Motivated Entrepreneurs Know Their Why

Motivation is what drives a person to perform the actions that they do. The stronger or more powerful the motivation, the more determined the person will be to achieve his or her goals.

When you understand what your why is, this will keep you pushing past obstacles and will allow you to hold on even when the path forward seems impossible. It will also help you be the one person to keep trying even as others quit.

Your why has to be important to you. When it is, you’ll give up whatever you need to give up or improve whatever you must improve in order to achieve your success. This can be something to different to each person.

Some people have a goal of wanting to support their families. They want to be successful with their business so that they can benefit the people they love. This might be something such as paying for a college education or helping a family member with the down payment for a home.

This type of why for some people is just that they want to bring joy. Other people have a reason that’s rooted in creativity. They do what they do because they have a strong motivation to create something, like a business.

They find it relaxing and it’s something that appeals to them. When they see their hard work come to fruition with each step or project they do, that continues to motivate them.

Your reason might be something along the lines of wanting to make the world a better place.

You might have the desire to provide financial assistance to charities that support children or animals. Or maybe you want to be able to sponsor families in need directly.

There is no wrong or right answer when it comes to finding and defining your why.

It only needs to be something that you’re passionate about or that matters to you. One entrepreneur wanted to be nomadic and in order to sustain that travel lifestyle, she needed to have a flexible business model.

That was her why behind creating her online business. It supported what she chose as her happiness. Knowing your why is important, and while you can strive to be successful financially with your business, you don’t want money to be your only motivation.

Dig deeper and pinpoint what it is that money will provide for you – peace of mind, personal satisfaction, comfort and happiness. Get specific with it, like the people who say traveling the world is their why – and this will help motivate you to bring your business to a higher level of success because you can envision your life changing because of it.

Getting The Best Results From Your WHY Statement

It is no easy task to identify your real purpose in life and write a compelling WHY statement that will drive you forward. In reality this is going to take a lot of time and effort to get it right. So when you make this kind of investment in your WHY statement you want to make sure that you get the most out of it afterwards.

In this article we will explain how you can do that. As soon as you have your WHY statement written you can start to do these things which will help to transform your life for the better. Don’t just write your WHY statement and then not take any action and follow through on it. If you don’t take action then there is no point writing your WHY statement.

Use your WHY Statement to set inspiring Goals

Only a small percentage of the population actually set goals. Some of these people choose to do this at New Year when they are in a drunken haze. We do not recommend this as it rarely works out well. Others will set goals with a clear head but they end up going for goals that they are not totally committed to and then fail to achieve them.

You may be wondering why anyone would set themselves goals that they are not really committed to. Well it happens a lot and sometimes this can be other people influencing us to do something that seems like a good idea at the time.

For example you may have a close friend that has decided that they want to climb Mount Everest. They put pressure on you to do this with them. You agree because you value their friendship but you do not really have any desire to start mountaineering.

You go to classes with your friend and soon lose interest. Your heart is not in it like theirs is. So what do you do? Well you may have to dream up some credible excuse why you cannot pursue this goal with them. Maybe lie about a physical problem that you have which prevents you from climbing mountains?

This kind of thing can be completely avoided when you have a clear and compelling WHY statement. You will have clarity about where you want to go with your life and there will be no need for you to be influenced by others.

It will be a lot easier for you to identify and set your goals when you have a powerful WHY statement. You will also be totally committed to achieving the goals because they are in line with your real purpose in life. It doesn’t get any better than that.

Let your WHY Statement Guide your Decision Making

Without truly knowing what your purpose in life is it will be very easy for you to make the wrong life choices. You will be vulnerable to any temptations that come your way and to ride the wave of the “next big thing”.

Most decisions that you need to think about have consequences. People that drift along aimlessly in life rarely consider these consequences and as a result end up living a life that they don’t want.

When you have a powerful WHY statement as a guide you will make a lot better decisions in your life. It doesn’t matter how big or small the decisions are you can use your WHY statement to guide you down the right road.

How To Live By Your WHY Statement

Having invested a lot of time and energy finding your true purpose in life and writing your powerful WHY statement it is essential that you live by it going forward. You need to make the right choices in life that fully support your WHY statement and avoid those choices which move you away from it.

If you have made a statement of contribution to help others in your WHY statement then it is not a good idea to go to the bar every night and get drunk. You are not going to be able to help a lot of people in this condition are you?

