Finding Your Motivation to Get Healthy (guest post)

Hey all.

My name is Hank and I appreciate the opportunity to guest post here.

Allow myself to introduce myself.

You have most likely heard the I-have-always-been-over-weight story before. Well sorry to be cliche. 🙂

My weight is sort of like a historical stock market analysis. It’s was up a month ago. It was down the other day. But all the while it has been steadily climbing upwards. (You hope that is how your portfolio is anyway…) I have always been the “big one” in my group of friends.

Most of my friends in high school were actually soccer players, so compared to them I was huge.

I was the guy who would wear a shirt in the pool, like that hid anything. I was the guy who avoided doing anything  that might draw attention to my weight.

Fast forward to May of this year.

I started getting sick. Not swine flu or SARS or anything like that. I was sick of being the fat guy.  I was ill from my clothes getting tighter and tighter. But what would be different this time? I have been sick of being fat before. But never, it seemed, enough to do anything about it. I had made a few valiant efforts but ended up just giving up and slumping into a fatty funk of apathy.

This time I decided to do something different.  I needed some sort of motivation that would drive me to success. I needed to figure out how to keep my head in the game. So I decided treat my weight loss like I would my small business.

I have found success in business and I have discovered over the years that I have an unstoppable drive to succeed in business.  So why, oh why have I not been able to direct that drive towards losing weight?  Because I have never tried until now.

In the past I have failed at losing weight for a number of reasons, but the one that I figured killed me the most was that I tried to hide it.  I didn’t like talking about weight, especially my weight.  I did not want people to look at me or give attention to my weight.

I wanted to ignore it and have it be ignored. 

But that is a very poor way to deal with being fat and desiring to lose weight.  I realized that there is no business that would succeed if no one knew that the business existed.  So I need first and foremost to put myself out there.

I wrote up a marketing plan and went public with my business of losing weight.  Now that people had their eyes on me, I would not want to let them down.  I look to them as my stock holders and I need to be accountable to them in how I am running this business.

But I didn’t stop there.

I realized that no business is successful without having the principle invest him or herself (money, time, energy) back into the company.  So I decided to invest my own money back into my business of losing weight.  I teamed up with Louie’s Kids, a non-profit that treats childhood obesity.  I made a pledge to them that I would donate to them $5 for every pound that I lose.

Now I have children who need treatment relying on me.  How’s that for motivation!

Motivation is what drives us to get out of bed everyday and it is what compels us to do the things that we want to do.

Want to talk to that girl over there? The thought of getting her number (among other things, wink wink, nudge nudge) is what motivates you get up the nerve to go over and strike up a convo.

Want to buy a new iPad4 (it will be here before you know it…)? The image of flinging those angry birds into buildings to kill pigs is what motivates you to come in on Saturday to fill out TPS reports.

Getting fit and eating healthy IS NOT something that most of us are motivated to do.  So how do we force that motivation on ourselves?  I guess that not getting diabetes or not dying early isn’t enough of a here and now kind of motivation.

So what is it going to be for you?

Will you be motivated by not wanting to let people down? If so then start a blog and tell everyone you
know about it.

Are you motivated by money? Think about Jared from Subway.  He is (or was) banking it from a Subway endorsement.

Make it happen!

What ever it is that motivates you, figure it out and apply it to getting healthy. You may only be one more double-cheeseburger away from a heart attack and you don’t want to wait until it is too late.

I have been on my journey for 8 weeks now and I have lost 35 pounds of the over 100 that I want to lose.

I am feeling just as motivated right now as I was the day I started. I know that there will be days ahead where I don’t feel like continuing, but I have people relying on me now. So there is no backing down.  Failure is not an option.  I hope that you will find your motivation if you are seeking it.

In the meantime please feel free to support me with encouragement and inspiration. You are now a shareholder in my company and I expect you to hold me accountable.

Please feel free to read more about me and my journey at www.businessoflosingweight.com