When you are disciplined enough to follow through on your goals — getting up early, working out, eating healthy etc. — the resistance, and the views of others, try bring you back to the crowd. You begin to question why you force yourself out of bed on those cold mornings when everyone else is tucked up nice and warm, when you're mind is working its tricks in an attempt to keep you in bed. You question why you put yourself through the physical workouts when everyone else is sitting on the couch; wouldn't it be nicer to be relaxing? You ask yourself ‘what would be the big deal if I joined in gulping down those chips, chocolate and takeaway?’
Maintaining the commitment and the driving force that got you started on your goal is tough. Not because what you have to achieve today is any harder than what you had to achieve yesterday, or the day when you decided to create a better life for yourself. It's tough because you lose sight of why. Why is the key question that needs to remain rock solid, crystal clear in you mind. When you lose the why, you lose your way.
There are forces working against you constantly to try and cloud the why, the reason you set out on your path to a better life. The crowd is one of them. The crowd who long ago lost their drive, and the reasons they started to improve their lives in the first place; who forgot why they wanted to give up smoking, why they wanted to lose weight, why they should get up early and make the most of their day. The crowd will see you on your path to improvement and try to drag you back in. They've tried to do what you're doing in the past, and they'll be the first to tell you that it doesn't work; and they'll give you reasons and stories why. You have to be on your guard and continue to remind yourself why you started, to cling on to the reason why you are working towards your goals, or else you'll be engulfed and lose your way.
Maintaining the clarity of why is the key to achieving your goals and living a more enriched, rewarding and happy life.