OK this is a pretty extreme example, but it is a real one and if this is something that you currently do then you are going to have to change this behavior right now. In fact anything that you currently do that doesn’t fit with your WHY statement is going to have to stop.

Take Stock of your current Lifestyle

A lot of people that find their true calling and write personal WHY statements find that their current way of life is far away from where they really want to be. We recommend that you examine all of your current habits to see if they align with your WHY statement.

If your habits are not in alignment then that is OK. You will need to commit to making adjustments so that you can align with it. Give yourself time to do this as it may take longer than you think to break certain habits.

Persistence will Win the Day

You will need a good deal of persistence to change your life to align with your WHY statement if there is a significant gap. By making small changes on a regular basis you will get there in the end.

The best results will come your way when you are persistent. Each day make a list of the things that you need to do to align your life with your WHY statement. Review your progress at the end of each day and plan for the next day. By taking small and regular actions you will develop your persistence and get the results that you want.

Focus on Providing Value to Others

In your WHY statement you made a contribution to help others. Make this your focus going forward. Most people tend to focus on money and are always looking for ways to make more. When you change your focus to helping other improve their lives then you can do it in such a way that the money will follow.

Don’t get hung up on small things. Too many people focus on the minutia of life and never achieve anything. Your WHY statement will provide you with the “big picture” so use it to focus on the important things that will get you where you want to be.

Living by a WHY Statement is not easy

The reason that so many people just drift along in life is because it is an easy option. It doesn’t take much effort to sit in front of the TV for hours eating snacks. When you are committed to a WHY statement then there will be no easy options for you. It is all or nothing.

Accountability will help you here. Share your WHY statement with people that you know. Try to find a WHY statement buddy who will hold you to your mission in life and quickly point out to you if you are going off track.

Getting The Most From Your WHY Statement

There is no doubt that any good personal WHY statement takes time and effort to create. So having made this investment in your WHY statement you will want to get the most that you can from it.

Quite rightly you took quite a long time to write and refine your WHY statement so that it was as clear, concise and powerful as it could be. So now it is time for you to reap the benefits of your new powerful WHY statement and in this article we will show you how to do that.

Motivate yourself with your WHY Statement

Inspiration alone is usually never enough to achieve your goals. There are going to be times when you are not in the right frame of mind and just cannot be bothered to take action. When you have a strong personal WHY statement you can use it to provide you with a significant motivational boost.

We strongly recommend that you have a copy of your personal WHY statement by your bedside. Every morning after you get out of bed you should read your WHY statement out loud so that it motivates you and gives you the energy that you need for the day ahead.

It is also a good idea to keep a copy of your WHY statement with you so that you can access it at any time. If you feel the need for a motivational boost at any time of day, and wherever you are, get out your WHY statement and read it again.

There is no limit to how many times you should read your WHY statement each day and be motivated by it. That is one of the main reasons that you spent all of the time and energy writing it so use it as often as you need.

Set your Goals using your WHY Statement

You are very unlikely to achieve goals that you are not truly committed to. Maybe you were persuaded by others to set certain goals in the past or you just thought that it was the right thing to do.

With a strong WHY statement you can forget about what others say and any other influencers. You know what your purpose in life is now and you have clearly defined this in your WHY statement. This clarity is essential for you to set goals that you are inspired by and truly committed to.

You are aware of the contribution that you want to make to the world and the impact that you want to have. So use this to set goals that will move you forward with both of these. Create your goals and plans around your personal WHY statement and you will be totally driven to achieve them.

Make Decisions using your WHY Statement

You should find it easier to make decisions going forward now that you have a strong and clear WHY statement. Instead of making some decisions without considering the consequences as a lot of people do, your WHY statement will guide you to make the right decisions.

Your WHY statement has provided you with direction and purpose for your life so always have it in the back of your mind when you are making decisions. Ask yourself if making a particular decision will move you closer to your life’s purpose or move you away from it.

How To Create A Strong Business WHY Statement

Writing a strong and effective mission statement for a business is not a 5 minute job. You need to think carefully about what you want to include in your mission statement as it needs to be congruent with all of the parties in your business including your customers, employees, suppliers and stakeholders (owners etc).

We recommend that a strong mission statement needs to include these three important elements as a minimum:

• What does your business do for your customers?
• What does your business do for your employees?
• What does your business do for your stakeholders / owners?

