Unlocking Lasting Change: The Power of Your Core Why for Sustainable Stress-free Lifestyle Habits

Embarking on a new health habit is exciting but can quickly become daunting, especially when motivation dwindles and pain or fatigue sets in. Many individuals immediately dive into altering their daily routines, concentrating on exercise, diet, and stress management. However, this action phase often results in frustration and reverting to old habits. The crucial missing element is the preparation phase, which lays the groundwork for enduring change. Clarifying your Core Why before taking action can significantly impact the success of a new health habit and eliminate the stress of trying to stick with it.

I recently spoke with a woman in her sixties who wanted to start a strength training regimen. She realized it was the last habit she needed to adopt for healthy aging. She had previously consulted a trainer who provided a starting routine, but she questioned its suitability. With old injuries and osteoporosis, the approach seemed too generic and intense from the outset.

I commended her for trusting her instincts and not rushing into the program. She felt something was missing from the approach but couldn't pinpoint it. While the program might have increased her strength as measured by weight lifting, it lacked the essential element of a deep personalized present-moment purpose. Health and aging well are important, but they are too superficial to offer lasting motivation and guidance. We began as I do with everyone, with her Core Why, and I could sense her energy and motivation growing.

The Preparation Phase: Why It Matters

Most people start lifestyle changes by jumping into routines without a clear plan or understanding of their internal motivation. This often leads to confusion, burnout, or giving up when life becomes hectic. The preparation phase helps you avoid these pitfalls by following an evidence-based pathway of:

• Find Your Core Why

• Clarify Your Real Results

• Link to What You Do

  
  

Together, these elements create a solid foundation for not only sustainable but also instantly life-enhancing change.

Core Why: Your Seed for Real Results

Your Core Why is the deep, personal reason behind your desire to change. It's not just about wanting to lose weight or exercise more, but about what those changes mean for your life right now. This core motivation acts like a seed that contains instructions for the results you truly want.

Without a clear Core Why, you risk doing things because you feel you should, not because they align with your values or needs. For instance, someone might start exercising to lose weight for health reasons, but without a deeper and more meaningful reason, they may quit when the more immediately important parts of life require time and energy. By connecting what you are doing to your present moment values, your Core Why is provides fuel for motivation when life starts pulling you away.

How to Find Your Core Why

Your Core Why is discovered through a gradual process of peeling back the layers of motivation. I've developed five questions from psychology, motivation science, and coaching science, refined over years of using this method to uncover the deepest level of motivational energy and distilling it into one word.

You can self-coach your way to your Core Why in my free video series, where I guide you step by step through the Core Why questions. However, a coaching conversation can make this process even more fruitful. That's why I offer a Free Core Why call. Click here to access both the videos and a link to schedule a free Core Why Call.

Your Core Why keeps you focused, enabling you to invest your energy in changes that truly matter, eliminating the worry of sticking with new habits. This process reveals what's needed for the next step, clarifying your Real Results as the measure of true success with health habits.

Clarify Real Results

Change isn't about returning to what worked in the past or comparing yourself to others. It's about understanding your current situation—your body, mind, and life circumstances—and starting from there.

By clarifying your Real Results first, you have a destination that isn't an end goal on a checklist of achievements but a life-enhancing accomplishment that adds to your enjoyment of life. For example, a result of meditating might be sleeping better, but a Real Result is that better quality sleep means you have more energy for the students you teach and your family on the weekends.

These are results that can't be measured on even the best activity monitor. They are a whole-person result known only by starting with your Core Why. This mindset shift to trusting what you know inside helps you avoid the “can’t” mindset that comes from taking actions that are not connected to your Real Results. When you results are stated as being able to hike with your family, get up and down off the floor with more ease, and do your laundry and gardening without worrying about back pain and these are directly connected to your core why you build confidence by making meaningful changes that improve your life right now.

Link to What You Do and How Much is Enough: Meet Yourself Where You Are

Time is a fixed resource, and the number of actions you can take to improve your eating, movement, and stress management is unlimited. However, change requires energy.

Knowing what to do and how much is enough based on your Core Why and Real Results repurposes energy and time as an investment into a way to Be Well Now. This is a major mindset shift. We are accustomed to being told to push hard to achieve a goal, believing that if we're not exhausted or suffering, we're not working hard enough. While this may work for home or work projects, it doesn't work for health. The state of your cells now sets the stage for how your energy is used.

To fight, flee, or freeze from a threat in the stress state

To heal, repair, and grow stronger in the well state

The choice is yours, always in every moment. You are the only one who can shift your cells from stress to well.

When we start in the well state with actions that shift your cells from stress to well, your health actions have the best chance to support healing, health, and lasting habits.

These mindset shifts are key:

• What you do is specific to your Real Results, not what everyone else says works.

• How much is enough is determined by whether what you did shifted from stress to well now, rather than adding to your stress state.

• Doing more is only worth your investment if it aligns with your Core Why and Real Results rather than thinking it will produce faster results.

  
  

For example, if you didn't sleep well, you still exercise but reduce the type, intensity, and duration enough to have more energy for the day. Rather than rushing to get it over with or hitting snooze and feeling guilty, you listen to your body and do what allows you to feel better now, with the energy you have now so you can enjoy your Core Why today (not just when you reach your goals).

Avoiding Common Pitfalls with the Gradual is Powerful Principle

Many people fail to sustain lifestyle changes not because they are lazy or unmotivated, but because they miss these foundational steps. This leads to burnout, frustration, and eventually giving up. More concerning is how that sense of "failure" affects the chances of sticking to changes the next time you try. There is a way to avoid and reverse this downward spiral, and it's not new—it's a principle for everything that thrives in nature.

The Gradual is Powerful Principle reminds us that growing stronger and more productive requires small, intentional steps that build on a strong, stable root system that provides nourishment over time. Starting with your Core Why, which clarifies your Real Results, helps you know what to do and how much is enough for what you truly want for your whole-person health, unlocking lasting changes that leave you feeling confident.

Using the Be Well Now Method to Stay on Track

The Be Well Now Method follows this natural principle of gradual progression, empowering you to develop habits that not only stick but enhance your life from the start and every day after. Starting with your Core Why so you can clarify your Real Results, and using them as a guide to know what to do and how much is enough means the stress of both changing and sustaining health is over! You can use that extra energy to do what you love with those you love now and in the future.

How to Start a New Health Habit So It Sticks

Click the button below to get started with your Core Why with a Free video series where I take you step by step through finding your Core Why and a link to book your Free Core Why Call. Get ready to enjoy the freedom of a whole new way to change, based on the way everything in nature changes—gradually from a strong, supportive, and sustainably nourishing foundation.

Find My Core Why