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Last week, I received a wonderful email from a client who did a session with us to discover her unique WHY. She wrote about the benefits of knowing and living her WHY. In this article, I am telling you more because other people are also asking me about the benefits of knowing your WHY.
What is a WHY statement?
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 its impact on the world. You don’t have to make up 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 mainly focuses on certain actions, often limited to an organization’s project, target, or result. The result can be defined in a vision statement.
I believe that a WHY statement precedes a mission and vision. You can only have one WHY statement but different mission or vision statements depending on the company you’re working for, your current project, or your goal for this upcoming year. There is nothing wrong with having a mission or vision statement. It should help you and an organization to focus.
-> Reading tip: What is the difference between a purpose, mission, vision, and your WHY
Ideally, your WHY statement aligns with the mission, vision, or WHY statement of the organization you’re currently working for.
My WHY:
“I facilitate so that others can elevate themselves and experience more love.”
Perhaps you have a similar one. That’s great (please get in touch with me!). The differences are the feelings and energy behind our WHY statements, which are often missing in a mission or vision statement.
The benefits of living your WHY:
By saying my WHY statement aloud, I connect directly to my emotions, values, character strengths, 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:
1) It makes it easier to be honest
One of my character strengths is Harmony. I tend to please people around me. A while back, I was asked to be the master of ceremonies for a certain event. I agreed to do the job, but the tasks became clear later. These included organizing, judging, and managing people. Sure, these are aspects of facilitating, but also many other things. I then checked what was asked of me against my WHY and discovered that they were not in line. This gave me the confidence to be honest and disappoint the client by saying that this would not be a success for both of us. Your WHY can help you to be honest with yourself and others.
2) It helps you make better decisions
Next, your WHY helps you make better job opportunities, relationships, career, and personal development decisions.
It would not be a good idea for me to accept a career in sales or production. This is not at all in line with my WHY. I cannot see how people can uplift themselves if I sell them a newspaper subscription, teach them how to program in Python, or assemble some tool forever. However, it would be a good idea to take a course on how to create workshops.
Again, by checking with my WHY will give me the courage to make a choice and look for new opportunities.
3) It gives you direction
This brings me to the third benefit: your WHY statement can help guide you on your next steps in life.
Some time ago, my family and I, were 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 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!
Update: The original article was published on January 14, 2020, and was updated on February 7, 2025.
