I recently completed a self-reflection exercise that caused me to dig deeper into my “why” than ever before. It came from a book that was gifted to me by my father. It challenged my internal conventional thinking around why I do what I do. I thought I knew. I thought I was clear. What I discovered surprised me and brought new meaning. It took work, time, reflection, and genuine honesty around who I am and how my past experiences have shaped and molded my thinking, fears, and insecurities.
Being clear on our customized, personal “why” is what drives us to push forward when things don’t go our way and we want to give up. Having a surface “why” will not generate enough momentum to overcome discomfort, fear, and pain. It can help for a period but for us to sustain energy to change and make our lives great we need to dig deeper.
I call this “Why to the 7th Power” based on my own personal experience but it is technically called the “Seven Levels Deep Exercise”. For me, it seemed the deeper I got the power of the “why” got exponentially more powerful, real, and accurate.