Find Your Why: a practical Guide for Discovering Purpose for You and Your Team pdfdrive com

Gather Your Stories
Before meeting with your partner, you need to do a little prep work. Your WHY
is born from your past experiences; it is the sum total of the lessons you learned,
the experiences you had and the values you adopted while growing up. You’re
looking for stories that bring to light who you are at your natural best. As you
recall stories that fit the bill, jot down notes on each so you can quickly recall
them when you sit down with your partner. Here are a few guidelines for
gathering the type of stories that will lead you to your WHY.
Think of specific experiences and people in your life that have really shaped
who you are today. You may choose an event that was obviously important,
such as the day you came up with the idea for your company, or an event that’s
less obvious, like a defining moment you had with your old boss. If the event
meant something to you, helped you become who you are, taught you
something or made you proud, write it down. As you think of the people who
have been the most influential in your life, try to recall specifics about what
they said or did that made such a difference to you.
Since your WHY comes from your past, which is the period from your birth
until yesterday, you can draw your stories from any time in between those
markers. The memories may come from school, home, work or any other area
of your life. You may recall times or events that you would gladly revisit. Or
you may retrieve memories of painful episodes that you would never want to
relive. What both kinds of experiences have in common is that, good or bad,
they helped make you who you are.
Our struggles are the short-term steps
we must take on our way to long-term
success.

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The goal of the story-gathering exercise is to end up with at least five stories that
you consider the most impactful of your life. The more stories you have, the
easier it will be for your partner to detect the patterns and themes that will lead
to your WHY. Remember that each story must be about a specific time, place or
moment. The more specific you are, the more you’ll feel an emotional
connection to that memory. And it’s this emotional connection that will lead to
your WHY.
Write down your stories as they come to you. As you begin, keep in mind that all
roads will eventually lead to WHY. So don’t overthink this process. You may list
your stories chronologically or at random. Don’t worry about writing down all
the details. A simple line or two for each is sufficient. The goal is simply to have
a starting point for sharing the stories with your partner. When you share your
stories with your partner, you can include all the particulars and explore any
additional memories that may pop up.
Here are a couple of story-gathering methods we’ve found helpful; you can use
one, both or neither.