So good mission statements include a fourth element which is what the company will do for the community. These are certainly the most important factors of a mission statement so make sure that you include them in yours.

What does a Strong Mission Statement do for a Business?

It is very similar to a personal WHY statement in that it provides clarity of purpose. There is more to a mission statement than a personal WHY statement as a business is more complex. A strong mission statement should be used to:

• Set the main business goal(s)
• Determine the company culture
• Define the ethics of the business
• Provide guidance for decision making

Unfortunately most mission statements are poorly written and you wonder why the business owners bothered to write theirs at all. Some of the largest businesses are guilty of this – it is not just the smaller companies.

If you create a vague mission statement this doesn’t help your customers or your employees at all. You are not going to garner commitment if people do not understand what your mission statement really means. So in this article we will show you how to create a clear mission statement that all parties can commit to.

What is the Purpose of your Business?

The first important step to writing a strong mission statement is to define clearly what your business is about. Consider the customer here and map out the process of how they find out about you right through to making a decision to purchase your products and services.

You need to think about these 3 main aspects:

• Why do your customers want what you have to offer?
• How will customers find your business?
• What’s in it for your customers?

In your mission statement you need to inform your customers why they need to buy from you. Write a list of what your business does as well as the things that it doesn’t do to help create a clear picture.

What does your Company do for your Employees?

If a business does not take care of their employees there will be high turnover which is expensive. So use your mission statement to retain your employees for longer. Think about how you motivate and train your employees. Here are some ideas for this:

• You provide the best training
• You are fair with your employees
• You respect the ideas that your employees have
• You empower your employees

All of these things really matter to your employees. You need to tell them that you see them as your most precious asset and you want to take care of them. To avoid your mission statement being too long, you can create an external one for your customers and an internal one for your employees and stakeholders.

Mission Statements and Owners

You need to include what is in it for your owners in your mission statement as well. If you are not the owner of the business then talk to the owners to find out what is important to them. The value of shares and return on investment are almost certainly going to be of interest.

Why Your Business Needs A WHY Statement

A WHY statement for a business is known as a “mission statement”. It is similar to a personal WHY statement in a number of ways. Having a good mission statement is important but most business owners don’t bother to create one. Or they write one for a business plan and then never look at it again.

Writing a good mission statement is essential. If it is done in a rush and doesn’t encapsulate all of the important things about your business then it is a complete waste of time. In this article we will explain why it is so important to create a strong mission statement and take the time and effort to do so.

It Provides Direction

A good mission statement will always clearly state the direction of a company. It will include the main goal of the business and this is important for customers, employees, suppliers and stakeholders to know.

As your business launches new products and services your customers and employees will understand why you have done that if you have a strong mission statement. They will see how they align with the direction that the company is heading in and will be more committed to them.

It will provide Employee Unification

In any company that has a number of different departments there is often a disconnect between them. These days many businesses outsource work to skilled freelancers and external companies and this makes the problem worse.

For example, if the company is planning to launch a new product then it is very likely that most of the departments and a number of outsourcers and external companies will be involved. If no strong mission statement exists then there is a much higher chance of the overall goal of the project being lost on different people.

When you have a strong and explicit mission statement and you share this with all parties it makes it a lot easier for everybody working on the product launch project to see how they fit in and how important their role is.

A Mission Statement helps to maintain Focus

When a company grows and expands their reach it is often the case that both the bosses and the workers will lose their focus. If your business has a strong mission statement then this can be avoided.

Loss of focus can really harm the reputation of a business. Its brand can suffer and so can its overall image. With a strong and explicit mission statement in place it will provide guidance to all during periods of growth. The mission statement will remind everyone of the main goal and help to keep its reputation intact.

Creating Accountability with a Mission Statement

Any business will exist to fulfill a specific purpose or need and this needs to be stated clearly in your mission statement. A businesses needs to be accountable so that it can continue to improve and serve its customers better. If the overall purpose of the business is unclear then it is going to be difficult, if not impossible, to make these improvements.

You need to make it clear in your mission statement what your business wants to accomplish. This will help to hold both the business owners and employees accountable and ensure that everyone is striving to achieve the same goal.

Communicating Your WHY Statement To Others

When you make a commitment to create a truly powerful WHY statement, it is a good idea to share it with other people in your social circle. You can share your new personal WHY statement with your family members, your close friends, your employer and anyone else that is important to you in your life.

