Finding Your Why
At our inaugural event, our co-founder Nat Finley spoke about ‘Finding Your Why’ inspired by the book by Simon Sinek. In the book it states we need to have a WHY for purpose and direction and after 2020 many of us feel either lost or misplaced our WHY. So let’s dig into finding our why and do some soul searching. You can follow along with slides from Nat’s presentation below.
So, you might be asking yourself... Why find the Why?
Is it to feel fulfilled by what we do? Or have a point of reference to circle back to in the decisions you make? Maybe make more intentional choices? Or maybe inspire others through your why?
To get to our why, we first need to know where it lives. Our why is the center of what Sinek calls the Golden Circle. What, How, Why because we all operate on 3 levels if you want to admit it or not: What we do, How we do it, Why we do it.
“Your vision is only actionable if you say it out loud. If you keep it to yourself, it will remain a figment of your imagination.”
The Golden Circle
Here are a few questions to ask yourself:
What are you doing in life and do you like it? How do you maintain or change it if you're not happy? Why are you motivated or inspired by the first two?
A few more questions Sinek asks in the book: Why did you get out of bed this morning? And why should anyone care?
What we do, How we do it, Why we do it AKA foundation for your why
Outer section (What)
Responsible for rational thought
Capacity for language
Middle two sections (How and Why)
Responsible for behavior and decision making
Also responsible for feelings
This is why we struggle to put words to feelings. Because our WHY is based on feeling, and it is difficult to find words to describe and articulate them, especially out loud.
“We can learn, however, to put words to those feelings. And those who do are the ones who are better able to inspire action in themselves, among their colleagues and with their customers.”
Our why is determined through our history AKA we’re making a framework for the why
We have to find the significant threads through our life journey and make connections. Think about what have been your defining moments. Get specific. Details, feelings, lessons learned, even specific dialogue from these moments. Once you have identified the moments, find the common themes in these memories.
Peaks and Valleys
Once you have identified those key moments, it’s time to do the hard work and place feelings to those moments. Here are some tough questions to ask yourself.
Are your relationships giving you space to pursue your why?
Is the media consumption hindering or supporting your why?
Does your personal why align with your workplace why?
Does your environment foster your why?
Does the actual physical work foster your why?
Once you have those feelings into words it makes finding your “WHY” feels a lot easier. Now, you have to expect resistance and that resistance may come up as you go through this process, because you may come to an answer you might not like - in other words, you may discover the “what” and the “how” that you’re currently doing doesn’t align with your WHY. We challenge you to step into that self-awareness of what is backing your motivation of why you’re getting out of bed in the morning. This process is not meant to be easy or everyone would do it. It’s time-consuming and uncomfortable and might lead to a job change or stepping into a leadership role BUT it’s totally worth it because your drive will always circle back to your why.