The title of this post is borrowed from Simon Sinek. If you haven’t see the TED talk of the same name, it’s worth the 17 minutes. In any case, my point today is simple:
The harder things get, the more you need to focus on why you’re doing them.
From time to time, it helps to take an audit: sit down and pretend you’re talking to someone filming a documentary of your life. They’ve just asked you, “why were you so dedicated to that?”
How do you respond?
External motivators don’t work in the long run
If you discover that things like grades, money, and praise are at the top of your list, I’d like to invite you to dig deeper into understanding yourself. These things are needs, and we all need all of them. But they won’t keep you going for a fourty-year career.
This isn’t to say that your motivators aren’t good enough. It’s saying that I am sure you have additional needs. The sooner you explore yourself and label them, the sooner you can leverage them to do something big.
Consider this an invitation to learn more about yourself.
Why is this so important?
Consider Maslow’s hierarchy of needs:
- Physiological
- Safety
- Love/Belonging
- Esteem
- Self-Actualization
Maslow’s theory is that the farther down this list, the more important the need is for us to meet. Things like grades, money, and praise hit items 1-4. What’s it take to hit number 5?
Self-actualization has to do with knowing you’ve reached your full potential, made an impact that only you can make. The more clearly you can label this in your life, the more challenge you’ll be able to endure to achieve it.
Hang in there!!!
