Know your why
In a previous blog post, I talked about five tips to help you reach your goals. The first tip I talked about was knowing your why.
In this blog post, I am going to dig a little deeper into why it’s important to be clear on your why.
Knowing your why is what motivates you to pursue your purpose. When you wake up each day, it’s what motivates you to get out of bed and put your feet on the ground. It’s knowing that you were placed here on this earth to make a difference in the lives of the people around you.
Knowing your why motivates you to pursue your purpose.
Now, take a moment to imagine what it looks like not to have a clear why. It would look like aimlessly living your life, not knowing whether you are truly on the path God intended for you. That certainly won’t help you when you hit a rough patch, and the goals that you set for yourself begin to feel hard. It will be much easier to throw in the towel!
In the Bible, in the book of Ruth, we read how Naomi encouraged her daughter-in-law, Ruth, and Orpah to stay in their homeland, while she returned to her homeland. Naomi had just lost her husband and both sons. She was sad and bitter about her life circumstances. But Ruth refused to stay. She was determined to follow her Mother-in-law to a strange land.
Why did she choose the more difficult path of an uncertain future? She knew her why! Her why was her loyalty to her relationship with Naomi.
It didn’t matter that Naomi probably wasn’t all that pleasant to be around.
It didn’t matter that there was a long, hard journey ahead of them.
It didn’t matter that she was going to a strange land where she didn’t know anyone.
She pressed in no matter how hard it felt.
When you know your why, you are willing to go through all the difficulties necessary to accomplish the end goal.
In the end, when you know your why, you are willing to go through all the difficulties necessary to accomplish the end goal. For Ruth, it was being in God’s will. She knew that this was what God was calling her to do. To be loyal to Naomi.
The really cool part of this story is how, in the end, God blesses Ruth for being loyal to Naomi. He gives her a husband named Boaz, and Ruth becomes the mother of Obed, who was the father of Jesse, who was the father of David. Therefore, she was in the lineage of Jesus!
Wow! Ruth was a foreigner, an outsider, a stranger in her mother in laws native land. So many things could have kept her from walking the path God had for her. The loneliness, the sadness, the unknown, fear, and lack. But deep in her heart, she knew her why, and that propelled her forward to walk the difficult journey before her.
What is your why that keeps you going each day?
Is it your family? The opportunity to make a difference in someone else’s life? What is it that drives you each day, further than what you ever thought possible? That is your why.
I encourage you to write it down somewhere so that you can see it regularly. When the going gets tough, your why is what will propel you forward.
Here is my why:
I am called to coach and consult high-achieving leaders to live in total freedom so that the impact and generational legacies they leave transform the world.
