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Find & Create Your Powerful WHY

I have a very curious mind. As far as I remember in my childhood, I’ve always wondered and found myself questioning often WHY we do things the way we do.

At times, my parents used to get annoyed with my endless questions. They simply used to say this is how it is and I don’t need to think too much of it.

Somehow, I found it very hard just accepting that answer, the Status Que. As I was growing up, these small daily questions were soon turning into much deeper and big life-related questions.

Like my purpose of life? Why after achieving everything in life still left me unfulfilled? Why I’m not able to maintain a healthy weight despite trying everything? and so on.

Then a few years back, I came across these 2 books written by the author Simon Sinek, “Start with WHY” &” Find your WHY” which left a profound impact on my life. Finally, it started to make more sense.

Soon, I was able to find answers for all previously unanswered questions. It gave me a new perspective to see the world through a different lens and helped me finding and crafting purposes in anything I do in life. This is one of the most important life lessons I’ve learned.

By end of this article, you will learn this highly effective concept of “Golden Circle’ by Simon Sinek, the importance of finding your WHY, how to craft your WHY & HOW and apply in daily life right now.

Why it’s important to find "WHY" – the purpose?

We all innately have a sense of purpose. Some of us may be quite clear at the early stage and others may be living life in auto-pilot mode. Our sense of purpose is shaped by our core values and belief systems.

For you, it might look like you enjoy traveling, helping others, raising a family, or caring about environments. Your sense of purpose can also change as you move through and experience life in different stages.

What is important is being able to clearly identify the things that matter to you at each stage so that you can intentionally design and create your abundant and fulfilling life.

If you have lost passion for life, continue to feel unfulfilled, and often find yourself seeking happiness and pleasure from external sources like binge eating, partying, mindless shopping spree, other forms of addiction, it might be a result of not identifying your purpose in your life.

Having a powerful WHY not only can be applied to life’s major matters but also can be applied to daily life choices.

When I was able to construct my powerful WHY to get healthier and stronger, I was able to follow it through initially when my body was giving up on the last mile of a 5-mile run.

Whenever I was tempted to eat not so healthy food, I reminded myself of WHY I started to begin with.

The pain of being 35kg overweight, having severe health conditions, losing self-esteem was much more unbearable than to a 5-mile run.

My WHY was not to experience that pain again and go back to that physical and mental state. Over time, my WHY became so powerful and stronger that moving my body and healthy food choices became almost a subconscious decision and a lifestyle.

“Finding your WHY can be challenging but once you know your WHY, you have a choice to live it every day. Living it means consistently taking actions that are in alignment with the things we say…When the things we say and the things we do are aligned with what we believe, we are fully living our WHY.”

- Simon Sinek

Your powerful WHY will allow you to :

01 Authenticity & belonging

Finding your WHY gives you a clearer sense of who you are and your core values. It empowers you to live a life true to yourself and tap into an unlimited source of inner potential.

It also helps you to connect with more like-minded people, communities, and causes that deeply you care.

02 Prioritise & choices

Once you identify the things truly matter to you and sparks joy in your life, it will allow you to say Yes to create those things more. This can be a great filtering tool to make intentional choices with ease that fundamentally align with goals.

You will be less tempted to say yes to that specific friend’s invite for a night out which often drains energy from you. Rather you will say yes to spend more quality time with the people uplift you.

You will say yes to a job offer that aligns with core values and mission in life rather than a lucrative job offer that might get you materialistic success but will leave you depleted.

03 Value-based life & contribution

Knowing your WHY allows you to live life according to your value system. Your purpose allows you to have the most profound impact on others.

04 Resilient & focus

Reminding yourself of WHY inspires and keeps you on track to your short term or long terms goals when things get hard. In the beginning, when we set a goal, it’s easier to get momentum as we have full of enthusiasm and determination.

But as we progress and when things don’t go according to the plan, it’s quite easy to lose motivation and give up. It is exactly that moment reminding you of WHY you started, to begin with, will get you on track again.

Reminding myself of my powerful WHY helps me every time to go out for a run when my mind looks for any excuses to sit on the couch and mindlessly scrolling on the social media instead.

Simon Sinek’s personal WHY

Simon Sinek discovered his WHY out of pain after he’d lost all passion for his work. At the time, he was living the American dream, and superficially his life was amazing yet he didn’t want to wake up and pursue life the same way.

After some soul-searching, Simon realized his WHY was to inspire others to find their WHY, and he began to make all decisions of life guided by his WHY. This concept not only applies to people, but also to organizations.

In “Start With WHY” book, Simon Sinek first introduced the concept of “Golden Circle”. According to Simon every organization and everyone’s career operates on three levels: What we do, How we do it, and Why we do it. The whole concept of WHY is grounded in the biology of human decision making. The Golden Circle maps perfectly with how our brain works.

