Ask yourself these 5 WHYs to understand your motivation to achieve your goal

Spend some time on this activity. It works especially well on big or challenging goals – to increase energy, focus, motivation and commitment. By completing this activity you are identifying the ‘hidden treasure’ – not only why you want this goal, but why now? Until we understand WHY we want our goals, it’s difficult for us to go the extra mile.

Try answering the following questions, be honest with yourself and remove your self-judgement. Get hold of a paper and pencil or open a new document on your device and write down whatever pops into your head.

Start off with a goal you would like to achieve.

Now identify how motivated are you currently to achieve this goal – score yourself out of 10 (10 being the highest level of motivation).

Next, ask yourself the following questions, these questions relate to the answer you identified immediately before each previous question. Keep answering even if you repeat answers:

1. Why do you want this goal?
2. Why do you want that? What does it give you?
3. Why do you want that? What does it give you?
4. Why do you want that? What does it give you?
5. Why do you want that? What does it give you?
6. Achieving this goal will leave me feeling… (continue the sentence)

Now you understand, why you want your goal, and how you want to feel.

To ensure that you are truly motivated, you need to be clear and answer one final question, “Why do you want this goal now?” What circumstances in your life make this goal important to you right now? Why not some other time or in a year?

Have you understood your true motivations, how does this change the way you think about your goal?

Score yourself again on how motivated you are currently to achieve this goal – score out of 10. If your motivation score is not eight or above, why do you have this goal? Is it indeed your goal?

Finally – What did you learn about yourself and your goal? What will you do differently going forward?

By completing this activity, you looked in depth into one goal, identifying for yourself why you want this goal, gaining extra motivation and focus to achieve it NOW.