Define Your Why (find + remember your why in 5 steps)

Remember your why, they said. It’ll be fun, they said. Well, turns out it can be more nuanced than expected. So welcome to here. This post outlines the steps to effectively define your why and how to remember it.

Understanding your why has a lot of important benefits – which we’ll get into a bit more below.

But one key thing is this: your why is like your personal litmus test, guiding your decision making and focus.

So I’m psyched to have you here! I hope you find this post valuable and brings you closer to clearly identifying your personal purpose and drive for whatever it is you’re doing.

Alright, enough chit chat – let’s get it.

Why Your Why Is Important

I’ve already mentioned one major benefit of establishing and remembering your why – it’ll act as an litmus test for decision making and guide your focus and attention.

That is, if you’re wondering whether something is worth your time or which task to focus on, simply ask yourself this: does it align with my values? Does it support my why?

There are more perks to defining your why.

Knowing and remembering why your why:

• Supports consistent motivation and inspiration

• Builds brand

• Organizes your tasks and priorities from most important to least

• Adds meaning and purpose to things

• Improves the likelihood of meeting goals

• Supports a healthy relationship with failure or setbacks

• Boosts happiness

How to Define Your Why: 5 Steps

Let’s explore how to define your why.

The steps below are what worked for me and are based on various research and studies on this topic.

As with most of my posts, they tend to follow along my journey and represent what I’m currently focusing on. I often research and write these posts as much for you as I do for me.

So I’m right there with you doing the steps – and I can tell you this, they’re working.

So let’s jump in.

1. Identify Your Values

First things first: what’s important to you? What are your internal values and priorities?

These questions are key to identifying your core values – which is essential for defining and remembering your why.

This is great thought exercise and can provide a lot of clarity moving forward.

So here are some common values to consider for inspiration:

• Health

• Wealth

• Family

• Creativity

• Giving and selflessness

• Integrity

• Honesty

• Spirituality

• Kindness…you know, not being an ass

• Independence

Want to dig deeper into your personal values? Take this free quiz here! I did it and my top priority was creativity. Let me know in the comments what you got – I’d love to hear!

2. Identify Your Passions

Knowing your passions is incredibly enlightening and helpful for defining your why. Makes sense, right?

So what drives you? What gets you excited and makes your heart skip that beat?

Doing more of the things we’re passionate about is pretty generic advice, but it’s cliche for a reason – it works. It’s important.

Of course, we all have different schedules, priorities and obligations. But carving out time for yourself and growing your passions is one of the healthiest things you can do.

It’s not just for finding your why, it’s for your mental health!

So list out your passions, interests and favorite things. We’ll be using these as a key piece to defining your purpose.

3. Identify Your Strengths (+ Weaknesses)

Knowing your strengths and weaknesses can be very revealing.

After all, we tend to be best at what we spend the most time doing. And we spend the most time doing these things because they’re what we’re most interested in (not always, but often enough).

Likewise, our weaknesses (as much as I support strengthening weaknesses for growth) tend to be things that don’t align with our internal values and/or are things we don’t enjoy.

So look for guidance from your strengths.

How can you translate what you spend your time on most into your why?

For example, I spend most of my time:

• Making music and playing guitar (my passions)

• Doing keyword research and SEO for my blog (my strengths and expertise)

• Sharing my learnings through free content (my values)

These are the things that inspire me. These are my strengths and my passions.

So my purpose (my why) could be to create unique songs and write about my journey as a music producer, sharing insights to help others shortcut their way to meeting creative goals.

4. Identify Your Goals

I like to add goals as my next step (although the order of these things is actually kind of flexible).

Having a larger, macro picture for where you want to be and what you want to do can add a lot of energy to our purpose.

It turns our why into a plan.

So identify your macro, micro and nano goals.

That is, first find your larger, long-term goal(s). Then break each larger goal into smaller steps and micro goals. And then split up each micro goal into even smaller nano goals, or tasks to complete.

Knowing your goals and the steps you need to take to get there adds a nice synergy to your purpose.

For each task and day you spend focusing on your goals, you can remember how and why they circle back to your core purpose.

This is great for motivation.

5. Test and Adjust

Finally, it’s important to keep things open to change.

As with most things in life, a dynamic and balanced approach is best.

So your value today may be different 5 years from now. They may change 1 year from now. And that’s all OK.

Don’t feel like you’ve abandoned your values simply because they’ve changed.

For example, I used to value vanity metrics like followers and likes – now I value my time and whether or not I’m putting out high quality, value-adding content and music.

So stay the course, yes, but also be open to change.

BONUS: How to Remember Your Why

It’s surprisingly easy to sort of forget our whys. I mean, we know what our purpose is one we’ve found it.

But it easily gets lost and forgotten in the moment – especially during moments of frustration and doing tasks we hate.

So here are some quick tips to help you remember your why and keep it top of mind:

• Write your why somewhere unique

  • For example, tape it underneath your seat – it’s strange, and you’ll likely think about that each time you sit down

• Meditation and introspection

  • Start your day with meditation and thinking/reflecting on your purpose

• Start journaling

• Acknowledge and assess

  • When you’re feeling uninspired or burned out, get into the habit of acknowledging this feeling – then assess it, and tie things back to your core purpose – then move forward

• Your inner circle

  • Hang around more people that inspire you and make you better

• Practice a growth mindset

• Your Home Screen reminder

  • Make your why and driving purpose the background of your phone’s Home Screen (keeps things top of mind)

• Visualize it

  • Visualize your why and your goals every morning — meditate and feel the emotions of it — imagine as if you’ve already reached your goals and purpose

  • I know, it can sound woo-woo — but this creates new neural networks in your brain. You’re literally rewiring yourself

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