habits that can help improve many aspects of your daily life.  Have you ever picked up your lunch and asked yourself why you chose that food?  Will that piece of (insert food) get you closer to meeting your goals?

3.  Sleeping habits:  Are you sleeping as much or as well as you could be?

For me, this is a simple question.  I’m 30, have no kids, and I have a steady hours at a relatively low stress job.  I could pretty legitimately sleep 10 hours every night if I wanted.  Most people aren’t this way and many people don’t sleep well even when they do get time to sleep.  There are many strategies to help you get better sleep with the hours that you do get.

4.  Career:  Why did you choose your career path?

Again, a simple question for me.  I love what I do and consider it a hobby as much as a job.  I don’t think anyone could  really do their career for free, we all need a place to live and foot to eat, but I truly enjoy going to work everyday.  That doesn’t mean that I don’t look forward to Friday at 3:30pm when my last patient leaves.  The basic point here is, especially if you’re frustrated is, find your “why?”.  Remember why you chose to do what you do.

As brief as that may have been, especially for such a broad and complex topic, I hope you can see that perhaps we should all be asking “why?”.  Make “why?” the reason that we make our daily decisions, change our dirty little habits, and change the way we move through our daily life.

In my daily physical therapy practice and in those clients that I help with performance, I am constantly asking “why?”.  If I can’t give you a reason why I’m choosing a manual technique, exercise selection, or other variable of programming, then there is a good chance that we don’t need to be doing that particular technique.  Same goes with your training.

If you cannot answer the “why?” than it is time to reassess your goals and your plan of accomplishing your goals.  Even better, knowing the “why?” is the first step to moving you towards the you the you want to be.

Need some direction?  Feel free to contact me (Greg) at [email protected]