Golden Circle Concept

WHY is our purpose, cause or belief—the driving force behind everything we do.

HOW are the actions we take when we are at our natural best to bring our WHY to life.

WHAT are the tangible manifestation of our WHY, the actual work we do every day.

What

What – The outer section of the Golden Circle is the WHAT corresponds to the outer section of the brain the neocortex. This is the part of the brain responsible for rational and analytical thought.

It helps us understand the facts and figures, features, and benefits. The neocortex is also responsible for language.

WHY & HOW

WHY and HOW – The middle two sections of the Golden Circle are the WHY and HOW correspond to the middle section of the brain, the limbic system.

This is the part of the brain responsible for all our behavior and decision making. It’s also responsible for all our feelings, like trust and loyalty.

But unlike the neocortex, the limbic system has no capacity for language. This is where ‘gut feelings’ or intuition come from. It’s a feeling we make a decision intuitively but logically struggles to explain.

According to Simon all of the three parts are equally important. When those three things are in balance we are at our natural best. We are truly living our WHY. Earlier in his life, he knew what he was doing and how he was doing but didn’t know WHY.

In his book, he gives an example where companies like Apple where it has strong competitors offering cheaper products with more features. But Apple’s customers are loyal and inspired by their motto “Think Different,” which perfectly describes their WHY. Customers are more likely to buy a product from a company whose mission is relatable to their own beliefs and value system.

In my personal life, I’ve always known my career is one of my passions and something inspires me to get up every single day. I love discovering customer’s needs, bringing an idea from a concept to a solution. I love the thrill of problem-solving, dealing with ambiguity, pivoting when things get hard, and collaborating with a diverse range of people throughout this journey. That’s why I knew my WHAT and HOW but hardly ever thought of WHY.

Once I discovered the concept of the Golden Circle, I realized the WHY. My WHY is to Be of Service. I get deep satisfaction and fulfillment by making a positive impact on the customer’s life and how they run their business. This inner joy makes all those long hours, hard work worth every bit of it.

This is also the exact reason why Pursuit To Self was born – to Be of Service. To help you with your pursuit to intentionally design and create an abundant, fulfilling life well lived.

“The happiness in serving ourselves is real but often fleeting; the fulfillment in serving others is lasting. The problem comes when there’s a lack of balance between the pursuit of happiness and the pursuit of fulfillment. That’s not just philosophy; it’s biology.”
Simon Sinek

4 EASY Steps to craft your WHY

There are many ways you can identify and formulate your WHY. However, personally I found these easy 4 steps approach is much more effective to drive results inspired by Simon Sinek's work..

Preparation

STEP 01

Collate life stories

The purpose of this step is to come up with at least 3 purpose ideas using one or many methods outlined.

STEP 02

Connecting dots

Can you connect the dots between some of your biggest inspirations or happiest moments with your purpose looking back?

STEP 03

Get creative & have fun

Finally, now you get to apply this concept and come up with your WHY statement.

STEP 04

Express your WHY

“What do you do?” – let’s find out your response to this question.

BONUS STEP

coming up with your "HOW"

HOWs are the daily consistent actions that bring your WHY to life and a key part of the overall process.

STEP 01

Collate life stories

The purpose of this step is to come up with at least 3 purpose ideas using one or many methods outlined below.

Reflect on past

Reflect on your past and think of any standout memories, defining moments that made you who you are today. Also think about the moments that brought joy, happiness in your life. Examine each story in detail to identify who you were with, what happened, and why it’s memorable to you. Focus on the feelings that you felt and why you felt that way.

I remember when I was in uni doing full-time post-graduation, I had a part-time job working at a restaurant to cover my living expenses. One Saturday winter night, I finished my shift around 12.30 am and missed the last train for the night.

The next morning, I had one of my final exams. I didn’t want to spend money on a taxi which will cost me entire shift money. So I decided to walk home which was 10km away. It was one of the cold windy night in Wollongong. I was tired and exhausted but I was saying to myself I can do this every step as I was walking home. It took me over two hours to reach home.

My whole body was numb. I took a hot shower to get all my senses back and study for the next 3 hrs before sitting for the exam. I passed that subject with High Distinction. Reflecting back, it was very foolish of me doing this crazy thing that night but It made me who I’m today. It made me resilient, determined, strong, and believe in my potential.

Outside perspective

After reflecting on your past, if you are still not able to find any standout or defining moment that gives you a sense of your purpose then an outside perspective might be a valuable source for this exercise. Choose someone who’ll help you to think deeper, to go out of your comfort zone, and uncover the experiences and dreams that are the source of your WHY.

Plan to have an engaging conversation with that person to get more insight about you. The person does not need to know you overly. However, that person should have a curious mind, observant, good listener, and should ask probing questions to unlock those hidden insights about you.

