I recently had some dental work done to fix alignment issues in my mouth. The treatment was pretty straight forward: 

I was to pay x amount, follow the instructions attentively and in x weeks I will achieve x results.

The more I thought about it, the more it sounded like how I use to view my work as a personal trainer.

Clients would pay x amount, follow the instructions carefully, and in x weeks they would achieve x results.

Both of these equations lead to a positive end result. The difference between these two equations, however, was that one ends in lasting change all the time, the other does some of the time. Can you guess which one is which?

The answer is in the roots. See, my dental changes are a permanent change because my dentist made sure to address the problem deeper than the surface level. In my early days as a personal trainer though, my guidance and strategies often seemed to just stay at the surface--clients would commit to my program, loose weight, stop the program, gain the weight back.   What I didn't realize at the time was that our health and weight journey is usually grounded in deep emotional, psychological, and/or spiritual roots. Let's dig a little deeper :)