Start With Why - Friday Fundamentals

Ok, so it’s June at the time of this recording. 6 months into the year. 6 months into your new year's resolutions. I know, I know. I’m not here to harp on you for letting those be nothing more than a distant memory. After all, who could have predicted the things 2020 has brought so far. If you have slipped up on some of those new years resolutions, well I have news for you – you’re not alone. I have a good handful of things that aren’t tracking so well – some in my control, and some out of my control. But honestly, those are just easy excuses. Things change, we change, and maybe who we were and what we wanted 6 months ago are no longer the same as they are today. That’s perfectly ok. This can be a bit of a dichotomy in my experience though. Set goals, take consistent action, and achieve the outcomes you want. On the other hand, be flexible, adapt to change and keep your eye on the prize. These two things, while not exactly contradictive, can be hard to merry up sometimes, in my opinion. So my solution to that is to view my own path as one of constant improvement, intentional action, and keeping my focus on that end result. With an engineering mind, this makes perfect sense to me. Make a plan, adapt to changes, find solutions, solve the problem. Simple and straightforward. This approach though only addresses the “What” and the “How” parts of the equation. The third part, and arguably the most important, is the “Why”. Now, a quick caveat here – many of the topics discussed on this show are inspired from the materials I’m constantly consuming like audiobooks, podcasts, reading, etc. This Friday Fundamental is no different and is inspired by the current book I’m reading, Start With Why by Simon Sinek. As you might guess, Simon talks about the importance of starting with why. So many of us set out on our respective journeys with the “what” and “how” all figured out, only to lose sight of our “why” or worse, never even start with one. So today, I want to dig into finding your why. Your why is your purpose. It’s what drives you and motivates you to take action. It’s the thing that makes what you do not feel like work. So let’s look at a scenario. You’ve set out to accomplish something – let’s say start a business, buy an investment property, read a book, or whatever it may be. Your typical thought process might look like first identifying the “what”. Typically, the “what” is the end thing we desire. The “how” is the vehicle to get us to that what. The “Why” is the reason behind the “what”.  Let’s take buying a rental property as an example. The end goal isn’t necessarily the rental property, but rather the passive income it will create. After all, there are other ways to create passive income (like investing in dividend-paying stocks, etc.). The passive income is the “what”. It’s the desired outcome here. The investment property is the vehicle, or the “how”. But what we’ve yet to define is our why. Our why is more important than the “how” (rental property) and the “what” (passive income). Without a strong why, we don’t have a reason or motivation to strive for and achieve our biggest goals. It all starts with our why. You have so much potential within you. The things you’re capable of are limited only by your imagination. With a strong “why”, you’ll have a sense of purpose to set the bar high and achieve the things you’ve always dreamed of. So with whatever next challenge you face, start with your why.