You should also take a detailed note to refer to it later. My recommendation is to have a conversation with at least 3 individuals from diverse backgrounds to get different perspectives.

In Sinek’s life, it was actually after talking to one of his friends he realized that his purpose is to inspire others. Then over the years he further refined his WHY.

Discovery workshop

This activity is particularly useful if you are a part of a company or own a company or lead teams where the WHY of the organization is not clear or embedded in the overall decision-making process.

Simon Sinek suggests running a WHY Discovery Workshop to share different stories and form a strong WHY for the company or teams.

Simon Sinek shares one of the discovery workshop stories, where he mentioned a discovery workshop that was held by the espresso machine company, La Marzocco.

During their workshop, employees were encouraged to share stories that reflected how they felt working for the company. One employee narrated how connected he felt during a photography event at the store when all staff came together. This story sparked so many others just like it. Soon La Marzocco’s WHY statement took its form based on the idea of bringing people together.

Now, La Marzocco’s WHY statement is “To build relationships so that we can enrich the lives of others.”

STEP 02

Connecting dots

The main focus of this step is to identify similar patterns between already collated ideas.

Can you see a theme that’s quite dominant? Looking back can you connect the dots between some of your biggest inspirations or happiest moments with your purpose?

The theme can be maybe you are someone who loves expressing themselves through creativity, art, or making innovative things. You can be also someone who loves to be of service, natural giver, or career. You can be also someone who loves sharing knowledge or teaching.

The possibilities are endless. Don’t discard anything thinking it’s too small or doesn’t make much difference. We all have our unique gifts to share with this world. Otherwise, you wouldn’t exist at this point in time on this mother earth.

STEP 03

Get creative & have fun

Pre-requisite Get yourself a coffee, tea, hot chocolate or beverage of your choice. Find a quiet place where you will not be distracted for some time. You can put your favourite music on or lit your favourite candle. The goal here is to get you to on high vibe so that your subconscious mind or higher self can guide you with this process too.Grab your favourite pen, a paper and get ready to design your first WHY statement.

Now let’s get you creative and have fun with this last step.

The outcome of this step is to come up with Your WHY statement. Preferably one statement which you can remember easily and share with others.

The ideal statement should follow A.S.I.C and written in the positive affirmative language.

Actionable

Simple

Impact

Clear

Upon further refinement your WHY Statement may look like this format

Don’t stress if your first WHY statement doesn’t look like the above format yet. It’s very common that usually the first few iterations of WHY statements may sound like generic.

In your first iteration, if you come up with more than one sentence it’s also fine. As you further refine, you will be able to capture in one sentence. The first step is to get started and refine as you go.

TIPS

Initially come up with a few words that express your authentic self. Once you have a few words, you can connect them in a language.
After 1st iteration, write it down in your notebook or phone. Reflect on the words and the sentences for the next few days to get more inspirations. Then after a week, sit down for the next iteration. REPEAT until you find your WHY. Don’t settle.
One little game you can play which Simon suggests that asking yourself a question. Would you tattooed your WHY statement in your body if you love those words? If not, then you haven’t found the words you love and relate yet.

STEP 04

Express your WHY

To live an abundant and fulfilling life is uncovering and living your WHY. Once you identify your WHY, start sharing and expressing with others.

Take the opportunity to tell your WHY when someone next asks you, “What do you do?. This an opportunity to start getting comfortable with expressing your mission in life. This might feel a little bit uncomfortable at first but with practice, you will feel confident verbalise your WHY.

More importantly, sharing your WHY with the world will make you commit and accountable to follow through. It fuels your intentions to take the next step.

BONUS STEP

coming up with your "HOW"

Once you come up with your WHY, it’ now time to manifest this in physical reality through HOW’s.

HOW’s are the daily consistent actions that bring your WHY to life and a key part of the overall process.

An example of Simon Sinek’s How’s –

Take the unconventional perspective. See something from a different angel an open up to different ways of doing things.
Use simple language and ideas that are easily understood. Keeping it simple.
Find something positive in every situation and in every person.

Things To Consider

Strengths - Focus on your strengths. We all have unique gifts to offer. No strength is too small or irrelevant. If you think you have no strengths or gifts, it just means you haven’t discovered yourself yet. So look deep inside of you. You’ll see vast opportunities lies.
Reflect - By end of each day, reflect on the day and think how your actions, decisions, or behaviors are helping you to live your WHY.
Priortise - Break down your WHY’s into small actionable steps that you can take days to get closer to the bigger milestones. Filter your daily actions and prioritize through the lens of HOW.
Action - Take daily actions, PERIOD. It doesn’t matter how small this action can be. You’d be amazed to see how far you have progress once you look back after a few weeks, months, or years later.