Why Your Why Is So Important
Why do you do what you do?
Why do you want to get better?
Why do you work so hard to succeed?
Simon Sinek’s famous presentation on “Start With Why” has become one of the most popular TED Talks of all time. Challenging everyone to start from the root of their endeavors, Sinek has inspired people around the world to find their “why.” He taught us that highly successful people start with a strong sense of why they are doing what they are doing rather than starting with what they do or even how they do it.
Since Sinek’s presentation, there’s a lot of talk these days about the power of knowing your why. And for a good reason – when you know what drives you, it’s so much easier to stay focused and motivated in everything you do—but figuring out your why can be tricky – especially if you’ve never really stopped to think about it before.
Knowing what you should be doing helps you realize if you should be doing what it is you are doing. Purpose is the filter for knowing if you are spending your time in the right ways. It gives you an internal compass to navigate your agenda. When you lose your why you’ll begin to lose your way. The most significant starting point to anything is finding the answer to why. When you find your why you can start to build from a strong foundation.
So, how can you incorporate finding your why into the rhythm of your life and leadership?
1) Start With Why For Your Life
What is your big why? Spend some time thinking through your life’s mission and purpose. Determine what you want your life to be about and get clarity on your future. What have you been put on this planet to do? Simon Sinek put together a follow-up resource to his famous book Start With Why called Find Your Why, which is designed to help you personally walk through your life’s mission. It is a great exercise that will help you find your big why. Check it out. There is also a great resource to help you create a life plan by Michael Hyatt called, Living Forward.
2) Start With Why Before Any Project
Declaring your specific intentions and reasons before implementing any new project is vital to success for the sake of yourself and your team. If people don’t know the why they will have a hard time understanding the how. The clearer you are with the purpose of a project, the easier it is to execute it. Make sure you determine and communicate the purpose behind any new initiative so everyone can buy into it with their full engagement.
3) Go Back And Start With Why Concerning Everything You Have Been Doing
Life can get stocked and piled full of stuff very quickly—more meetings, more tasks, more ideas, more challenges, more, more, more. Before you realize it, you can easily have so much going on that you’re not even sure it is all working together. Sometimes you have to stop and reassess everything going on to make sure it is worth going on. If you find there is no reason to be doing things or doing them a certain way any longer, then change it and simplify.
