Summary:
In previous articles, I have written about how to find your WHY, how a WHY session looks like, if your WHY can change and examples of WHY statements. This article is about the benefits of living your WHY.
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Last week, I received a wonderful email from a client who did a session with us to discover her own unique WHY. She wrote about the benefits of knowing and living her WHY. In this article I am telling you more about this.
What is a WHY statement again?
Your WHY is the reason for getting out of bed each morning. It’s your purpose, your ‘raison d’être’, or your main goal in life.
It consists of 2 parts, a contribution and an impact thereof on the world. You don’t have to create a WHY Statement. It is already within you since your teenage years. You only need to discover it. A WHY statement is always positive and action oriented.
Mission, vision vs. WHY
Your WHY is different from a mission or a vision statement. A mission statement is mainly focusing on certain actions, often limited to a certain project, target or result of an organization. The result is then defined in a vision statement.
I believe that a WHY statement precedes a mission and vision statement. You can only have one WHY statement but different mission or vision statements depending on the company you’re working for, the project you’re currently doing or the goal you have for this upcoming year. There is nothing wrong with having a mission or vision statement. It should help you and an organization to focus.
Ideally, your WHY statement is in line with the mission, vision or WHY statement of the organization you’re currently working for.
My WHY is:
“to serve by facilitating so that others can elevate themselves and experience more happiness and love.”
Perhaps you have a similar one. That’s great (please contact me!). The difference are the feelings, the emotions and the energy behind our WHY statements. Something which is often missing in a mission or vision statement.
Your Benefits:
By saying my WHY statement aloud, I connect directly to my emotions, my values, character strengths, my joy and love for life. This helps me with all the (easy and difficult) things I want to do, including writing this article. Other benefits are:
-It makes it easier to be honest
One of my character strengths is Harmony. I therefore tend to please people around me. A while back, I was asked to be master of ceremonies for a certain event. I agreed to do the job, but the tasks became clear to me in a later stage. These included a whole bunch of organizing, judging and people management. Sure, these are aspects of facilitating but also many other things. I then checked what was asked from me against my WHY and discovered that they were not in line. This gave me the confidence of being honest to disappoint the client by saying that this would not be a success for the both of us. Your WHY can help you to be honest to yourself and others.
-It helps you with choices
Next, your WHY helps you to make choices. Choices in job opportunities, relationships, career development and personal development.
For me, it would be not a good idea to accept a career in sales or in production. This is not at all in line with my WHY. I cannot see how people can uplift themselves if I would sell them a subscription for a newspaper, learning how to program in Python or me assembling some kind of tool for ever. It would be a good idea however to follow a course on Podcasting.
Again, by checking with my WHY will give me the courage to make a choice and look for new opportunities.
-It gives you direction
This brings me to the third benefit which applies well with the start of a new year. Your WHY statement can help like a compass on where to go next in life.
Currently, my family and I are in the midst of buying a house. A very big decision for me because I enjoy the flexibility to move and go when and wherever we please. I did reflect on this and checked my WHY against buying a house. I realized that by having a stable base, I would better be capable of living my WHY. The extra benefit is that it gives me peace and calmness.
By setting new goals, make sure that they’re in line with your WHY. I am sure that you’ll be more effective, efficient, focused and above all more motivated.
Additional benefits of living your WHY can be found in my previous articles about finding your WHY. Go to ‘How to find your WHY’, ‘Examples of WHY Statements’, ‘What does a WHY session looks like’ or ‘Can my WHY change?’.
Do you want to discover your own WHY statement or the one of your organization? Contact me or check this page for more information!
What benefits do you experience by living your WHY? Let me know in the comment field below. I and the other readers of this article are looking forward to reading from you!
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Have you seen an error in this article? Let me know! I am grateful!
