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

Step 2: Identify Themes
Did you ever come home from a party and realize that you had a really good
time—mostly because you met someone who got you talking about your life
growing up or your experiences in your business? Part of the fun that night
(besides the joy of hearing yourself talk) may have been that, in hearing the
stories, your listener developed an idea of who you are, one that you may have
found startling. Instead of being just the middle child, for example, you emerged
as the glue that held your siblings together. Instead of being only one of many
employees, you turned out to be the new hire who walked in the door and started
everyone in a fresh direction by saying, “Why do you guys always do it that
way?”
Reconnecting with your past to discover your WHY can be fun in that same kind
of way. As you pan for your stories and share them, themes will start to emerge,
insights about yourself or your team that you may never have expressed before.
As the process unfolds, one or two of those nuggets will seem to shine brighter
than all the others. They will feel bigger, more important. They will shine so
brightly that you’ll point to them and say, “That’s me—that’s who I am,” or
“That’s us—that’s our team.” These themes become the foundation of your Why
Statement.
Step 3: Draft and Refine a Why Statement
With one or two shiny nuggets in hand, you’re ready to take a crack at your Why
Statement. Try to make yours:

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simple and clear
actionable
focused on the effect you’ll have on others, and
expressed in affirmative language that resonates with you.
Eventually, you will put your Why Statement into this format:
TO SO THAT .
Yup, that’s all it is. Not fifteen paragraphs. Just one sentence. Of course, simple
doesn’t necessarily mean easy. In one sentence, it’s harder to hedge or sidestep
or hide behind gobbledygook. One sentence is the absolute lowest common
denominator. One sentence is usually more honest. And if you can wrestle your
WHY into one sentence, you’re much more likely to remember it—and to act on
it.
Though we will get into more detail in later chapters, let’s break it down a little
bit now. The first blank represents the contribution you make to the lives of
others. The second blank represents the impact of your contribution. So, could
your Why Statement be, “To finish every project ahead of schedule and under
budget, so that I can be promoted and earn enough to save college money for my
kids”? No. Even if you see that as the truth right now, your Why Statement will
go deeper than that. It is everlasting and must be relevant in both your personal
and professional life. It is a statement of your value at work as much as it is the
reason your friends love you. We don’t have a professional WHY and personal
WHY. We are who we are wherever we are. Your contribution is not a product or
a service. It’s the thing around which everything you do—the decisions you
make, the tasks you perform, the products you sell—aligns to bring about the
impact you envision.
Let’s come at this from another angle by analyzing a real person’s Why
Statement. Here’s how Simon Sinek expresses his WHY: To inspire people to do
the things that inspire them so that, together, we can change our world. The
impact Simon seeks is for each of us to change our world, in big and small ways,
for the better. Fantastic! But this goal is too broad and abstract on its own. It’s
his contribution, what he actually does on Monday morning to make change
happen, that gives direction to his desired impact. The contribution part—to
inspire others—gives Simon the focus he needs. The books he writes, the talks

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he gives, the workshops he conducts are WHAT he does—all of them infused
with his cause—to inspire people. And the more effectively he inspires others,
the more likely every person who is drawn to his work will make a change to our
world for the better.
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