Identifying your “Why”, Personal Mission and Values: Why it’s Important
Taking the time to identify your “why” and clarify your personal mission and values can feel like an overwhelming task. So why bother to even to take the time to identify any of these? You’ve been getting by just fine, right? As you grow and encounter new challenges, your personal mission, values, and “why” serve as a compass; keeping out enticing distractions that may derail you from what’s really important to you. In order to live life in a way that feels more intentional and purpose(full), you must first understand what direction you want to go in. Sounds easy enough, right? 😅
This article won’t go into how to craft your personal mission, values, and “why” but will dive into why establishing a direction for our lives allow for us to be more aligned with living a more authentic life. The article covers 3 main aspects I believe are key to living a purpose(full) life:
- Understanding external pressures that compete with our values
- Committing to yourself: an inside-out approach to identifying our “why”
- Taking the first steps to living a mission-driven life
The Outside-In Dilemma- Identifying External Pressures
Knowing where you are going involves centering yourself around a broader purpose fueled by your own values and mission. If we don’t know where we’re going society, family, friends, our careers or finances will begin to direct a path for us. Pressures from society are sooo real- deciding to ignore them or going against those prescripts may have life-altering consequences. Living (or not living) up to external pressures or prescripts are often the source of anxiety, depression, panic attacks, envy, motivation- or lack thereof, and so forth.
“Shooot- I am living it up! No pressure or anxiety for me.” OK sure, life is full of countless ways to have fun and gratifying distractions. At some point, however, I would say we will probably face the reality of what fruits our actions will bear. I equate living life from an outside-in values system similar to living on autopilot. Following the status quo feels easy, safe, comfortable, and even attractive. Before we know it, our life is headed in an unknown direction- one that isn’t ours. We find ourselves pausing, asking, “how did I get here?” In some cases, we’ve fallen so off course that finding our way back at this point feels nearly impossible.
I ask, when was the last time you felt true joy, freedom, or lost track of time? How often do you practice those things that fill or renew your spirit?
The act of returning to ourselves- what we need emotionally, spiritually or physically isn’t an easy recalculation in our GPS. This is one decision may come at a great cost- met with deeply ingrained habits or limiting beliefs, pain, deep financial debts or disarray.
Beginning from the Inside-Out
To be owners of our life requires work- work that is continuous, freaking HARD, and met with resistance. Resistance can take many forms- fear, procrastination, people pleasing, limiting beliefs to name a few. Owning our life is like owning a business. Typically, we start a business with a purpose or goal in mind. Think of a company, brand, or podcast that you’re the most drawn to. You may find that they make it pretty clear what they value and what impact or service they provide.
Work, work, work, work…
When it comes to dedicating time to strategize, develop new goals, or assess progress, I think of the countless meetings, retreats, weekly 1:1’s with my supervisor, and/or performance reviews I’ve been in. Companies find these meetings invaluable to their progress that they dedicate time and money for these resources each year.
When it comes to ourselves, however, do we carve out similar amounts of time and energy to check-in and identify where we’re going? Do we give ourselves performance reviews in areas that are most important to us?
Do we periodically ask ourselves?
- Does this make me happy?
- Did XYZ goal(s) work out the way I had hoped?
- How can I improve on…?
- Shoot, let me be real for a sec: Did I even improve or grow as a human being at all this year or do I still feel like the same person complaining about the same challenges as last year? oof.
For some additional perspectives, this Forbes article on ‘Why’ Your Why Matters adds more to this topic. The process of reflecting, looking inward and recognizing what it is that we want for our lives is one that is continuous. We’re always learning something new about ourselves. We have to give ourselves space to grow, evolve, retire limiting beliefs that no longer serve us, and- for some- change our circle of friends so that you can live that aligns your values.
Whooo- Where do I Start?
Doing the work inside-out is not a one and done situation. As I mentioned in my previous example, this stuff takes work and is continuous. Each new decade is going to be met with new experiences, wisdom, relationships, career experiences, etc. One phrase that has always stuck with me is, “new levels, new devils!” As I climb new heights, I am experiencing seemingly more difficult challenges. Change and growth is scary as sh*t! One a similar note, with each new level it requires new grace that we must exercise for ourselves (and others). Taking time to check-in with ourselves and assess our values, our “why”, and mission keeps you focused on what’s important for MY LIFE! It allows for me to be unshakeable. I will experience hard times, be sad AF, discouraged but knowing my “why” keeps me focused on what is important to me. Internalizing this and living a life that’s centered around your values allows you to push past fear, judgement from others, or say “No” to other things not important right now.
- Give yourself room to grow and grace to learn with each season you encounter.
- Surround yourself by a community of people who support your growth and will evolve with you- not spaces that have placed you in a box or limit what you’re capable of.
- Find what inspires you, fuels a fire within you, makes you tear up with joy and hold onto that.
Living a life where we align more closely with our “why” and personal mission/values takes strength and faith. We will fall off course, the more clear you are about your “why” and mission/values, the quicker you will be aware of when you’ve derailed. As you lean into your purpose and live intentionally, you’ll be able to better discern what energy or opportunities to invite into your life and gain more clarity of what direction you’re going in.
If this post resonated with you, I’d love to hear your thoughts on your strategy to living a life of purpose and one that aligns with your values and personal mission. Thank you for reading this far- your time means a lot to me.
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