Some people are not going to know what a WHY statement is and why you have bothered to create one. Explain to everyone that you have now found your true life purpose and that you intend to stand by your WHY statement from now on.

Sharing Provides Accountability

By sharing your WHY statement with the important people around you will make yourself accountable and more motivated to live by it. You may not feel that you need this added accountability because you have a strong will, but you will be surprised how much this can help you to be the person that you truly want to be.

Not everyone that you share your WHY statement with is going to hold you accountable. Some of your family members and friends may not even notice that you have deviated from it. Others may notice, but then show sympathy to you and say things like “well you tried and that was the main thing”. This is not going to help you.

Think about who will make a good WHY statement buddy. This is a person who will truly hold you accountable to your WHY statement and will let you know in no uncertain terms of you fall of the rails. They are not going to be sympathetic to any deviances and will give you a hard time if you do not live by your WHY statement.

Is it necessary to Share your WHY Statement with everyone?

There are going to be some people in your circle that just don’t get it. They may even laugh at you for creating a personal WHY statement and tell you that you have just wasted a lot of time and effort.

Some people are going to tell you that you will never live by your WHY statement. They know you very well and feel that you will deviate from your WHY statement at the earliest opportunity. We all have these kinds of people in our lives who see the negative in everything.

So should you share your WHY statement with these people? To be honest only you can answer that question. If you know that a person is going to hit you with a barrage of negativity when you share your WHY statement with them then you need to decide if you are going to be able to handle this.

Some people can handle this kind of negativity well. It actually makes them even more committed to their WHY statement. Others will find this negativity difficult to deal with and it may make them think that they are wasting their time with a WHY statement.

You need to assess what kind of person you are and how you will react to any negativity. If you think that any negativity will affect you badly, do not share your WHY statement with these kind of people.

The truth is you can never totally predict how people you are close to will react to you telling them about your WHY statement. Some will be enthusiastic and show encouragement. But others that you expect the same reaction from may be negative about it. You need to be prepared for any eventuality.

The Three Different People In Life And Why You Need To Choose The WHY Path

All human beings do the things that they do for a reason. They also avoid doing certain things for a reason as well. The reasons behind some of the things that we do are obvious. We eat because we are hungry and want to survive. We bathe because we don’t want to be dirty and smell bad.

But there are other things that we choose to do, or avoid doing, that have more complex reasons behind them. If you know someone that works a job that they really hate then have you ever wondered why they do this? The obvious answer that most people will come up with is “they need the money” or “they are desperate”.

But there are other reasons that can come into play here. Some people just don’t want the extra responsibility that comes from working a higher paid job. Others avoid applying for better jobs because they do not have the confidence and belief in themselves that they can do the job.

When you look at the overall population we believe that there are three different types of people in this world. In this article we will examine these and explain why it is your interest to choose the WHY path. You will understand this more as we go along.

1. The Drifter People

This accounts for the vast majority of the population. They may have dead end jobs or they might have reasonably good jobs but they have no idea what they really want from life or which direction they are heading in. These people drift along in life and “go with the flow”. They don’t like change and are usually happy to be a drifter.

If you were to stop one of these people in the street and ask them what they really wanted in their life then they would not be able to tell you. They may come up with a few material things like a nice house and a car but they do not have any real plans.

Ask them where they want to be in the next 5 years and you will get a blank look. Most of them don’t know where they will be in the next 5 days. These people never set any goals for themselves with the exception of setting New Year’s resolutions to lose weight and other things that they never follow through on.

2. People that find themselves Stuck

These are a much smaller percentage of the population who are not happy with their current situation and want to change it. They want to identify and follow their true purpose in life but they are stuck trying to find it.

As a result of being stuck then tend to go off in all different directions searching for that thing that will make them fulfilled. This is better than being a drifter but very frustrating as you are largely relying on luck to find real meaning in your life.

3. People that know their real purpose in life

This is an even smaller percentage of people that have identified their true calling in life. The know exactly what their WHY is and they are driven to achieve it. They have goals and plans and work on them relentlessly every day.

We recommend that you choose the WHY path. When you discover your true WHY in life you can set the right goals and attain total fulfillment. Don’t let life dictate your future – take control right now and identify your true purpose in life and go after it.

The Best Way To Find Your WHY

There are a small percentage of the population that spend a great deal of time trying to identify their true purpose in life. This is agonizing for them and some will find their true WHY and others will not.

