There are days for each one of us that are more challenging than others . In fact, there are seasons in our lives when challenges obstruct our vision and divert our focus. These are the days and seasons when we face the make or break of our lives, of our businesses, of our relationships.
That sounds serious, right? It sure is – make or break literally means exactly that – everything in our lives can either be made or broken during challenges. That is the reason we need to address this topic, How To Discover Your Why & Why It’s Important.
A little disclaimer before we continue, I am not a qualified psychologist or medical professional, I just have a fascination for everything to do with our minds. Please enjoy this article but do not replace any professional advise with what you read here.
Table of Contents
Why Is It Important to Discover Your Why
Not everyone lives with clarify of why they do what they do. In fact, the likelihood is that more of us live on route, just doing our daily thing without much thought as to why. Without an understanding of why, there is no reason to do everything it takes to get to where we want to go.
According to an article written by Marcel Schantes, Science say only 8% of people achieve their goals. That means that 92% of all human beings do not achieve their goals! That is a staggering number! 92%!
In the article mentioned above they go on to list 7 Things that goal achievers Do Differently – the first one being “Begin with the End In Mind”.
“The End” is your why.
Let’s have a look at what my why is for this business, Late Bloomer Wealthy Affiliate and Online Entrepreneur:
- To create financial freedom
- To create geographic freedom
- To make a difference in the lives of others
These three things keep me going when the going gets tough. Make no mistake, there is no journey in life that is totally free-sailing. Even though I am building a business that I love and I know exactly WHY I am building this online business, I too have seasons that are tougher than others.
Even when you are doing everything you love, you can become ill or injured. Even when you are deeply engrossed in creating your ideal life, things can go pear shaped with people you love. Unforeseen financial challenges can take the wind out of your sails. If I did not have a clear understanding of what my why is, there are days when staying in bed, or doing as Garfield and “just sitting” would suit me best!
~ Sometimes I sit and think, sometimes I just sit ~ Garfield
Discovering my why helps me through the tough patches, keeps me on course. Some days are slower than others, but I am still moving in the right direction – my compass is set in the direction I want to travel and I understand exactly what is so important about the necessary daily actions, even when I am ill!
When we understand our true driving forces, (our why) everything else makes sense and becomes more bearable when times get tough.
How To Discover Your Why
For me, this has been a multi-layered journey and I am very grateful that there is an opportunity for me to share with you here.
My first journey to discovering my why was when I was in training with The Six Figure Mentors, they do really great mindset training. Have a read of the Six Figure Mentors Review I wrote, this goes into detail about how I loved them but left them – you never know, they may be right for you.
1. Values
As I said, SFM does great mindset training and they encourage their members to do a number of things which takes you right into the core of your why. For example, one of the Worksheets we completed reasons all about our Values. Have you ever considered what your values are? Most of us take for granted that we understand exactly what our values are, this is one of the reasons in life that we just live out as a result of our upbringing, our schooling, community and work environment. What if we took the time to actually examine what those values truly mean to us? Are they a reflection of us as individuals or are we just living within the expected norm of our environments? Here are a few examples of what your values could be:
Connection, Playfulness, Kindness, Truth, Adventure, Power,
Trust, Balance, Bravery, Love, Integrity, Wealth
Mine values are fairly simple to identify because I am a Christian so my values are in keeping with the Fruits of the Spirit, these are as follows (as can be seen in Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fruit_of_the_Holy_Spirit) :
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.”
Now note, they were simple to identify – do I have all of these values completely ingrained in who I am? No, not even close. I value every single of them and aspire to them though. In addition to these, I also value family, adventure, truth, connection, honestly, forgiveness and more.
How about you? Have you every considered what your values are? Once you have considered them, or in the process of considering them, also consider why you value those things so highly. Once you have an understanding of what you value, and I mean truly value down into the core of who you are as a human being, you have a starting point. Everything you do from there should work hand in hadn with your values, these are your guiding principles and will assist you with the choices you make.
I have created a Free Worksheet for you to download & spend some time on getting clarity when it comes to what you truly value. You will be amazed at how this can create a simple compass for your life and the decisions you make. It is a printable pdf so you can work your way through it at a time that suits you best.
2. Go 7 Levels Deep
This is something I learned with some training I have done with Legendary marketer, their training is also exceptional, though in a completely different way to that of SFM. You are welcome to read my review here entitled, Is Legendary Marketer A Scam Or What?
Incidentally, this was originally learned from Dean Graziozi, an exceptionally successful man in many ways, so it’s safe to say that he has a lot of knowledge to share – you can read more about him here.
