“WHAT do you do?”
“HOW do you do it?”
“WHY?”
At any networking event, it’s the “WHY” question that stumps most people, including me. There are many reasons to do what you do: fame, fortune, family, fun…. I’d like a dose of all of them, but instead I struggle to come up with a “socially acceptable” reason. I struggle to craft something poetic, a mission statement that identifies an internal driving force rather than something external.
To answer this question, Ridgely Goldsborough’s book, The Why Engine, defines 9 basic reasons that drive people.
What’s your WHY? Here are 9 basic ones.
- To contribute to a greater cause, make a difference, or add value.
- To build trust or create relationships based on trust.
- To make sense out of things, especially if complex or complicated.
- To find a better way.
- To do things right or the right way.
- To think differently and challenge the status quo.
- To master things, or seek knowledge.
- To clarify, create clarity and understanding.
- To simplify.
When your WHY aligns with WHAT you do, it creates PASSION and PURPOSE.
This list of 9 basic motivators creates a starting place. One motivator is not better than another. You might even feel you straddle more than one category. The important thing is to identify what gives you passion. Logic will fail you here. There is no objective scale to tell you which WHY is better. Only your own inner work will identify the pattern of what consistently drives and motivates you. Think back on the moments when you were filled with passion and purpose, then identify the common features of all those times. Life evolves and changes, perhaps your motivation has changed. Identify the WHY that motivates you now.
When you know what motivates and drives your personality type, you can apply it to your life choices and create a life of more passion and purpose. Connecting to your inner guiding star creates the passion of Living the Present Moment.
What’s your WHY?
As a Physician, Educator, and Storyteller, the WHY that drives me is (#1) “to contribute to a greater cause, make a difference, or add value.” While other motivators are important to me at different times, “making a difference” and creating something of “value” motivates my practice of medicine and my crafting of stories. Connecting to the internal motivation of WHY and crafting in further into a mission statement has helped me in those moments when the motivation and passion wanes. I connect back to my WHY and my mission of WHAT and HOW to find purpose and reignite passion.
Take a moment to answer the question for yourself:
What’s your WHY?
Books by Ridgely Goldsborough
The company you keep
Here are the 9 WHYs and famous people that might fit in each category.
| 1. To contribute to a greater cause, make a difference, or add value. | Mahatma Gandhi, Mother Theresa, Michael J. Fox, Jim Rohn |
| 2. To build trust or create relationships based on trust. | Goethe, Elton John, Stephen Covey, Sam/Frodo/Merry |
| 3. To make sense out of things, especially if complex or complicated. | Alan Watts, Benjamin Franklin, Henry Cisneros |
| 4. To find a better way. | Elon Musk, Isabel Allende, Bela Karolyi, Ross Perot |
| 5. To do things right or the right way. | Henry Ford, John Wooden, Eleanor Roosevelt, W. Clement Stone |
| 6. To think differently and challenge the status quo. | Steve Jobs, Herb Kelleher, Sara Ramirez, George Carlin |
| 7. To master things, or seek knowledge. | Albert Einstein, Stephen Hawking, Michelangelo |
| 8. To clarify, create clarity and understanding. | Robert Frost, Vincent Van Gogh, Ludwig Wittgenstein |
| 9. To simplify. | Confucius, Joan Miro, Peace Pilgrim, Henry David Thoreau |