Setting Goals That Matter: Answering The Question “Why?”
I left you yesterday with a few questions:
Where do you want to go?
How will you get there?
Today, I’d like to add another question to that. It’ll be the main topic for today’s post as well and that is…
Why?
It’s a powerful yet simple question, but the answer is further compelling and life changing.
As I’ve said several times before, when you have a why, a true why, nothing will ever get in your way.
A why will crush any doubts that you have.
A why will find deep rooted fears, remove them and propel you forward.
Why can give your life and your actions deeper meaning than you can’t even imagine.
The only real challenge is finding that why.
Even if you find it, you may discover that it’s the wrong why and it might not move you as much as some other why.
Furthermore you will still have to put in effort to commit to the work and follow through with it.
A why simply makes this process easier.
Now, it’s time to find it.
Finding Your Why
“He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.” ― Friedrich Nietzsche
One of the easiest methods to discover your why is by digging deep into those questions.
A basic scenario is in situations where you are asking yourself why up to five times.
The idea with this strategy is to find deeper reasons in your own answers and actions.
At the end of the day the idea with asking yourself why is to dig down to the point that your answer connects with something you value as a person.
But what exactly is this core value that I speak of?
A core value isn’t much of a personality trait that you pick up. It’s a trait for sure, but it has reoccurring themes throughout your life.
The reason I write to help people is in general I want to help people. In my childhood I hung around a variety of people. I was a social individual that could connect with people easily. I was also moved by the Katimavik program I took in 2009. One aspect of the program was the fact you volunteered in the community.
That experience set the tonne for how I accepted jobs.
I’d only take them if I felt I was helping others on some level.
It’s for this reason I justified working with the Canada Revenue Agency, I believed I was helping others. And I did.
The reason I write is simple.
It helped me, and I believe it can help others. It’s what motivates me to write as well as make videos.
Your why for writing and taking action will be different, however this method can help those who have a deep understanding of themselves.
As an alternative, you can consider asking these questions as well to help identify.
Other Methods Of Finding Your Why
“For as long as there’s anyone to ask ‘Why?’ the answer will always be, ‘Why not?” ― Vera Nazarian
But there are other methods of discovering your why. I first stumbled on asking why through the book Smarter, Faster, Better by Charles Duhigg. What he had to say was something along the lines of what I said above.
However this has allowed me to discover Simon Sinek, author of Start With Why and his steps to finding your why.
I have yet to read the book at the time of writing this, however I’ve researched enough to say with confidence that finding a why is powerful.
Plus I have my own personal experiences of finding a why too and how it has changed my life gradually.
As such, I’d highly recommend picking up the book if you haven’t. In the mean time, here is a taste of Simon’s philosophy on why.
Try This
Finding a why has changed a lot of my direction, my actions, and my life. I owe a lot to this method and can’t recommend it enough. If you haven’t found a why then you are really missing out on a lot.
When you have a why, many great things can happen, but above all it can boost your confidence like never before. As I’ve said before, when you have a why and act in the name of it, there is very little that can stop you from achieving it.
To your growth!
Eric S Burdon
This post is part of an 3 month writing challenge that I’m committing myself to. Every day for 3 months, I’ll be writing articles with specific criteria in mind. You can learn all about my reasoning as well as what that criteria is right here. This is 22 of 91 of this series.
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