What’s your why for building a habit this month?
What is the big reason that you want to create this habit?
Can you get it down to one or two words?
In some ways finding the answer to this question can be more difficult than creating your mission statement or designing your vision board.
It can be very challenging to boil it all down to one or two words.
You might think that you have the answer, that you know in exactly one or two words why you are building this habit for your life.
Your why is the very reason that you are building the habit. It isn’t the who, what, where or when – it is simply the why.
Try the exercise…
One exercise that you can try to discover your why is to sit down and start writing out words that mean something to you. For example: family, children, health, etc. Write out all of the words that come to your mind regardless of how silly or insignificant it may seem. Then when you are completely out of words to write read the list that you just wrote out and see which word brings the most emotion to you. Does one stand out as making you want to jump up with excitement or cry because of how deeply it hit you?
Or try this one…
Spend some time reading over your mission statement and looking at your vision board for inspiration.
How easy was it for you to figure out your why? Did you already know what it was at the start of this or did you try one or both of the exercises? If you tried one of the exercises, did you find it to be helpful? Was there any resistance that you encountered or do you think that at this point in the challenge the why should already be deeply established?
To Your Success,
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I think I already knew the why. Happiness and awareness. No matter what the result is, I’m building the habit to be happier in life and I’m also building it to be more aware of myself and my life.
I can’t think of anything that I want to do in life in which I don’t want those two things to be the ‘why’.
Kari@Personal Growth invites you to read… Living in the Moment – A Few Lessons I’ve Learned
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Stacy Reply:
January 21st, 2012 at 12:58 pm
Hi Kari,
That sounds like a very compelling why! Thank you for sharing!
Stacy
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Hi Stacy
Great post here. When I first started trying to gain clarity about the life I wanted to lead and who I wanted to be, I discovered the ”why” is probably more important than the ”what.” Knowing why we want the things we want will help us stay motivated and it will help us make decisions with greater ease because we know which ones will move us towards what we want and which ones will move us further away. Knowing ”why” will help us gain confidence in our path because we will have a better understanding of ourselves and we will know we are doing the right thing.
Kelli Cooper invites you to read… Only YOU Are Responsible For Your Feelings
[Reply]
Stacy Reply:
January 21st, 2012 at 12:58 pm
Hi Kelli,
Thank you very much. That’s a very important distinction between the why and the what. Our why is what will really drive us!
Stacy
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Great job Stacy!!I am really lucky to read this blog and I want to share this too…I know this can help…
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Stacy Reply:
January 21st, 2012 at 12:53 pm
Thank you, I’m glad that it helped!
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Hi Stacy,
If the why is big enough, it will be easy to figure out the what. I learned that if the why is in line with my core values, it becomes even more easy.
Thanks for sharing
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Stacy Reply:
January 21st, 2012 at 12:53 pm
Hi Marc,
That’s so true, thank you!
Stacy
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I loved this post, Stacy! Just like Spinoza said: “sub specie aeternitatis”. I’ll grab pen and pencil and make myself those questions on my pace.
Gustavo | Frugal Science invites you to read… 5 tips for clearing your mind and learning better
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Stacy Reply:
January 24th, 2012 at 10:19 am
Hi Gustavo,
Thank you, I’m glad that it has inspired you!
Stacy
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I loved this post, Stacy! Really fresh style of writing of this type of post. Really loved it.
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Stacy Reply:
January 31st, 2012 at 8:07 am
Thank you, what did you find most helpful?
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