WHAT'S YOUR WHY? PART THREE
Last week, we documented how you complete your activities. This week, let’s jump right into discovering our why. Understanding your personal why will help you determine if the activities you participate in, work you do, and ways you spend your time are moving you towards your goals. Without a target, you are certain to arrive somewhere, but it is highly unlikely that you will reach your next level accidentally. What is more likely is that you will circle the same mountain a few times instead of making meaningful progress.
With your list of how you do your activities from last week, ask yourself and document why you do these things. You may have to ask yourself why several times to land on the real reason. Dig deep and do not settle for surface answers. In the case of our example, it could be tempting to say things like “I write because that is my job”. This may be true, but there are many different jobs someone could have. Why have they chosen to write?
Keep asking yourself why until you run out of responses. It is possible that some of the major things you spend your time doing have little value for you. We will discuss further down the road what to do with these tasks. Take a look at the example below:
What I do: Write weekly articles
How I do it:
Talk to readers and determine what they are interested in learning.
Research by reading articles and manuscripts.
Record and type thoughts.
Partner with an editor to review work and receive feedback.
Publish work through an agency.
Why I write:
I am good at writing. I get this feedback often.
When I write, I feel like I am doing something with a strength I have.
I like reading and researching, which is something that writing requires.
Writing gives me the chance to interact with people, yet also have intermittent periods of alone time. I like being alone sometimes.
I make decent money as a writer.
Based on the list above, we have more than surface responses. We see that writing taps into a core strength for this individual. It also has many facets that this individual enjoys. Activities that tap into our strengths and that we enjoy have a greater chance of connecting to our purpose. There will always be priorities that we don’t enjoy at all, but balance is the key to ensuring we live on purpose. Come back next Monday to explore how to identify what brings us energy and what takes away from it. We will be one step closer to determining our purpose.