“When they WHY is clear, the HOW is easy”
With the growing pressure to keep up with the Joneses and post our “best lives” on social media, the reason WHY we do certain things in our life unfortunately gets a little fuzzy. We have all found ourselves doing things or buying things that don’t bring us joy at the end of the day (hi hello, I’m guilty of this too!).
Over the years I’ve tried to better align my life with my WHY. One of my favorite compliments came from a friend who said “most millennials claim they love to travel, but you actually do.” I love to travel for many reasons, with one of the most important WHY being that it brings me JOY. For many years I’ve reflected on what brings me joy and I realized many of the joyful moments I’ve experienced in my life have come from experiences and travel.
Personal joy where I embrace my long-time hobby of photography, often nerding out over getting a photo or simply enjoy capturing photos for other travelers. Personal joy where I spend uninterrupted quality time with loved ones or myself on a solo trip. Personal joy where I spend my time hiking, being outdoors, relaxing, catching up on sleep, trying new things, and simply doing things I love and the with people I love. Personal joy where I am filling my life with more experiences than things.
So I challenge you to start by asking yourself WHY.
- Why am I traveling to this specific destination?
- Why am I eating at this restaurant?
- Why am I buying this new outfit or new car?
- Why am I posting this photo on social media? Why am I doing something that doesn’t make me happy?
- Why am I spending time and/or money on something I don’t care about?
- Why am I doing something that doesn’t bring me joy?
- Understanding your WHY will help you align your values and priorities with how you live your life.
As we work together to choose our WHY more often, I hope you your life will be filled with more joy and purpose. At the end of the day, we are humans and will continue to occasionally fall into the social media trap. This makes it imperative for us to return to our WHY.
So what do you need to do? Begin asking yourself WHY or consider reading the book Start with Why by Simon Sinek. Here are a few more questions to help you start understanding your WHY:
- Why am I sharing or posting this information on social media? Am I trying to impress someone or do I genuinely love the photo I took and want to share this experience that brought me joy?
- Why am I buying this new clothing item or junk food? Do I really love it or need it? Do I feel like I need to impress society/someone?
- Why am I friends with this person?
- Why am I working at this job or company?
- Why am I dating this person?
- Why am I doing ____________? Do I really want to spend my time doing _______?
Over time, you’ll begin to understand your whys and adopt this framework into your life. Before you know it, you will be aligning your values and priorities on how you’ve wanted to spend your time and money all along. I hope this post inspires you to KNOW YOUR WHY and that you will begin filling your life with the people, experiences, and things that bring you genuine joy and happiness.
With wanderlust,
Haley
Halesyah 