He who has a strong enough “why” can bear almost any “how”. – Friedrich Nietzshe
If Nietzsche could have only left some sort of instructions for finding a WHY that’s strong enough to whether the storms of life.
I’ve worked with hundreds of high performers to help them identify the action-driving, motivation- igniting, WHY in their life so they can tap into this powerful source of on-going energy.
This exercise starts with defining where they invest a majority of their time, money, and energy.
I’ve found it’s easy for people to identify the things that “push” them to invest these resources. For example, they have bills to pay, responsibilities to tend, and obligations to fulfill.
They muster the energy and reserve the time to do these things because if they don’t, there are worldly consequences.
It’s much harder for people to honestly identify the forces that pull them to continually make these investments though. They don’t have to invest time and energy into these things, but they can’t help themselves.
These forces compel them to act in a way that denies convention, resistance, and even logic.
Identifying these pullingforces is where you’ll find the greatest insight when it comes to defining what I call your REAL WHY.
Your REAL WHY is the motivating force behind the actions that have impacted your career, relationships, and pursuit of happiness.
Unfortunately, the temptation to match socially accepted aspirational norms can blind your attempts to identify unique personal motivations.
When attempting to identify your WHY it’s easy to get caught up in creating beautifully worded, virtuously ambitious bullshit.
You get distracted by what you want your WHY to be and overlook to the forces that have actually driven you to where you are in life.
We’re all afraid to admit the “WHY” that has driven our actions is something like:
“I work abnormally hard to prove to “blank” that I’m not a loser.”
“I will do just about anything to gain recognition/validation/admiration.”
“I commit to a lot of things because it makes me feel less guilty.”
I’m sure you could add to the list, as could I.
If you’re too afraid of indictment to honestly look at your own data though, you’ll never be able to get to the core of what inspires you to take difficult action.
What good is aspiring to be a monk when you really want to be a millionaire?
You’ll try to push yourself to act one way but be pulled to act another.
“Virtuous” or not, think about how powerful it could be to recognize the Real WHY that has driven your physical, mental, and emotional investments of energy to this point in your life.
Without a doubt, there are areas of your life where this WHY has served you greatly.
There are also areas it hasn’t.
For the areas it’s served you, how could it be repurposed to serve you in other aspects of your life?
Where it hasn’t served you, how could you use your new honest awareness of your REAL WHY to make progressive changes or seek help in doing so?
Just because you’ve realized what your WHY has been up to this point in life, it doesn’t mean it needs to be that going forward.
Course correction, however, starts by acknowledging that you’re off course.
Consider the forces that have pulled you to take action in your life.