The reality is that some people just don’t care about their WHY. They are happy for life to control them and drift along day by day. But you need to find your WHY because it is very important. Once you know your true reason for being then you can pursue this with passion and vigor to attain complete fulfillment.

Ways you can Find your WHY

Most people try to find their WHY using trial and error. They jump on every opportunity that they can to see if it leads to the Promised Land. This may work in a very small number of cases but will fail most of the time.

Another thing that you can do to try and find your WHY is to follow others. Maybe you have a friend or someone else that you are close to that you believe is a lot happier than you are and want to do the things that they do.

So you decide to set the same goals that they do in the hope that you will find the same fulfillment. The problem is that you are not going to be as committed to these goals as your friend is. When your heart isn’t really in something then there is not much chance of you achieving your goals.

Maybe you have seen something on TV or on the Internet. You see people are really happy with this so you decide to pursue it as well. But you need to bear in mind that most of this is marketing and that the people looking happy in the ads are being paid to do this. Please don’t believe everything that you see on TV or the Internet.

Finally you can decide to really find your true purpose in life. It is not going to be the easiest path for you to take but you know it is the right one. Trying to follow the passions of others is rarely the best thing to do. You need to know what your true passions are and then do everything possible to follow them.

We are all different and all have different passions. Only when you identify what yours really are will you find fulfillment. So don’t waste your time with trial and error or following someone else because it is not going to work.

Ask yourself Questions to find your WHY

If you want to find your true purpose in life then you need to take the time out and ask yourself some soul searching questions. This is not going to be an easy task and it will take you time to do this. But the rewards are certainly worth it because discovering your WHY is one of the best things that you can do in life.

So find yourself somewhere quiet where you can spend some quality time asking and answering the right questions to find your WHY. You don’t want any distractions while you are doing this. Bring your journal with you or a pen and paper as you will need to write down your answers. Here are the questions to ask yourself:

• How can I improve the life of others?
• What are the things that I do where time seems to pass by quickly?
• What did I really enjoying doing as a child?
• When people ask me for help what help do they want?
• What would I do if I didn’t have to worry about money?     

Use your answers to these questions to determine your WHY and create a WHY statement.                                                                                 

How To Write A Good WHY Statement

Once you have discovered your true calling in life you want to create a WHY statement around it. Your WHY statement needs to be compelling because you want to use it to motivate you every day to do the right things to attain fulfillment in your life.

There are a number of formats that you can use to write your WHY statement but at the end of the day it is up to you. There are no hard and fast rules here. The most important thing is that your WHY statement really resonates with you and that it is effective.

Four Elements of an Ideal WHY Statement

Although you don’t need to conform to any set rules there are four elements to a good WHY statement that we strongly recommend that you follow. Your WHY statement need to be very clear and as concise as possible for you and any people that you choose to share it with. So we strongly recommend that you include these 4 elements in your WHY statement:

1. Make your WHY statement clear and simple

It is really important that your WHY statement provides you with clarity about your life’s purpose. It needs to be simple to understand and as concise as you can make it. At the end of the day it needs to make sense and resonate with you.

2. Your WHY statement needs to promote action

Your WHY statement must inspire action. There is no point just writing a WHY statement and then do nothing with you. It needs to inspire you to work towards your true calling in life and motivate you to work on this every day.

3. Include your Contribution to others in your WHY statement

If you can help others then you will help yourself. Every good WHY statement needs a contribution element to it so make sure that yours does as well. Having a contribution element will inspire you to move forward each day.

4. Make your WHY statement positive and ensure it resonates with you

It will actually be pretty difficult for you to create a WHY statement that is negative but ensure that it is really positive. When you read your WHY statement it needs to resonate with you and motivate you to take action towards your life’s purpose.

How long should your WHY Statement be?

Again there are no strict rules to follow here. Your WHY statement needs to be as long as you need it to be. Having said that we recommend that you keep your WHY statement as short as you can.

The most important thing is that your WHY statement contains the 4 important elements that we discussed above. While others may be able to write their WHY statement in one sentence this may not be enough for you. This doesn’t matter at all so please do not concern yourself with this.

Aim for an Evergreen WHY Statement

An evergreen WHY statement is one that you will not have to change very often, if at all. You want to use your WHY statement in all aspects of your life both in your work and personal life.

When you are writing your WHY statement, think about it as a way to express the value that you provide to others at work and in your personal life. There is no need for you to write two WHY statements to cover this.