Tying it together: the why, what and how questions [How to be an Original]
I’ve been thinking about the correlation of the topics I’ve been blogging about. They reflect what I’m thinking about, what I’m reading about, what I’m working on, what I want to achieve and so on. They cover a wide variety of topics, not so much on a horizontal scale, but more so on a vertical one. I see three different levels:
On the highest level I ask questions on the “Why” level:
- Why do I want this?
- Why does this appeal to me?
- Why is this important to me?
- Why do I hesitate making this commitment?
The Why-level is the authenticity check. This is where my core values (fun, freedom, love, authenticity) play the lead roles. This is also the level where you define your mission, or mantra, or main themes in your life. Here you really have to connect to your inner self, and to your feelings.
Don’t linger on this level, visit it regularly but not too often. Once or twice a year will do. Write down what your feelings are, what your ambitions are, what important themes are for you. Never mind if the wording isn’t exactly right, next time you’ll be refining it anyway. It’s important to connect to your feelings, and as such it’s hard to put in words.
The next level is the “What” level:
- What do I want to achieve?
- What do I want to do?
- What do I want to feel?
This level is about making what you want from life conceivable for our minds and as such achievable. Here you define goals. Goals give direction in day to day activities and decisions. You can plan and even make a planning to achieve them. Remember to make them measurable, this in my opinion is the most important characteristic (SMART is best, but measurable is key).
When you skipped the first level (or found it too hard to do), working on goals gives you a hint about what you feel is important. Can you imagine that you’ve defined a SMART goal, you’ve committed to it, and you’re close to achieving success but yet it drains energy from you? These are goals that aren’t connected. They have a mismatch with your core values, or your core ambition. Goals that are connected have a tendency to energize you. They can be very tiring, and time consuming, and laborious, but deep down you enjoy doing it.
I’m a stats junkie, so I visit this level often. Generally every two or three months will do.
Finally the third level is the “How” level:
- How can I do this?
- How do I improve my efficiency?
- How can I achieve my goals?
This is the most practical level. This is where personal productivity comes in, this is the GTD level, this is where I battle with my inbox. I know my goals, and I know what purpose they serve. This is where you achieve your success, this is the level where the work gets done!
All the time you spend on the higher levels, ensures that you are working on the right stuff. Now how the -bleep- can I make the time to effectively work on it!? This is a daily battle, and one that I now love to do, as I know it serves a purpose. It’s no longer getting by, or getting through the day in a Dilbert-like way, it’s working on stuff that matters. But geez, it sure is hard!
Oh…and this level, well you already are there every single day…
I hope you’re better able to place the different blogposts, and appreciate the different aspects I try to address. Sometimes they’re “deep”, and sometimes they’re very straightforward. In the end they’re all about doing what matters most (why-level), in an effective (what-level) and efficient (how-level) way.
Original post here: Lodewijkvdb
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