“If you’ve already found your why, you already have a great head start on your significance journey.” – John C. Maxwell
Have you found your “why”? Your why you wake up every morning. Why you go to work every day. Why you work so hard. I don’t think I ever bothered to really ask myself that question most of my life. And then I packed away my dreams because I didn’t think achieving them would ever be possible. In essence, I put my why to bed and let it slip into a permanent coma. That is, until about three years ago when someone asked me what my why was.
“Why what?” I thought. Why does my why even matter? My life seemed pretty ordinary—no great hopes, no significant accomplishments, no enormous ambitions, really. I just was trying to get from one day to the next with two little girls, ages one and three at the time, and a husband who frequently traveled for work while I manned the homefront. Besides all that, my only major hurdle in life was my health. I had struggled my whole life with overeating, but in addition, my body fell apart after my second pregnancy, requiring seven surgeries to piece it back together. Unfortunately, all of that left me more than 100 pounds overweight and unable to exercise.
That’s when I first heard about AdvoCare and did my first 24-Day Challenge. I lost 12 pounds and 10 inches in those 24 days, but more importantly, I felt a-MA-zing! All my sugar and carb cravings were gone, my brain was awake and alert, and I had the energy I needed to chase my little girls around as if I were a teenager again. Over the next 10 months, I lost 65 pounds and more than 40 inches all over my body; my BMI dropped from 43 to 31, and I began to run 5K races all the way up to 10 milers! I had never felt or looked better since I actually was a teenager.
And suddenly, I actually wanted to answer that question—“Why?” Why was it important for me to be healthy? And why did I get up every morning and work so hard? Why did my life matter?
The easy why was my children; that’s a no-brainer. My family has always been the center of my universe, along with the lifestyle I’d always prayed for as a stay-at-home mother with the God-given instruction to raise children up in the ways of the Lord. But suddenly I began asking, digging, prodding myself a little deeper to get at the root of these hopes and give those roots some elbow room to expand into a story of greater significance. What does having this lifestyle allow me? What does it allow my family, my children? And what more can I do with the gifts God has so graciously given to us?
My first blog project, “70 in 7,” focused on developing discipline, but to what end? Yes, to get healthy, proposing to lose 70 pounds, plus write 70 blog posts, all in 7 months’ time. The original why gave me my body back, gave me my energy and a developed mental prowess all for the benefit of my family. But a more profound why came later. The conclusion of that project brought about a sum of words that I felt might truly be of encouragement to others, a stack of pages that might promote the discipline of others to a similar end. In short, my why was no longer mine; my why was to help others find theirs.
And so, last month I initiated The Phoenix Project following the birth of my third and final child and another difficult pregnancy, during which my body resorted to a familiar weight. Now my writing will find rebirth, along with my body and my true why, as I seek to help you find yours. I have always been a teacher at heart, just like both my parents. It is my greatest joy to see others grow, excel and explore their significance. We all are on the same journey of discovering the reason God put us on this earth, beyond having children, growing old and dying. He put us here for so much more, and somewhere along the line we must each ask ourselves, “Why?”
Once again, sticking with what I know works, I began with AdvoCare’s 24-Day Challenge. This time I knew exactly what my body needed to hit the mark, and I lost 19 pounds and 24 inches, 14 of which were just from my waist alone. And I will press on once more until I finally reach my goal weight. In the meantime, I am also coaching friends and family members along their own fitness journey, while at the center of physical health is the spiritual and mental health of each person I coach. Therein, the Phoenix will be reborn.
The Art of Choosing True Life 