And Your Why Is?

If I were to ask you what you thought your WHY was, what motivates you to get out of bed in the morning, what keeps you focused throughout the day, you would possibly say  either I don’t know or something along the lines of family, friends or even your work. Am I right?

On the other hand, if I were to ask you what your biggest dream is you would probably say a huge house with land, a Ferrari or Lambo, world travel, holiday homes, a millionaire lifestyle and so on.

These are all fine but they not WHYs, they are goals!

A WHY does more than get you out of bed in the morning, it fires you up. It does more than simply motivate you, it inspires you to greatness. A WHY does more than keep you focused, you’re thinking about it every spare moment you have, it’s an obsession but in a good way. A WHY is something your goals should lead to, the end result, not a stopover along the way.

For example, for over 20 years I had been saying that my WHY was Time and Financial Freedom. I would have all the time I wanted with the money to do it with. Sounds great, right? And I know there are many others who have the same or similar ‘WHYs’. Then in 2014 I was discussing this with a couple of friends, Manuela and Peter Mueller-Meerkatz who are top leaders with Amway, and Peter asked me a simple question which led to a, then, Satori moment. He asked:

“And once you have the time and money freedom, what will you do with it?”

Straightaway I said I would write books. He then suggested that maybe Time and Financial Freedom wasn’t my WHY but a goal. He was right because later, when I reflected and pondered on that, I realised that even writing books wasn’t my true WHY. My WHY was staring me in the face the whole time but I couldn’t see it because I was too busy adopting other people’s WHYs and goals as my own.

My WHY isn’t even the mission I set myself years ago whilst growing up  in Belfast surrounded by all the hate and violence, which was to help people around the world to find real happiness, to help them make the right choices leading them to a life they truly deserved. 

No, my WHY is what I will get from carrying out my ‘Mission’, namely JOY! By helping others discover their Joy, I’ll succeed in attaining mine. I learned that from Michael Losier and in fact he has written a book to help people like you and me to clearly define our WHY. It's called Your Life's Purpose and is certainly well worth reading.

Whoa! Sounds a bit pious and Polly-Anna-ish doesn’t it? Heal the world page by page and find healing myself? Maybe, however I look at it in a different way.  I know I won’t accomplish everything but if my book, and any subsequent books, can make a tiny difference and bring Joy to just one person then I will have fulfilled my  mission and achieved my WHY, even long after I have finished my time on this wonderful rock of ours.

You see, a WHY doesn’t have to be the end - contradicting myself here I know but bear with me -  it can also be an ongoing thing and you can also have more than one strategy to help you accomplish it. Got you really confused now, haven’t I? Look at it this way, there are no real rules when it comes to WHYs, you make your own. If you want just the one, that’s great. If you want more than that, that’s great too. Point is, whatever you choose has to keep you on fire until you achieve it and smouldering as you maintain it.

So, finishing with the question this post asks in the title:  And Your Why Is?