What is Your Why?
What is your Why and how do you make it work for you? First, let’s define a Why! A Why is the motivator and driver of your business. It is your compass or the North Star per se! It is rooted in your definition of success and in what you want for your life. It is not rooted in what other people say you should want. Only in what YOU want- think unapologetically you! A Why is not a one size fits all, and it has to be individualistic to YOU- your dreams, goals, purpose, and driving force!
Finding Your Why
For a lot of people, finding your Why can be a challenge. A lot of times, you may doing something because it’s just what you have to do. Get a job. Buy a house. Make Money. Pay your bills. Instead of finding what is motivating you, you may be accustomed to “doing what needs to be done”. However, in your business you HAVE to find your motivator.
First, when you launch or start a business, there is a lot of adrenaline and excitement. At this point, the excitement is what is driving you, not your Why. While excitement is fun and thrilling, it won’t get you too far. Over time, you lose that butterfly feeling. The new business thrill has ended, and the hard gritty work has set in. You start realizing how hard running a business is, and you’re probably working 24/7. You’re not seeing the fruit from all your long nights. It’s exhausting and anything from exciting.
Therefore, when excitement eventually ends, you’ll find you need something more to drive you! In these moments, your Why is what keeps you rooted in where you’re going. It can become easy to quit when things get hard, but your Why is what keeps you moving towards your goals. It’s the motivator, the driver, the force that pushes you- your North Star! Without it, you’ll feel completely lost and burnt out!
Make Your Why Work For You
However, let’s say you know the Why for your business, but you’re still not feeling motivated. If this is the case, it’s time to find a different Why. Reevaluating is key! Find what is driving your soul. What do you consider a successful business for you? Maybe it’s having enough money to pay for your kids to do that sport they’ve been dreaming of. Or maybe it’s simply having enough money to pay for groceries. For others, your Why may be to hit a six figure income. Your Why can be as big or as small as you need it to be. The bottom line is- it has to be enough to get you out of the bed in the morning and motivate you! Finding your motivating Why is critical to your success!
Now, let’s discuss the a few ways to make your Why work for you and your business!
Allow Your Why to Evolve
First, when you’re asking yourself “What is my Why?”, it is critical that you create a Why that is actually attainable. A lot of people think your “Why” has to be the end goal for your business, so they set the bar too high in the beginning. For example, let’s say your Why is to make your side business a full time six figure gig in six months. However you have a demanding full time job, four kids, and barely any money/time to invest in your business. Under those conditions, setting that Why isn’t going to be very attainable or motivating. Any roadblocks are going to discourage you and convince you to give up.
The rule of thumb when finding your Why is to create a smaller attainable Why. This doesn’t mean dreaming big is wrong or that your smaller Why can’t change over time. However, if your Why is too big, you’ll find there is a large gap between where you are and where you want to be. Making the gap smaller creates a motivating mindset that tells you, “You can do it!”
In additional, the beauty of a Why is that it will evolve with you! It may change over time based on your life, goals, and new dreams. Once you reach that more attainable, smaller Why THEN you can start to create a bigger Why. If something seems attainable, you will focus on doing anything to make it happen.
The biggest factor here is to make that gap smaller and allow your Why to grow with you as you grow your business.
Visualize What You Want
Second, after you’ve spent the time finding your Why, it’s time for the visualization process. Creating a vision for your Why is going to be the biggest motivator of all! Envision what it would feel like to reach that goal. Literally close your eyes, and imagine that dream coming to life and the feelings you would experience once you reach it. The further you go to made that visualization real, the more it will drive you!
When Melanie was working in sales, her company was gifting trips to Disney for those who reached a certain sales goal. More than anything, she wanted to tell her family she was taking them on a trip to Disney. In comes the visualization process! She printed out a picture of the Magic Kingdom and put it on her vision board. She changed her phone screensaver to Mickey Mouse, and she made herself visualize her kids faces when she said they were going to Disney. Those visualizations made her think about what she needed to do to make that trip happen. Melanie took a really REAL visual and then asked herself what were the steps it would take to make it a reality.
Visualize What You Don’t Want
But on the flip side of that, it is rare that someone always wakes up motivated. Maybe you wake up and you keep getting objections in your inbox. Nothing is going right in your business. You begin to believe it isn’t going to happen. The next step in the visualization process is to visualize what it would feel like to NOT reach that goal!
Melanie also visualized having to tell her kids they would not be going on a trip to Disney because she pushed the snooze button and made too many excuses. She visualized everyone else reaching her goal and experiencing her dream. She visualized removing the Magic Kingdom off of the vision board and how that would make her feel.
Visualizing the negative outcomes of NOT reaching your goal, will propel you to turn the other way and the pain of not reaching that goal will push you further! Bottom line, there has to be ownership of the vision. When you feel ownership of your vision, you begin to take ownership of the actions it takes to get to that vision. So it isn’t just about dreaming big it is about acting bigger.
Embrace the Plan A
Lastly, you MUST embrace a Plan A mentality in your business. Without it, you are setting yourself up for failure. When you go into any business thinking if it fails it is no big deal, you are settling for a Plan B option. Many people are running with a Plan A mentality, but they always have a Plan B option. If you always have a Plan B, you are always going to think about the easy way out. Realizing that you’re business isn’t a Plan B causes you to start treating it like it’s your only option! You will do whatever it takes to make it happen because you aren’t giving yourself the out. The Plan A means you have to show up and make an effort. This mentality isn’t a “if” my business works out, it’s a “when” my business works out mindset.
You have to create the Plan A for yourself. Believe that you do not have another option. Create your corner! Set attainable daily goals/boundaries to accomplish. The ownership of having that Plan A, will force you to stop playing Hokey Pokey with your goals. This mindset won’t allow you to put one foot in and one foot out. So I want to ask you- where are you putting one foot in but always have one foot out? The retreating is what’s preventing you from moving forward in your business.
One More Thing: The Ands & Buts
In addition, your Why will only work for you if you have the right narrative. Most people use the word “BUT” when speaking about their business. We’ve all heard it,
“I would love to reach this year end goal, BUT it isn’t going to happen because….”
This narrative is killing your success! If you remove the word “BUT” and replace it with the word “AND”, you give yourself an opportunity to take action instead of an excuse. So take a look at your narrative, and be disciplined in changing it!
Be aware of the the way you are speaking to yourself. Because IT MATTERS! If you have big goals and you want to achieve them, you have to get really focused on the action behind it. So when you feel the need to use the word “BUT”, let’s change that up and use “AND”.
“I would love to reach this year end goal AND this is what I am going to do to make it happen…”
See the change in narrative? It makes a difference, and it keeps you from accepting failure!
Want to learn more about success tips, starting a business, or the power of visualization?
You can check out this week’s Make Chic Happen podcast episode: Episode 135: Why Your Why isn’t Working?
Also, want to learn more about growing your business, read Exposing the Truths About Business Growth blog post.
If you enjoyed this blog post, we’d love for you to repost the infographic below to your socials to share with your small business friends!
