Photo credit: Krista76 / Foter / Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) by Heather Robertson In this audio blog, I share with you what I've learned about what's really "behind the curtain" when you reach your goal weight. Click play to listen!   Transcript: In the Wizard of Oz , Dorothy and her companions travel a long way. She meets friends along the trip. They have fun, sing songs together, and enjoy each others company. The goal for them is to get to the Wizard of Oz . They’re focused on that the entire trip. They face set backs and obstacles in their journey, which bonds them closer together. When they get to the Wizard and finally look behind the curtain they’re disappointed. Why? They got to their goal. Shouldn’t they be happy? This story mirrors the experience of weight loss perfectly. You will face many set backs and obstacles, find new friends along the way, and one day you will get to goal and you may feel a sense of completion, happiness and fulfillment. But then a few days, weeks, or months later you may feel sadness, frustration, an itchiness. The question you will have is, “I hit  my goal. Why do I not feel happy?” In your Wizard of Oz  story, instead of a small man with a sound system, when you pulled back the curtain you got another path to continue on. That is the secret that most people need to know: there is just a new path. Maybe it’s a different color with new scenery, but just more walking, singing, and meeting new characters. I firmly believe humans need something to work towards continuously. They need new goals. We are never happy with where we are, or with what we have, for very long. Remember at the end of the Wizard of Oz  when Dorothy had to say goodbye to everyone? She was sad and would miss them. Those relationships were meaningful to her. The experiences she had with the Lion, Tin Man, and Scarecrow are what made the journey happy for her. The few minutes she spent with the Wizard of Oz  did not have the same impact. I am sharing this because one of the biggest lessons for me (since hitting goal back in Jan 2012) has been that it never ends. There is always another path you have to go on in your life. I now face all new goals differently than I did during my weight loss. I document all the small victories: the few pounds I increase on the bar, the extra rep or two I pushed out, the strength gains I made in a four-week-plan. This is now my focus; not getting to the wizard. I enjoy the journey. I realize just as soon as I complete this goal there will be a new one. So, it’s better to experience all the small changes along the way and worry less about just the one moment of hitting the goal. If my goal right now is to do one pull up unassisted, then when I can do that I’ll set a new goal like working up to three pull ups unassisted. The process of getting to one pull up versus getting to three will provide many victories to celebrate along the way, but when you cross the line and do what you set out to do, you’ll find something else to fill that void. My message to you today is enjoy today. Look at what you did well this week, this month, and how you have changed. Realize that when you hit your goal weight there is another path for you. The secret is it’s all about the journey and not about the goal. Keep a list of all of your victories. It will do two things: one it will show you how awesome you are and how much you have changed, and two it will keep you in the present. You will not feel the only way to be a success is to hit the goal weight. I share this because I have learned this lesson the hard way, and I feel sometimes hearing these things could help save some of you from losing sight of what is really important. How have you been appreciating the journey?