Start with the Why





Last week I wrote about Motivation and the pitfalls of only relying on Motivation to achieve what we wanted. As we know Motivation is fickle and changes minute by minute. We need to have context around what we want to and a real purpose, otherwise how do we create the passion and energy that we need to be successful.

I love the work of Simon Sinek - Start with the Why.

I've used this with numerous people that I have worked with (including the husband) in order to gain clarity about what the person is actually trying to achieve - personally or professionally.  It doesn't matter what you do but why you do it.



Recently I've just upped my training with my gym coach. There were numerous reasons I did this - but ultimately I went back to my Why. This had taken me a while - it wasn't just a "lets do more training" for the sake of it.



I had sat down and thought about what I was trying to achieve by going to the gym. For those that already know me - it's a set habit for me, there is no question of me not going to the gym. I have a great programme, I meet with my trainer once a fortnight to ensure that I'm on track and we can work on technical things and I put 100% in for every workout. But I needed something else.



Sitting down I went back to Simon Sinek and started with the golden circle. Why did I do what I do? Why did I start going to the gym in the first place and why did I have such a passion for it.  This took me a number of sessions of brainstorming my Why. The Why is the hard part - but once we have nutted it out the rest is easy.



I then used the How and the What . This is where some of the habit research came into play for me. I had numerous what's and how's. I then had to break these down. Did all of them link back to the Why strongly or which ones did I think I would get the most benefit from? How could I reach my Why easily - what barriers could stop me reaching my why? What could I put in place to stop those barriers.



After a number of brainstorming sessions I came down to my answer that I was going to begin with - I needed more 1-1 with my trainers. Simple.

A quick email , a quick discussion and a week later we were started.

It took me a good month to go through the process, but only a week to get the action in place. I knew my why, I understood my why and I now could easily take the action I needed.



SO ...Have a think about your WHY for anything you do...



Have a look at the Why video and if you have time go and find the full version.

Get a whiteborad/large pieces of paper/ a notebook - whatever you can find (I use large paper )

Draw your circle

Start. It's going to be messy. But it should be. Start with the Why. Don't get dragged into the What and How (Those ones are the easy ones)

If need help find a coach that can help you question yourself, help you build that Why (it's not as simple as you think).

And then start.



I suggest also reading the book by Simon Sinek "Start with the Why".



Until next week.

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