What is Your Why?

Do your eyes pop open in the morning as you enthusiastically spring from bed or do you lay there wishing you could turn over and just forget the day ahead?

If the latter, you may be missing your “why.” Without your why you cannot succeed because you will forget your purpose and burn out. You need to know why you are doing what you do?

You can have long-term “whys” and short-term “whys.” Is your why to provide for your family? Be able to buy special gifts for your loved ones this Christmas season? To give back to your community? To grow yourself as a person?

There are so many reasons behind what we do. You can have more than one why but you need to hone in on what is at the heart of everything. What is most important to you personally.

Your Why, your passion is what brings persistence, and in turn success, to your small business. Knowing your why brings the clarity and drive to help you meet your goals and help you stay focused. Every race has a destination. Yes, you need to embrace the journey along the way but you have to know the direction you are going and why you are going there.

Your Why is the difference between surviving and thriving.

When you understand your why, your passion for life and business becomes contagious. You begin to attract the people and resources you need to help you meet your goals.

So what is your why?

Here are some ways to discover it…

Ask Yourself Questions

On the surface, you may say something like, My why in business is to make money. But, you need to go deeper. Begin to ask yourself questions that take you beneath the surface, beyond the obvious. Why do you want the money? Money in and of itself is just paper. It is what it provides that you really want. Are you looking for more security and freedom? For trips and experiences that provide more time with the ones you love? Time off for holiday events without having to wonder how you will pay the bills?

Another example is your health and exercise habits. You may say, I want to exercise so I look great. But is there a deeper reason. To feel well and have energy? To be there for your kids in a greater way as they grow up?

Get a pen and notepad and dig into your deeper motivating factors. Writing the answers to these deeper questions, by hand, can really help you get at the heart of your why.

Some questions to help you get started:

• What do I love to do so much that I would do it for free?
• What makes me so excited that I lose track of time?
• What do I need to make a higher priority in my life?
• What did I love doing when I was a child?
• How do I define success?

Think Big Picture

Another exercise to discover your why is to step back from the daily activities and think about the bigger picture.

Success Mentor, John C. Maxwell, tells a story of three bricklayers. When a man asked each bricklayer what he was doing, he got three very different responses. The first said he was laying bricks. The second said he was building a wall. The third said, “I’m building a cathedral.”

The first two are just going through the motions not aware of their why. The first is focused on the daily tasks at hand without much purpose. The second can step back a little to see a slightly larger purpose but the third really gets it. He sees the end result and why he is laying bricks each day.

Do you see how much more inspiring it is to know that you are building a cathedral versus just laying brings!

Revisit Your “Why” Often

This is not a once and done exercise. Your why can change as you change and as your circumstances change. You can also forget your why overtime as we all get caught up in daily life. Create a schedule to review your why and adjust your purpose when needed.

Develop a weekly and monthly review time. Put it in your schedule and make it a priority. It only takes a few minutes and can pay you back a hundredfold by helping you stay focused and passionate.

Learn your why, revisit your why, adjust your why as needed and your life and business will pay you greater dividends than you could ever imagine.

Author: Lori Hil

Lori Hil is a B2C writer helping businesses connect to Millennials through content marketing. She writes with a chihuahua on her lap and coffee close by and believes in the power of engaging content to improve the world. Learn more at lorihil.com

Disclosure: I am an independent ClickFunnels Affiliate, not an employee. I receive referral payments from ClickFunnels. The opinions expressed here are my own and are not official statements of ClickFunnels or its parent company, Etison LLC.