In this exercise, you answer 7 questions (hence 7 levels deep). the instruction is “This exercise is SIMPLE and is designed to help you go DEEPER to find out why you really want to start a business – you can relate this to any area of your life, marriage, parenthood, career etc., we were discussing online business at the time.
They encourage you to be a quiet place where you will not be distracted and give yourself 15 to 20 minutes to really go deep and discover your true why.
Question 1. if I have a successful online business (or whatever it is you are focusing on), what would that do for me
So my first answer was about financial and geographical freedom and the ability to make a difference (financially and time-wise) in the lives of others. There is more to this but, ie how will those things make a difference in my life and the lives of those I plan to contribute to.
– Financial freedom – pay off my home, send my daughter to a varsity of her choice, relocate to the coast, travel etc.
– Geographic freedom – afford to live anywhere in the world and make a difference in that place – I would love to be a missionary, probably working with orphaned and disadvantaged children.
Question 2. If I’m able to have and achieve (whatever the answer was in no. 1, like financial and geographical freedom), what will that show me about myself, or allow me to do, be or have?
Question 3. If I have able to have and achieve (replace with the answer from no. 2), what will that show me about myself or allow me to do, be or have?
Question 4. If I am able to have and achieve (replace the answer with no. 3 above), what will that show me about myself, or allow me to do, be or have?
Question 5. If I am able to have and achieve (replace the answer with no. 4 above), what will that show me about myself, or allow me to do, be or have?
Question 6. If I am able to have and achieve (replace the answer with no. 5 above), what will that show me about myself, or allow me to do, be or have?
Question 7. If I am able to have and achieve (replace the answer with no. 6 above), what will that show me about myself, or allow me to do, be or have?
At first glance, this may seem like an easy exercise – if you are anything like me though, by the time you get to even question 2, it starts becoming quite something to take head-on. This is a very important exercise, it took me a couple of days to gather the courage to do it – I hope you are brave enough to get stuck in – it will be well worth your time and all the effort it takes. You will notice that I stopped filling in my answers from Question 2 onward, because they are tough questions to answer (at least that is how it was for me) and I would prefer to keep my answers private. When you do the exercise, I am sure you will appreciate the reasoning.
I have created a Free Worksheet for you to dowload and do this exercise. Print it out, find the quiet place and time and write in your answers – I have no doubt this process will astound you, it certainly did me!
3. A Perfect Day In Your Ideal Life
With Six Figure Mentors we were encouraged to write a story about a perfect day in our ideal lives. This took me quite a bit of time, as it did many of the other students from what I understand. So, don’t rush this exercise. It can also become a bit of a work in progress, there may be days when you feel the need to tweak what you have written, so this is not set in stone.
Essentially with this exercise you write the details of how your perfect day would go in your ideal life. Start out with exactly how you would wake up, where you are, who you are with, how your feel and what you do. I will share some of mine with you as follows:
“I awaken to the sound of the sea and can smell the ocean breeze blowing through my open windows. The windows are open because I live in a safe environment, no need to burglar bar. My home is light and airy, warm and welcoming, with a mix of gorgeous floor tiles in the kitchen, patio and bathrooms, wooden floors in the lounge, passage and study and sumptuous carpeting in the bedrooms. The windows and doors are wooden frames, and my furbabies enjoy the freedom to come in and out. I live in a little town on the coast of Australia, perfect for me. It is a safe, friendly community and I have a group of warm friends who have the same spiritual beliefs as me and together we enjoy making a difference in the lives of others. Our lives are intertwined; we enjoy taking long walks along the beautiful beach, sharing meals together, in each other’s home, picnics on the beach and braais in one another’s gardens. Special occasions, sunsets and sunrises. My garden is a peaceful haven, a riot of colour and fragrance, one of my many prides and joys. The vegetable garden is tended to with lots of love and feeds not only me but also those around me – friends who swap delicious goodies from their gardens for those in mine; soup kitchens, children’s home and shelters.”
As you can see, there is a lot of detail here, you can go into even more than that if you choose. It is important that you describe everything in as much minute detail as you can. The smells, the sounds, the sights and how you feel, the feeling part is extremely important.
My perfect day ends off as follows:
“The afternoon is laid back. I potter around in the garden, watering and weeding, read and chill before preparing a light meal for the evening. Winding down at night, I watch the sun go down over the sea, how blessed I am with this patio where I can sit and watch the sunset from my home. Today has been another fabulous day, my heart is full, God is good, I am living His purpose for my life. Touching base with family all over the world is so very important to me, I do this via Skype, Facebook, Messenger, WhatsApp during the evenings. We don’t always speak but we do communicate, even if it’s just sharing a silly something.
