How to Find Your Why and Stay Consistent With Fitness

Nikkiey: This all, though, starts with getting really clear on why you're doing this for yourself.

What's going on, you guys? Welcome to The WarriorBabe Show with Nikkiey Stott, co-founder of WarriorBabe. On this podcast, we talk about mindset, methodologies, and tactics that will help you lose body fat, build muscle, be strong, and feel insanely confident. I'm your host, Nikkiey Stott, and welcome to episode number 40. Dang, four zero, guys. We are here. That's crazy.

Today, I'm super excited to be here with you guys and to share in one of our pillars, mindset. So I'm going to go down the mindset hole with you all on a really important topic that I think and believe everybody should have established for themselves. And that is your why. Your why. Why do you want the goals that you're going for? Why do you want to accomplish these things? Why do you want to attain this ideal result with your body composition? Why?

I think that's really important, guys, to really harp on and to really understand for yourself. And it's very individualized. It could be, I want to be a role model for my kids. I want to be strong when my grandkids are running around. I want to play with them. I want to feel more confident in my own skin. I want to combat the health things that run in my family.

Why? Why? So when I ask you that, what are your reasons why you want to accomplish these things for yourself? And let's get away from the aesthetics. Let's get away from, I want to look a certain way. It's cool. You want to feel confident in your skin, man. I so respect that. But what are the deeper reasons why? Why? Just put it on your hand in permanent marker: why? In big caps. And really take some time to come up with what that answer is for you.

Because once you establish that why, guys, strength develops within you. Once you establish this deeply seated reason why, that why will give energy to your burning desire and the visions that you have to become what you want to become. Person, body, health, all the things. Your mind will then become loaded with these strong reasons to create action towards what you want.

It's so powerful, you guys. I did an episode, I think it was episode number four, so all the way back at the beginning of the podcast: Who do you want to become? These two go together very, very synergistically. It's who do you want to become, and why do you want to become it? Right? So when you have the why, and when you have the vision of what you want, your mind's going to become loaded with these strong reasons to create actions towards getting what you want.

And what's really powerful is that you're able to see these things, have these reasons, and start acting in alignment towards that person. It's just so powerful. And the way that happens is you pull energy from those visions and those ideas. So when you vision what you are working for, that is where all the energy necessary to achieve the results can be found. You create new ideas from these new thoughts you have of who you want to become in the body that you want to accomplish.

To get a little more away from the woo-woo stuff, it's so true, man. It's so true. When you have this vision and these reasons why, it's just so easy for you to embark on your journey. It's so easy for you to have clarity. It's so easy for you to have increased motivation on a daily basis. It's so easy for you to create accountability for yourself. It's so easy to overcome any obstacles, which I'm going to talk on in a second. And it provides a huge sense of fulfillment for yourself when you have your why and you also have a vision that you're working towards.

For example, when you have these new ideas and these new thoughts of who you want to become and the body that you want to accomplish, and you start thinking in alignment with the person that's already accomplished that, and you start taking action on a daily basis, you then get so creative. I'll share a story of how this happened to me.

In this first example, you can get so creative when you're traveling to stay on track. You can get creative with how to plan your meals when resources aren't optimal. A couple episodes ago, I think I shared this with you guys. It was when I was traveling with my mom, I think it was seven years ago. It's crazy that I recorded that podcast and now I'm doing this again, but I literally had a memory pop up on Facebook from seven years ago, from the time I was traveling. So, side note, wild.

Anyway, when I was traveling with her, resources weren't optimal. I had a cooler, and I didn't have the thoughts and ideas until I was there in the moment. But I was always asking, how would my future self respond? How would the person that has achieved these goals respond right now? And just by asking that, ideas came, thoughts came, new ways of taking action came to me in that moment.

In that podcast, if you haven't listened to it, I said I packed all my meals inside of a cooler and put ice in the cooler. But then I was like, oh shit, how is this food going to stay fresh while we're staying in the hotel? And in that moment, I thought from the end. I didn't say this in that podcast, but this was actually happening in the moment when I was in the hotel. I was like, okay, there's an ice machine down the hallway, there's a tub. Empty out the ice, go fill up new ice with the ice maker down the hallway, and use the tub as your holding dock, right?

And guys, I didn't have those thoughts before. Not until I asked myself, how would my future self respond, or how would the person who has achieved the end state respond, did these new thoughts come into play. And they gave me creative ways to stay on track while I was traveling, creative ways to think outside the box when my resources weren't totally optimal given the places I was staying in, right?

But this is all because I had a reason why. I really wanted to achieve something for myself that I'd never done before. I wanted to take on new understanding, new learnings, and I wanted to feel more confident in my own skin. Those were the things that started my journey. And then it developed into longevity and sustainability and, for me, definitely combating things in my family. I haven't shared this story with you guys, but my family on my dad's side has addictive tendencies to drugs and alcohol. So I look at myself as a transitional character, and I have my own addictive tendencies, for health and the gym.

