“Your Why” is your personalized and empowering reason to live. Interested in finding yours?
(Romanian version here/ varianta in limba română)
Read this if you want to:
- Find out what it means to have “your why”
- Take a step forward in empowering yourself in all aspects of your life
- Create for yourself an awesome experience by going through the process of finding your own why
Your own “why” is a concept developed by Simon Sinek. If you’re not familiar with him and the Golden Circle (Why — How — What), you can see him in the million-views Ted Talk here:
Although it’s amazing for a business or any type of organization to have a well-defined why, for you, as a human being, to find “your why” is life-changing.
If you want more than to take my word for it, let me tell you first what’s the connection between having or not having reasons to live and finding “your why”.
According to the website of Simon Sinek, the “why” is defined as the purpose, cause or belief that drives every one of us.
The definition is simple and specific enough to know what we’re talking about. But my questions were what does it actually mean to find ”your why” and how can you describe the feeling of knowing ”your own why”?
For me, finding my “why” was a deeply emotional and empowering experience. I felt with my whole inspired and grateful for my past, in a bullshit-free and visceral way.
As the experience concluded I understood what was my drive in the situations that had the most meaning in my life.
I also got for myself a benchmark in which I could find the activities that drive me and the determination to pursue them.
I realized that you can make a great and empowering service to yourself when you find “your why”.
So my question was:
What does it mean to know “your why”?
The answer that felt right is that
While doing a bit of research for this article so that it’s easier to understand why it’s valuable, important and useful to find and know your own “why”, I googled “reasons to live”. To my own surprise, most of the search results were about finding out why to live when contemplating suicide and not knowing why to live anymore.
It was a bit of a shock for me that, knowing a bit of how the algorithm of Google search engine works, these were the results that were considered most relevant:
While having dark moments in your life can be a launching pad to finding out your reason to live, this is not mandatory.
A somewhat dark and funny conclusion for me was that knowing your reason for living is not something you need to find out only when you’re contemplating suicide. It’s actually something meaningful to do in whatever stage of your life you’re currently in.
Simon Sinek, David Mead and Peter Docker actually wrote the book “Find your Why” , which explains, quite beautiful I might add, the process you can take in order to find your “why” both for yourself, as an individual and, in the second part, as a team, group or organization. You can find it translated in other languages as well.
If you want to more insights about the book and about finding your “why”, you can find more about it on the Productivity Game YouTube Channel:
8 reasons why it’s valuable, useful and important to know “your why”:
1. Having your why means that every time you make a decision, you have something to rely on, as your own personalized criteria that helps you differentiate between 2 or more good alternatives.
2. It’s the element that makes the difference between doing something passionately and doing it because you have to
3. It’s what makes the difference when the same action is taken by 2 different people: one is driven, inspired and willing to do it and the other struggles and is bored or confused
4. It’s a sentence that connects you with who you are, no matter your past and present circumstances
5. It’s the reason you get the feeling of fulfillment when you do something
6. It’s the feeling that you’re having when you feel inspired to do something because it makes you feel good and contributes to others at the same time
7. It’s one of the reasons that contribute to those moments when you feel truly alive
8. It’s a powerful and pragmatic answer to the question “What is my reason to live?”. As Mark Twain said:
Finding your why is the first step in making progress and living in a fulfilled life.
If you’re interested in empowering yourself,
find “your why”.
Here are some ways you can do it:
1. Get the book “Finding your own why”. In it, you have the process of finding “your why” in detail. Plus it’s an awesome read. Buy it. Read it. Apply the process. Enjoy.
2. Simon Sinek created also an online course for finding your why. I haven’t taken it because the process in the book was enough for me but if you’re into online courses, this might be an answer for you. You can find more here.
3. Schedule your The OctaShift online individual sessions. I can personally guide you in finding “your own why” if you feel like it.
Whatever option you choose, I truly believe it will be worth your time.
I wish you a self-empowered way of being and progress in an already fulfilled life!
P.S. If you already found “your why”, I kindly recommend you Simon Sinek’s latest book, “The Infinite Game”. Only if you’re interested in going next level :)
P.P.S — For all you Gene Keys fans out there, I have a little theory that the essence of “your why” can also be found in some kind of combination between the Spheres of Life’s Work, Purpose and Vocation. If you find your why and know about your Gene keys Profile, give me an e-mail at octavian@octashift.com and tell me if you found any links between those:D
