Find your why and how is easy

What makes some people more successful than others, even when they come from the same backgrounds, attended the same schools and colleges, and even got the same grades? Darren Hardy, the publisher of Success Magazine, has an answer. He says that those who have achieved great success have found their “Why” and that is what motivates their action, not money, nor the desire for power or status. He tells this powerful story about finding our “why.”

He says it like this to his audiences:

If I put a board across the stage from one side to the other, about half a meter from the floor and I offer you $20.00 to cross it, who would do it?

Almost every hand in the room goes up.

If I put this board between two buildings ten stores up and offer $20.00, who would cross?

No one raises their hand.

If the building at the other end of the plank was on fire and one of your children was unconscious at the end of the plank with the flames about to overtake him in a few minutes, would he walk on the plank?

Most people raise their hands.

So what is the difference?

The difference is the WHY.

WHY is a little word that poses a great challenge to us. It is what fuels our motivation.

When we don’t achieve the success we want, many times it is because we are not clear WHY we want it. When it doesn’t happen fast enough, we get depressed. We have nothing to motivate us on a deeper level.

When we give up on our goals a few weeks after setting them, it’s often because we’re not clear on WHY we want to achieve them. When the going gets tough, we let go and take the easy road to nowhere.

When we fail to differentiate what we do from everyone else doing the same thing, it is usually because our WHY, which is our differentiator, is not clear.

When we have a big enough WHY, the HOW is never an issue. We just do it! We keep doing it until we get what we want.

It is not easy to find our WHY. It means that we have to stop and reflect. However, unless we find it, we will always live and work feeling that we are not achieving it, feeling that there is more to us than we are tapping into.

So find your WHY and let it motivate and drive your life.

How? Find a colleague to help you. Saying it to someone who keeps coming back to you, asking questions to clarify it, until that colleague is inspired by their WHY and resonates with you. Then you know you have it.