Knowing your WHY… hint, it will help you know HOW to live your dreams
Recently I was working with a young client of mine: bright, shiny, excited for her future, all the wonderful things young people are known for… and scared to death because she has no idea what she’s doing, so she thought.
We talked about her dreams, hopes and goals and when she was done telling all about the future she dreams of, I asked her one simple question.
Why?
“Why what?” she asked with a puzzled look on her face.
“Why do you dream that dream? Why do you want to go there and do that?”
I could tell immediately she had been asked this question before because she immediately perked up and gave me the perfect canned, very well rehearsed response.
I chuckled. “Relax, this isn’t your college admittance interview. I really want to dig into the truth.”
You see, she had come to me because she was struggling. Struggling with what she wanted to do with her career. She asked all the usual questions, “Is this what I am supposed to be doing?” “Is this what I am meant for?” “What does my Spirit want me doing?” “Is this what will make me happy?” She wanted the answers to what was going to let her get on with life and work, and earn money in a world full of stiff competition, limited jobs and AI. She had tried a few things she now knows she doesn’t like, but failed to land in what makes her truly happy, fulfilled and pays her bills. All legitimate pursuits.
Over the next hour we coaxed pieces and parts and stories, and false beliefs behind what will impress people, or what her parents expected, or what she had always been known to be good at, etc. etc. etc. until we sat together with nothing more than a pile of dismantled parts. It was beautiful.
“Now, let’s start to put things back together in a better order,” I said.
Her Spirit spoke of what brings LIGHT to her face and joy to her heart. She talked with such a glow to her when she spoke of horses, and creating, and exploring new places. Her voice just sang when she spoke of the parts of her career that really let her help direct others into new spaces they hadn’t considered before using technology as a tool, not as a replacement. It was lovely. Through all of this conversation there were lines of questions: “What is the value to that?” “What purpose inside of you does that connect to?” and a dozen other ways of asking, “why.”
In the end, she left with a brighter outlook and a much clearer concept of what, not just lights her up, but where she can stand out as different in the best ways all by connecting to the real truths that live inside of her desires.
When we ask ourselves “why” we want what we want, and “why” that matters, we can end up unearthing truths that otherwise go unnoticed and accordingly, unfulfilled. We can do similar tasks but not ever really nail down what our Spirit is looking to experience and so our work never feels as deep, or as meaningful.
Be willing to dig deeper. Slow down to take the time and discover what is driving you from within.
You will expose the truths that will truly set you free, and create a direct pathway to precisely HOW to live your dreams.
Forever the journey, Anne