You could start with why. You should start with why not?
- Tonic365
- 3 days ago
- 3 min read
In his book, Start with Why, Simon Sinek lays out a clear argument for why some people and organisations are more inventive and successful than others.
Most companies focus on three main elements:
What we do
How we do it
Why we do it
But truly inspiring leaders communicate with the opposite focus:
Why we do it
How we do it
What we do
The core message is that people don't buy what you do, they buy why you do it.
Emotion and purpose drive decision-making, and when a company or leader communicates a clear WHY, they attract people who believe what they believe.
And they are successful. Repeatedly.
Apply this theory to healthy living
We've always followed a similar process when it comes to helping leaders create behaviour changes, particularly in relation to sustainable healthy habits and personal performance.
Fitness. Why?
If you want to get more activity into your life, it's way more effective to ask yourself why this matters to you than to think about how you'll achieve the goal.
The how (going to the gym / going for a run etc) might not sound that attractive but the why (way better energy, focus, creativity, self-esteem etc) instantly feels more exciting.
Sleep. Why?
If you want to sleep better, what you can do (go to bed earlier) and how you'll make this happen (leave work earlier) can sound painfully mundane.
But the objective comes to life when you focus on why you want to make it happen, with incentives including better mood, more energy, faster decision making, less anxiety, more confidence, better relationships, feeling happier, the list goes on.
You get the idea.
The same is true for objectives relating to healthy eating, managing stress, building resilience, balancing work and family life and so on.
What is functional.
Why is motivating.
We suggest one step further
The build on this mindset that we encourage is based on one simple fact.
People are already super busy and in many cases, analysing the why will add more items to your to do list. Which feels like an effort. Which you probably don't have time for.
If we use the examples above.
Getting more active requires adding more movement or exercise to an already busy schedule. This takes time.
Getting to bed earlier requires getting out of the office earlier which implies working faster. This requires effort when people already feel they're packing as much as they can into every busy day.
So we suggest, rather than starting with why...
Start with why not?
Ask yourself, 'why am I not acting in a way that's consistent with the outcomes that I'm highlighting for myself?'
If we stick with getting active, and explore the most common response to the question why not, which is, 'I don't have time', the logical next step is to examine what specifically is taking up your time at the moment.
Make a list. Where does my time go?
Once you have a handle on this, you can make a plan for reducing time spent on some these activities.
Which will create some time to allocate to exercise.
Similarly for sleep.
Ask yourself honestly, why am I not sleeping well at the moment?
You'll probably come up with a deluge of reasons right away.
Netflix, social media, news, work, emails.
For each of which you can create a plan to DO LESS. Thus freeing up time to sleep.
So, from today, whenever you identify any changes you'd like to make in your life, rather than asking why this might be a change worth making, ask yourself, why is it not already happening?
This will instantly give you a plan for where you can reduce the number of items on your to do list and make available way more time to dedicate to things that serve you.
You should read...
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