That's a little in on the story. I'll share more maybe in future podcasts. But because I had this deep-seated why, and I have these reasons for the things I want to accomplish for myself, and I have this vision for myself, I was able to pull these visions and ideas and this energy and these thoughts that I needed to act on in the moment in order to stay in alignment with my future self, right?

I talked about this in episode four, but for those of you who may have a hard time visioning, or being a visionary for yourself, it's just: what does that person look like at the end? What does that person look like who's accomplishing the goals you want to accomplish? What is she doing? How is she talking? How is she acting on a daily basis? That person is not going to flop on her macros and her meal plan consistently, because that's not going to get her the results, right? That person isn't going to miss all of her workouts in a week, because that's not going to get her the results. So think about how that person is acting in that state of mind, if you can see it, and then start acting as if you are that person right now.

So when I was away traveling, I was like, okay, how would this person think in this end state? And then these small little ideas, like using the ice machine down the hallway, using the tub as my holding ground and emptying out the ice, all came to me, you guys. No joke. And there's a plethora of other examples I could share if I thought about it, but that's just one. I thought it was a really good one.

If you have these reasons why for yourself, and you have this vision that you're holding, you'll have this strength develop within you. Your brain will become loaded with strong reasons to create actions towards what you want. And then you also pull energy from that vision, and you pull ideas from that vision, as I just shared with you.

So it could just be: summer's coming up, how are you going to stay on point? Well, how is your future self acting in the moments of summer? What does that person look like? Is she drinking every single day? Probably not. Is she making better food choices on a daily basis when she's traveling? Yes. So you have the idea. It's just on you now to act in the moment, right now, as if you were her.

Hey, just want to drop a huge appreciation to you guys listening to the show. It means a lot. I hope you're enjoying it, and there's so much more to come. If you are enjoying it, hit the subscribe button. I'd appreciate that tons, and it would also help this podcast reach others who need to hear these messages too. Thanks so much, guys. Let's get back to the show.

It's more than just, what's your why? It's, dude, if you have your why, all of these things happen. And you always have something to fall back on when you need to remember your why. Like I said, your why provides you clarity. It increases your motivation. It increases accountability. It helps you overcome obstacles, which I want to talk about now, because you will have days full of resistance. You will have days where you fail and fall back into all of your old habits. That is inevitable. It's going to happen.

I did a podcast on failure and how to overcome failure on your fitness journey. I can't remember what episode that was, but I think it was a recent one, so I'd definitely go back and listen to that one as well.

When and if you have those days, you cannot beat yourself up. The most important thing you can do when you fail, or fall back into old habits, or have days where you just don't feel like doing anything: don't beat yourself up. Learn from those moments and move on. Okay?

So if you work out four days a week, that's your programming, and let's say Monday and Tuesday you just didn't feel like it. Dude, look at it like this: there are still five more days in the week to get those workouts done. So don't beat yourself up because you didn't work out Monday or Tuesday. Learn from those moments, let them happen, and then the next day go crush your workout. If you're ever off on your macros for a day or two, learn from it, don't beat yourself up. If you overeat or whatever, don't beat yourself up. These are moments you're going to experience.

But most importantly, to tie it back to your why: when you're overcoming resistance, it is so important to remember your strong reasons why, and to remember your visions and the feelings of your goals accomplished, right? It's so important to remember why you started this journey for yourself. It's like, okay, all of these things happened yesterday and the day before, and now I'm still feeling this type of emotion a little bit. I'm feeling this resistance a little bit. But no, not today. It's not going to happen. I'm in control of this, and this does not serve me and who I am becoming. So I learn from these things, and now I'm going to take the right actions and the right steps forward into who I want to become and the reasons why I'm doing this whole journey for myself.

When you're experiencing resistance, you guys, just think about it: why am I doing this? My kids? I mean, damn. That's a big reason to go and do the things you probably don't feel like doing, right? If you are a proud mom, being reminded of your why, I'm doing this for my kids, should be a hard pattern interrupt for you to go do the things you promised yourself you were going to do, or to harness your why even more.

Or if you're older and you have grandkids. I talked about the two paths after and during menopause. If you choose to eat right and you choose to strength train, the 20 years after you've experienced menopause can be completely different than if you don't choose to do those things. So what's your why? Do you want to be super strong when you're 70 years old and running after your grandkids? Then when you're experiencing resistance, instead of beating yourself up, remind yourself of why you're doing this.

