3 – Finding Your WHY

Today we are focusing on one way to bring your professional life up a level: really finding and knowing your WHY or your passions in relation to your professional life:

• Many people haven’t asked themselves “what do I really want?” in regard to their lives.  This is where our theme of getting after your passions and dreams comes in …
• We have found  authors that share unique perspectives on how to find this inner energy.
• Today, we will share more about FIND YOUR WHY: A Practical Guide for Discovering Purpose for You and Your Team.

This book review is on “FIND YOUR WHY by Simon Sinek”. Now Find Your Why picks up where his first book called Start With Why left off. It shows you how to apply Simon’s powerful insights so that you can find more inspiration with your work life– and in turn inspire those around you. Did you ever listen to Simon’s famous Ted Talk (presented in 2009 with over 33 million views)? He has a theme. He calls it the Golden Circle: Why—How—What. Why is the reason. How is the means. What is the result.

This book is a follow-up with practical application exercises to FIND YOUR WHY.

The book first discusses why people go to work. Let’s be honest here, are we all working to earn money? True. Is money the thing that draws people to work?  Answering the Why goes much deeper understanding what motivates us and what inspires us.  Why did you get out of bed this morning?  And why should anyone else care that you got out of bed?

When we talk to customers or clients or our friends at a party we always say, What we do, then we explain, How we do it, or How we are different but not the Why we do it. So the authors present you this book exercises how to discover your WHY.

First the book has a set of exercises for individuals and then another different set of exercises for groups like corporations.

The goal of the exercises is complete a sentence.

Define your WHY statement in one sentence to “ ______________ so that __________________.   First blank to fill in is your CONTRIBUTION. THE second blank is your IMPACT from your contribution. 

The author states the CONTRIBUTION fill-in HAS to be for others; not yourself. I don’t agree with that as a rule because some people like Einstein did it through his thirst for knowledge and moving knowledge forward versus making other people’s lives better even though it might’ve in the end.

Now I’ll get right down to the steps of “how to find the WHY” in the book.

1. Step one is to gather stories from your childhood. He believes the WHY is an origin story. Look at the most significant experiences with had people we’ve been influenced by lives with touch. And the highs and lows of our life. He believes that her story already comes out before late teens. So the goal is he wants you to come up with 10 significant stories of your life. Now look for a pattern in the stories.  He recommends doing these exercises with a partner to recall your stories or my suggestion if you don’t have a partner is to talk to yourself out loud as you tell the stories.

One method to explore your childhood is to put out a timeline on a sheet of paper from birth to now. Mark your stories like the highs and lows when you went to college and significant vacations with your family or a significant relationship, etc. Make sure your tell the good and bad.

The  other method to explore your childhood is to prop your memory by these following questions as memory prompts.

• What is your earliest specific happy childhood memory?
• At school what is the experience you loved?
• What has been a pivotal moment in your life one when you realize nothing would ever be the same?
• What happened that changed the way you think about the world in your role in it?
• What was the time when you gave yourself to help someone else and it made you feel unbelievably good.
• What have you accomplished that you’re really proud of?
• Who in your life has helped make you the person you are today? What did you admire them in the most?
• Think of a day at work when you said I would’ve done that for free.

2. Step two now identify themes in your life.  Example is when you’re talking to someone at a party and you love talking about who you are; your experiences; etc.

▪Identifying your themes is finding your reoccurring ideas words and phrases that feelings from your story. Like supporting others or seeing the big picture or finding new ways or seeing the details.

3. Step three is to define your wise statement in one sentence to “ ______________ so that __________________.   First blank to fill in is your CONTRIBUTION. THE second blank is your IMPACT from your contribution.

For coffee company that makes hand built espresso machines he states that their group came together and had this why statement: “We cultivate relationships so that the lives of others are enriched.” They came through that statement by the way that people sit down engage with others over a cup of coffee. It’s bringing these people together to savor life.

His WHY is to “I inspire people to do the things that inspire them so that, together, we can change our world”.  He then refined it to “I propel people forward so that they can make their a mark on the world.” OR  “I enable people to be extraordinary so that they can do extraordinary things.”

Then he asks you to work on your HOWs. His HOWS are 1. make ideas simple 2. embrace new ideas 3. build relationships 4. push boundaries.

A full example is Apple Computers; WHY: Everything we do we believe in challenging the status quo! We believe in thinking differently. HOW: the way we challenge the status quo is by making our products beautifully designed, easy to use and user friendly. WHAT: We just happen to make great computers! Want to buy one?

The following 3 concepts that I liked about this book as I thought they could be thought-provoking to ourselves and our listeners.

Exercise 1: What are your child memories? Can you make out some themes in them? How did they affect affect your life?

Exercise 2: What are your personal themes of your life? How can you use them to contribute to the world?

Exercise 3: What are some WHY contribution and impact we can think as examples of famous or admired people we admire?

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