WHY?
The Journey of Life takes us to many places. Sometimes we spend a lot of time in one place just to wonder what we were doing there and then we move on to the next. These places we visit in our life might be jobs, relationships, places we live or they might even be theoretical places. These theoretical places refer to your feelings and mental state. Some of these places might be sad, happy, meaningful, unsettling, safe, etc.
When we are in these different places in our life, how often are we asking ourselves why we are there or why we feel what we feel? Introspection is a difficult process for many. It is increasingly difficult for myself as I am a type 9 Enneagram which makes self-reflection difficult. The Enneagram is a tool that breaks down our personalities into 9 types and can help us understand who we really are inside and gain perspective on why we act and feel the way we do. If you're interested in the Enneagram personality types, click one of the buttons below to take a test or just to read about the personality types.
Introspection is incredibly important in the process of discovering your journey in life with the intention of having extreme purpose. Without looking inside ourselves, are we really sure what makes our clock tick. Are we really sure what makes us happy? Do we even know what brings us satisfaction? Throughout life we visit a myriad of places for various time frames. It is my belief that as we are visiting these places, we are only there for a season or two until it's time to move to our next place. Throughout this journey one thing should remain consistent for the most part. This one thing should be the answer to this question.
WHY?
Why do we do the things we do? Why are we visiting the place we are right now? Why do we keep doing it? What keeps us from giving up or even not trying?
We should all be able to answer these questions no matter where our journey takes us. In fact, our journey should be fairly predictable as the path should be predetermined based on what stimulates us at the core of our being. We're going to discuss the three things that I feel will help you live a more meaningful and purposeful life.
Discovering your WHY
Figuring out why you do the things you do takes oh, like I mentioned, a bit of introspection. Some of you might be very in touch with the things that drive you. Some of you might not have a clue what drives you. I was part of the latter crew when I got started. I was very out of touch with why I did the things I did. Of course, I enjoyed being a high school band director. Making music has been and probably will always be a great joy in my life. This is why I continue to be involved in music with the Army Band (National Guard). But I wasn't necessarily on a path That helped me achieve even more.
When my wife and I got started chasing the Dream of real estate investing, we stumbled upon a thing called the top 10. this list was supposed to help you gain some understanding of yourself and of your partner (whether that is a business partner, your spouse, or maybe both like us). Upon completing this list we were able to see for ourselves what made us happy and to see what made the other happy. In the terms of happy, it's not necessarily just a happy feeling, it's more of a fulfilling and rewarding feeling. Below is a link to a list with some prompts to help you fill out your top 10 list. Upon completing this list you will know the 10 things that make you happy. By knowing what makes you happy, you will know why you do the things you do.
Once you have created your top 10 list, you will know the things that motivate you. These are the things that you strive to achieve in your life. These are the things that will keep you motivated when leaping hurdles over the difficult objects in your life. I like to say that what is on your top 10 list is the fuel in your gas tank. You want to make sure that whatever makes it in your gas tank is pure, truly in touch with what you want out of life, and can survive even the toughest of times. You want to make sure your fuel is powerful.
2. Applying your WHY to your daily routine.
Step One is absolutely the hardest. It requires the most amount of attention to your thoughts. Step two is applying it to your everyday routines.
Let's say that on your top 10 list was: Listening to your favorite band while walking by the river. If you are intentional about making sure you do the things that truly make you happy, it is likely that you will make sure you do this activity often.
Maybe vacationing with your family made it on your list. Vacationing takes time to plan and to save for, but if you take the time to plan out these trips with your family, you might bring to light that you need to cut spending somewhere so you can save more.
In short you have to be incredibly intentional to make sure you do the things that make it on your top 10 list. You owe it to yourself and those around you to ensure you are committing to the things that make you happy. You also owe it to your partner to help them achieve the things on their list as well.
3. Using your WHY as a compass for your life.
It's not very likely that a pilot would navigate their aircraft to a destination halfway across the world and only look at their navigation at the very beginning of the trip. Now I am not an airline pilot but I think it's fairly common sense that checking on the navigation intermittently is pretty important. There might be a storm they need to get around and then reset their trajectory.
In life we often have storms that we have to navigate around and often we don't look back at our Compass afterwards. We go back to doing what is comfortable and what we have always done. We are doing a disservice to ourselves when we don't ensure that we are back on track after a major disturbance.
We have to live everyday with a clear trajectory to our destination. discovering that destination is a process in itself, but until you discover that destination, what you can begin doing is living your life on purpose. Live your life by being intentional with what makes you happy and what brings you satisfaction. Allow the items on your top 10 list to help you plan for yourself, your family or your business. (sometimes all 3!)