And the more you do that, you guys, because again, you're going to experience those things, the more you attach to your why and the vision of who you want to become, the more commitment grows. Commitment to yourself is what's on the other side of the emotion, once the resistance is gone. So when you break through that resistance, or you allow it to ruminate and then the next day you're like, nope, I'm not going to allow myself to not take action, and you do start taking action, you're making a commitment to yourself. Commitment is what's on the other side of all of this emotion you're feeling, once that resistance is completely gone. So once you act, you're making a commitment towards your future self with those actions.

And you'll notice that the more you do this, over and over and over again, you'll still feel resistance, but you'll be able to snap out of it really quick. At the beginning, maybe you'll feel it for a couple of days or a week, but the more you practice what I'm sharing with you right now, the quicker you'll snap out of it. And the commitment just gets stronger and stronger and stronger, to almost where those things don't even happen as strongly as they would have.

And from here, you guys, the next stage up is where habits form. As you continually break through the emotions of resistance, the emotions of falling back into old habits, and grow your commitment, this is how your new habits form. Things you once thought were tough and challenging or tempting will be so easy to manage and get through.

I promise you, I've done this. There are things now that I would probably never fall back into, or if I did, it would be easy for me to snap out of because it's not my lifestyle anymore. And I've seen this with the thousands of women we've helped inside of WarriorBabe. They're like, man, I can't even imagine my life before WarriorBabe. Because it's not just, here, follow this diet and do this exercise plan. No, man, mindset is a huge pillar with our babes. You have to get the mindset right. You have to understand the things we're trying to teach you, and you have to implement them. You have to make the commitment. You have to have your why, because this is how strong new habits form for everything moving forward. And you're going to be able to build on these strong habits to support your future self, your why, your goals, all of these things.

So it's super powerful, you guys, to put the things I'm sharing with you in this podcast into action. You have to clearly identify what your why is. Because when you do, everything I just talked about, overcoming resistance, taking action, then commitment, then habits forming, those are all actions towards your future self.

For example, if you don't believe you can do math, or you don't believe you can do these things I'm saying here, you don't believe you can achieve these goals, well, guess what? You're going to take less action. You're never going to try. You're never going to learn. You're just going to let it go. You're going to give up. And the result is you're not going to be good at math, or you're not going to be good at getting the results you want or wish you could get in your own body.

But if you believe that you can get these results, that it's totally possible for you, and the thing here is you just have to get the fuck out of your own way, then you're going to take the action. You're going to try. You're going to take everything seriously. You're going to do the work. And you're going to become good at all of these things. You're going to become good at making commitments to yourself. You're going to become good at forming new habits. And you're going to get to where you want to be.

So different actions lead to different results. The more action you take, the more of the result you want from that action you're going to get. The less action you take, the less result you're going to get. I call it a feedback loop, right? This is a huge feedback loop. You take the action or you don't take the action, and it determines the type of result you're going to get.

So let's say you don't do anything I'm teaching you here in this podcast. You're not going to get the results you want. And then the feedback to you is that you suck, that you're just an excuse maker, and there's a low-vibe type of energy. And then the belief is the next one: you don't believe in yourself.

Or let's talk about the flip. You take action. You do the things I'm sharing with you here today. You get off this podcast and you actually think about what your why is. Maybe you spend the evening tonight getting really clear on what your why is. Even if it's just one of the examples I gave, man, take that and make it into your own thought process. So let's say you do take those actions. Result: you're getting more of the result. You're starting to really think and gain energy and thoughts and ideas from that future, from why you want this and who you're trying to become. And then you get feedback. The feedback is all these new ideas and new things, and you get excited to go take action tomorrow. You're really starting to be like, yes, I get this, I can do it. Which leads into the belief. And the belief is, I can do this. I believe in myself that I can, because of all these other parts of the feedback loop: the feedback, the results, the action. Now you believe, and that causes you to take more action, get more results, positive feedback, belief again, and it just keeps going, you guys.

Okay, so this all, though, starts with getting really clear on why you're doing this for yourself. Yourself. That's the key word: put yourself first. You deserve it. And the people around you deserve you at your best.

So what is your why? Why are you doing this? Why do you want these results? Get clear on that. That's my challenge to you today. Take the evening, take tomorrow, take the next day to think about this. Write it down, and then look at it every single day. Even when you don't feel like doing anything, look at it. And I guarantee you your thoughts will be different.

Everything I share with you, it all starts with getting and harnessing your why. All right, you guys, I hope you found this podcast super helpful. I love talking about this stuff. Mindset is so important. So important. All these things, commitment, habits, they form by having a supportive mindset for who you are becoming.

Real quick: the only ask I could ever have of you guys is to help spread the word so we can help more women lose body fat, build muscle, reach their goals, and feel insanely confident. And the only way we can do that is if you rate, review, and share this podcast. So the single thing I ask you to do is leave a review. It will take you 10 seconds, and it will mean the absolute world to me and may change the world of someone else.