Finding Focus: Why Knowing Your 'Why' Matters More Than 'When' or 'How'
For everything we do, there is a bound that we lose focus at certain points. At these points, we ask ourselves questions that seek answers to the way forward, but most often we always ask the wrong questions. The right question to ask is the "why" question. The solution to every problem on earth, to every goal yet to be achieved, to dreams yet to be realised is based on the why question. In there we find the solution we seek.
Let's paint a scenario. Take, for instance, you are struggling in your career or learning a particular skill so that you can have a career of your dreams. The how questions would definitely help you through out to knowing what resources and what you need to learn to attain those dreams, but the truth is, it is not enough to get you there. Along the way, when the dream does not actually come true, after a number of job applications and rejections, your mind starts beginning to ask more questions. These questions are the questions of when.
At these points, your mind begins to wonder about other career options to jump into, forgetting the dream you once had, the vision you had once looked upon. Why so? You had forgotten the reason you first started; you have forgotten your "why."?
It is also the same reason why students that gain admission into school along the way lose sight of academic excellence and chase other goals, forgetting the main reason why they wanted admission in the first place. Yeah, it is true that there could be a couple of reasons attached to it, but if the WHY question is remembered, a place of priority will be set to stay through no matter the hardship and challenges.
It is also applicable in relationships as well; if one partner forgets the "why" the relationship was formed in the first place, why they are together, then there is bound that the particular partner can get distracted on the course.
If your "why" reason is not cemented enough, it would be very difficult to stay committed to your goals; to whatever activity that you do, you get easily distracted at the tiny face of challenges. You will forget the underlying motivation; we forget the drive if you don't keep asking yourself "why" you started the journey.
Many people who have crossed the bridge of success regardless of the hardship they faced did so because they remembered their why. They remembered what had to be done to make their "why" fulfilled. Your why statement is what will take you through those feelings of doubt, the face of challenges, and when it seems impossible to continue.
Developing Your Why
Before taking a step, a goal, either in your career, life, or relationship, it is always important to develop your why, as it will remind you during the course of the journey. So what do you need to do first?
Reflect
Take your time and reflect on how you feel taking this step—the drive that makes you want to begin this step. What are you trying to achieve, where are you going, and where do you see yourself in the future?
It is natural to always wonder for the best approach and wonder about timing, but your why statement will give you the motivation to persevere regardless of external uncertainties.
Revisit and Refine
There are possibilities you didn't pour out all your heart into your why statement; it can always be refined to the best way you can put it. But make sure you regularly visit it.
Let your why statement be a daily reminder; say it to yourself every morning; if possible, write it down daily; or journal about your why each day and see how it helps keep your focus and drive regardless of the uncertainties you will face.
Waooo
Awesome post and highly insightful.
Of a truth, the "why"? question is very important as it forms the bedrock for other things.
Thanks for putting these great write-up together.
Celebrate you 👏
I don't know. i want to argue this :P. I think how is more important. Sometimes you don't need to know why. You just need to know how. Like if my laptop is broken I don't care why it's broken. If your wife/ girlfriend is angry, is it more important to know why or more important to know how I can make them not angry? i feel What's more important is knowing how to fix the solutions rather than why there is a problem. Asking why is sometimes wasting time. You just gotta take action and figure out the "how". why is more maybe initiating but I believe "how" is more on execution and execution is the crucial step in solving issues.
so I somewhat disagree with this statement. i think the how has more impact if we talking about solution to problems. We don't need to know why we need to solve something. We need to take the steps to figure out how to solve things.
I don't think anybody can really forget why they started a relationship can they? O.O It's pretty straightforward you like them or you just want to settle the human desires. Even if you know why, it won't matter if you don't know the how. You know why and get distracted but you don't know how to get back on course, what's the use of knowing why.
Just my thoughts though feel free to argue my point. Don't get me wrong I'm not saying why is not important. I just feel how is more important than why. Just think of it like this. Would you rather have a person ask why should I help you or would you rather have them ask how can I help you? I'm pretty sure it's clear here how I can help you is the better phrase right considering the person has a good heart and humane. Do we need to know why to help someone or would you rather just know how to help someone. I don't know I hope I'm making sense. It's 1 am here so maybe I'm not thinkign right lel
I get your point, brother... Truely, how is very important but do you know the reason "WHY" is important? Because to genuinely solve the source a problem, you need to know the real cause of it and taking care of it from the root.
If you focus on HOW before WHY? Then you will come up with quick fixes instead of solving what caused the problem.
A typical example is taking a medicine for headache which can be a symptoms of a main medical issue. But because you are not aware of why you have the headache and you rush into how to solve the symptoms headache. You take away the symptoms of the problem but not the actual problem.
As an Engineer, it is always necessary to know why a problem occurred before we move on to asking how the problem can be solved. Because if I don't know why it occurred, I cannot device the perfect solution to the problem.
Even in relationships, if you have a fight with your partner,. It will be difficult to resolve the issue without knowing the reason for what caused the fight. When you know the reason for the fight, then you can figure how you can reconcile with each other.
:P you can say that the same way though. if you know the why but don't know how . you can't even solve the problem?
It does depend on the situation I guess. if I'm in a life and death situation im not gonna wonder why :P im going to focus on how to survive
The why is like knowing the purpose the how is knowing what to do to achieve that purpose so after knowing the why which is the foundation you build upon it thank you for sharing