What Is Your Why?
Let’s Chill, It Doesn’t Have to Be Massive
A couple of months in after I met my dear mentor Gerhard Diedericks, he asked me what my purpose was.
“What do you mean?”, I said.
“Well, what is your why?”
Wow. That sounds big. I should probably have a big nice answer for that, right? Since then, these questions have been in my mind.
Heck, sometimes they would keep me up at night.
The following weekend, I would agonize over discovering my life purpose. He had asked me a bunch of questions to help me figure that out, like what my passions are, and what makes me angry.
I even remember one day when I messaged him to say:
Hey Gerhard! I found my purpose! Let’s get coffee so I can tell you!
With an underlying: and you can tell me if that’s good enough.
Ha! Cute.
Fast-forward a year later. Walking down New York city’s bustling streets, listening to the Enoughness podcast.
In that episode, Lisa Wang was interviewing Sasha Cohen, an Olympic figure skater, and at some point she asked her about her why.
“My Why in life?” — Sasha asked. “Well, first I realized that my Why has to come from within. I’ve realized that seeking external validation is the recipe for unhappiness.”
And then, she gave an answer that truly made me feel like I was enough.
For me, it is waking up and doing something that makes you feel alive.
If you are excited about what you get to do, and that it feeds your soul, that’s a win.
So yes, my Why is finding something that I’m doing -reading, meeting people I’m having discussions with, whatever it is- that make me feel alive and connected.
Wait a second.
That’s not a big-life-mission-saving-the-world kind of “why”.
Not to undermine her Why. I had just in mind that it had to be… I don’t know, inspirational? Big? Outward-facing?
But the truth is, that’s actually what I look for in my life as well.
That’s what I’ve been finding in New York.
At that point, I crisply thought:
Damn. I do have the same Why.
And it is great.
And I’m fulfilling it right now.
And I’m enough right now, even way before I reach that goal of finding a job.
I felt awesome. I felt peaceful. And well, I felt enough.
