know your why

before your what,
and definitely before your how,
needs to come your why.

it's your why that will keep you going when times get tough
it's your why that will help you make critical decisions

your why is everything

life is meaningless
we exist as carbon based life forms on this planet in the middle of no where ...
we will all die, turn into worm shit, and eventually be forgotten ...

so what are you going to do while you're here?

life is incredibly short ... something most of us really fail to grasp
in seeing ... and appreciation this ...
we start to see how beautiful it actual is ...

Even if are lives mean nothing ...
they still mean something to us ...

it is this personal definition that guides us through life
and helps us choose our own personal paths ...

what path have you chosen?

and why?

When we live for others, we give up our own personal ambitions and dreams.
Each time we say yes to someone else's request, we give up a bit of our personal freedom.

This is not a bad thing, but when it interferes with the activities that bring us the most joy, you must ask the question

why?

When you have a good answer tell me ...

most of us never take the time to ask why we are doing the things we are doing

why should we?
everyone else is doing the same things
it must be ok ...

this inadequate self discovery leads to living to many minutes, hours and years, doing things we don't want to do because someone else told us to.

This doesn't mean you should never say yes, but first ask yourself

why

Why am I saying yes?
Am i trying to appease someone else?
Do I have some ulterior motive?

We must always ask why

we have found ourselves in a world full of people searching for meaning

In Viktor Frankl's book, he discusses his personal journey (through the holocaust) and how he found meaning in the most dismal of circumstances. He attributes his survival to the fact that he was able to find meaning in his experience. Viktor choose to see his suffering as a way for him to ultimately serve others more effectively. This ability to view pain and suffering in such a positive light surely gave strength to him throughout his ordeal.

One of the main points of his book is we all create our own meaning. Whether you take a stance of divine destiny or you are a complete nihilist, we always have the option to create meaning in our life. Whether we believe life has meaning or we simply chose to create meaning, we are using a personal belief to add meaning to life.

what a great time for a book reference

We can create wildly different circumstances based on the beliefs we hold.

what did you do today?
why did you do all of these things?

Take a moment and actually create a list ...

here ... I'll do it with you

Today :

• make and drink coffee
• journaling
• wrote a post on steemit
• checked emails / facebook
• did a bit of yoga
• made / ate breakfast
• drove to work
• drove again to work (had to get to the jobsite)
• did a bunch of carpentry stuff
• updated my drugwars account
• checked on my post on steemit
• responded to comments
• spent time on tinder / social media
• drove home
• drank some beer
• smoke some weed
• took a shower
• took a nap
• played frisbee
• bought groceries
• cleaned my room
• started writing this post ...

phew!

That's more than I thought
...

now

Of those things,

which ones are in alignment with your goals??

Ok ...

i have to admit

I didn't do that well either

my personal why is a bit shaky ...

so let's all take a moment to explore

We are going to work from two different angles
and see if we can't create something ...

interesting

Let's begin

If you knew you were going to die tomorrow, what would you do??

go sit in the woods and meditate

If you had one extra day ... what would you do??

build some really cool stuff out of wood and install them as public art pieces

If you had one last day, what would you do??

Cook food and share it with friends ...

The point of this exercise is simple.

We want to focus our intent and discover the things that are most important to us

keys to success

you have to commit to the 1 day left philosophy.
Imagine what you would feel like if you truly had one day left to live ....
then ask the question
use your first answer.
It doesn't have to make sense ...
write down your first thought

Ok ...

next!

What is one thing that really pisses you off?

Trump and his bullshit presidency

Why?

because he is fucking up the planet ... badly

What was the last thing that really frustrated you?

working with my new coworker

why

I don't like wasting my time and it is really frustrating working on a project and not doing as well as I can

What was the last thing that made you sad ... ?

seeing animals dying ...

go through these questions on your own time

you can find a blank copy of the exercise here

discover what is most important to you.

I recommend doing this exercise every day for a month.
At the end of a month look over your answers and discover the themes that are important to you.

I'm going to do a quick analyzation of my answers so you can see how I would move forward.

three things

my bucket list included :

• spending time in nature
• building things
• cooking things
• sharing things with others

From this I'm going to pull

• nature is really important to me and I feel happy /fulfilled when I am in nature & when I am doing things that help mother earth
• I really like building things / working with my hands
• If what I create brings others joy / satisfaction I am winning
  

I can't stand it!

This exercise is aimed to figure out what things you should be working on ...
But!!
if there are things that you find infuriating ... you might want to try solving those problems.

So, I dislike Trump ... and most of the federal government ...

What if I started being more politically active and took up a position in my local government?

hmmm ... I see where this is going

I'm frustrated with work because I feel like I can't control the quality ...

what if I started working on my own ...
OR
took responsibility for MY work and only did high quality work?

I like the sound of that.

I don't like unnecessary death ...

What if I volunteered at a shelter ???

Hmm ...

I see what you've done there ...

The fact is we all have things that we are passionate about ...

we just have to discover them ...

once we understand what we care about, we can start to ask why ...

Why does trump frustrate me??
Well ... he's reversed some important aspects of our climate policy ...
I want other people to see the world in it's beauty and I'm concerned that it will be damaged / destroyed ...

boom!

Now that's a why

Why do I want to create things??
When I build things I feel fulfilled. It brings me to the present moment and I find a peace / joy / satisfaction from it. It feels natural.

let's go!

We're on a roll here folks ...

Why do I feel sad when animals die??
I feel compassion for all of life and want to share my love ...
Why??
I have suffered a bunch myself and I know what it is like ....

We are cruising!!

Do you see how you can uncover these deep, core "whys" of your behavior with a few simple questions??

When we start to understand why we act as we do, we can really embrace who we are and start crafting a life that is authentic to our truest self.

We don't have to be ashamed of our feelings our desires, we can simply accept who we are through a better understanding.

I encourage you to try this exercise a few times.

I have created another post [link] with just the prompts.

You are welcome to copy and repost it with your own answers.

Use the tag #itsmywhy for upvotes from me

I hope that you enjoyed this episode of The Alt Rich

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