The Importance of Knowing Your "Why" in Business and Life

As a female entrepreneur, I encourage my solopreneur clients to uncover their “why.” We discuss the importance of knowing your why and the positive impact it can have on your business growth, your overall life trajectory, and life satisfaction. In my one-to-one client work, knowing your “why” is one of the key elements we use to help you move forward in your business and life.

What Is Your “Why”

Through the process of our work together, I have you answer a series of questions, one of which is “what is my ‘why’?” Sometimes my clients will say to me, I don't have a “why.” I don't know what my “why” is. Or I have an inkling, but I'm not sure what it looks like. Eventually, they do get to the clarity of knowing what their “why” is and it is a fascinating, provocative discovery.

If this sounds familiar, I hope you'll take this to heart because I know it can be frustrating and stressful, you can be stuck and confused and stressed in terms of your direction for your business and your life when you don't have awareness of this key driver. You’ll see that your “why” can be a powerful tool that you can use to get unstuck and move forward in your life and your business.

Sometimes people ask me “what is a ‘why’?” because it can be a big or amorphous question to take on and answer. So, I add some specificity to the question. One way to look at it is when you get up in the, what's your overarching intent for the day, what impact do you want to have? What change are you trying to affect?

If you ask yourself any or all of these questions, you might get an interesting confluence of answers which will help you uncover what your “why” is. I am a fan of journaling, of taking a pen and paper, setting a timer, and sitting down for five or 10 minutes and seeing what comes out in terms of answers. This can be done on your laptop, of course, as well. But there's something about putting pen to paper with your hand that I find is particularly helpful.

Now, why is knowing your why important?

There are several really good reasons. First, it gives structure and meaning to your day-to-day. As I said at the start, you know when you get out of bed in the morning what you want to accomplish and do because it is based your “why,” basing it in your “why.”

The second is it gives you a place to check in when you are trying to make decisions when you're trying to figure out what to say “yes” to and what to say “no” to, whether this is specifically in your business or in your personal life. So that's a second reason.

And the third is it allows you to focus on what's most important to you. I’ve found this to be life changing. It helps you keep focused on your needs, wants, desires, and goals. It provides clarity. It provides meaning and the opportunity for fulfillment.

Then, when you marry your “why” with what really gets you excited, what gives you juice, that's when the magic really begins. In my experience through my work with female solopreneurs, especially those that have multiple ideas, multiple interests and passions that they've struggled to bring together, knowing your “why,” and getting that aligned with what excites you, provides you with a hub, with into which all of these interests connect and provides a story around which to move forward.

How I Discovered My “Why”

This has proven to be a fascinating process to witness in others, and I thought it might be helpful to share my own story when it comes to discovering my “why.”

As I often like to say, "the cobbler's children have no shoes." What I mean by that is it can be very difficult to do for ourselves what we do for others, especially when we're service providers - coaches, consultants, designers, etc. And I know this has been true in my life. We neglect sort of key areas of our life that we tend to in our work with our clients.

One day I woke up and realized that I had never put myself through the process that I take my clients through. I call this this process, THE QUESTIONS, and one of them is what is your “why?”. And I realized there was no escaping it anymore, that I needed to sit down and do this. So, one day I did; I sincerely asked myself the question, what is my “why?”.

At which point I had a visceral reaction, "I don't have a ‘why’." And then I put on my coaching hat and went to the coaching side of my brain and basically said, “hogwash.” So, I asked again, I sat down with a pen and paper, as I suggested you do, and did some writing. And nothing was really coming that really hit home.

Then I decided to take suggested approach of the German poet Rilke's, which is to live the question. I sat with it; I stayed with it. I let it be in my mind without forcing it and being okay with not having an answer. And eventually one day out of nowhere, the answer came to me. And I knew that my “why” is to awaken people, especially female entrepreneurs, to what the possibilities are for them in their business and their lives.

Now, given that I'm a business coach and consultant, of course a part of my client work is to help you develop a plan, to bring those possibilities into reality. But where the energy really lies for me is in the first part, because if we never get to what the possibilities are, then we never get create your plan.

How Your “Why” Can Jumpstart Your Business

I found this for myself after much too long. But once in the process, waiting to get to the point of knowing has been really anchoring and inspiring for me. And one of the things that I've decided to do based on my why is to move forward on the desire to take the process that I've worked with clients on a one-to-one basis and reach more people.

I am excited to be launching my first live online coaching program in January for a group of six female solopreneurs. This is where the juice is for me personally at the moment and I'm thrilled to be moving forward with it. I still do one-to-one coaching but adding this offering to my business for 2022 brings a new dimension to my work.

I hope this inspires you to think about the possibilities for your business and life. And to ask yourself, “what is m ‘why’?”.

To learn more about my new Level Up Your Business Program for Solopreneurs, click here .