A hot shower, stretches to further relax my body, I sink gratefully into a warm bed, read, pray and sleep. Furbabies curled up with me, purring. How blessed, how blessed.”
I encourage you to write your Perfect Day in Your Ideal Life. Mine speaks about mostly about me as I am an empty-nester, yours could include your spouse, children, parents – whoever you live with or plan to live with in the future. The ideal life that you could all be living together. Some of my colleagues wrote about their future husband or wife and they lives they would have together, growing the family, having children etc. It is YOUR Perfect Day in YOUR Ideal Life.
I now use my Perfect Day in My Ideal Life as a vision tool. The idea is to read it every morning and every night which encourages you to work towards living that life. There is a connection between imagining the life you desire and creating it. This has to do with how your conscious and subconscious brain works – it’s quite fascinating.
How To Discover Your Why & Why It’s Important
I have given you three methods to work through, each one of them has led me to a greater understanding of my why. I truly believe they do the same for you, and hope you will complete them. I would love to hear about your experiences, please share them with me in the comments below.
Before I love and leave you, there is a reason I have done all the work in discovering my why and that is to pursue the opportunity to build a successful online business. If this is something you are considering, I have something great to share with you, have a read about this Online Business Opportunity par excellence! You will discover that the training is truly exceptional and the community absolutely fantastic! Perhaps you are an Early Adopter and ready to jump in and take a look around on a FREE Starter Membership (yes, absolutely FREE, no card details required) – if that is you, join me by clicking on the image below:
I look forward to seeing you on the inside!
Blessings
Quick intro, my name is Louise, Affiliate Marketer (online guru in training) and I have another fabulous offer for you! It is my 7-Day FREE Training Series To Make Money Online. Click on the link and join me! All you need to is share your email address details with me and I promise not to spam you. Pinky Promise 🙂
It’s a great post on Louise; I have an age, so I have often asked my questions; I am a being inclined towards freedom, honesty, truth, kindness and many other values; some of them are also found in the Bible; in the passage of my life, I intersected quite rarely with the honesty and the truth around me. I did not stop searching. For three months I discovered WA and I mean it has become a kind of life for me; the community is extraordinary, but it all leaves Kyle and Carson. They have set up some rules that are for my soul. Everything around me has changed. I have a beautiful house, a wonderful garden, which I like to work for myself, a daughter and many kittens. But something was missing. WA has filled this gap. Thanks for posting.
All the best for you
Carmen
Hi Carmen
Thank you so much for sharing your experiences – I really value that from you.
Kyle and Carson really have set the tone within Wealthy Affiliate, we are fortunate to have found such a wonderful place.
Blessings to you always
Louise
Hi Louise, Yes, discovering your “why” is important. If it’s strong enough and really stirs strong emotion from within you each time you remind yourself of it, it will help you push past obstacles. Did you ever watch the movie “Skyscraper” with Dwayne Johnson? His main and only goal was the welfare of that which he valued more than his own life…his family. Because he couldn’t even conceive of the thought of living life without them, he placed his own life in danger over and over again to save them. Now that’s a “why”!
Hi Anne
Yes, that is a mighty big “why”! Thank you for sharing.
Blessings
Louise
Hello Lousie,
I really enjoyed reading your insights into the WHY of doing things in life, and how you connected that with the values being the fruits of the Spirit. I myself joined WA sometime back but was inconsistent and not focused. Lack of discipline, really. God gave us a Spirit of self-discipline.
Your niche website on affiliate marketing is easy to navigate. Your content is fitting and in the context of your purpose. Your site title “Late Bloomer” is eye catching and kind of targeting an audience. I wish you much success.
Blessings,
Kez
Hi Kez
Great to see you here – thank you for your visit!
Something I learned last year (true to form, I am indeed a Late Bloomer :-)) what we do not have – like self-discipline – is something we can pray for, and as you say, God gives us the Spirit of self-discipline, we have to ask though.
Thank you also for your positive feedback on my website – I do love building it and your response make it all the more rewarding.
Blessings to you too.
Louise
Hi Louise. This is a great article. It tackles probably the most essential driving force of our life’s purpose, the Why.
As Simon Sinek says in his book “Find Your WHY”: The WHY is the purpose, cause or belief that drives every one of us.
I have been struggling all my life to find my why to guide me toward fulfillment in my life.
Still searching…
Thank you.
Hi Alexis
I am so glad you enjoyed this article, I loved writing it.
Simon Sinek is great to follow – such a knowledgeable man!
I am glad to see that you are still searching – I believe that finding our “why” is really hard work actually, and most people are not inclined to put in the necessary work.
Look forward to hearing back from you when you have found your “why”.
Blessings
Louise