Why are we friends?
Simon Sinek is Mr. Why. He became (even more) famous a number of years ago with his book Start With Why, which aims to unpack the emotional, unspoken, unarticulated motivations behind our actions, choices and decisions. This week he shared a very interesting question on LinkedIn that he sees as a shortcut to gaining a better understanding of your personal why or purpose. The question is simply this:
Why are we friends?
If you are keen to gain some insight into the value you bring to those around you, start asking this question to some of your closest friends. Not your siblings, family, or spouse since they might be too close to you (and obviously your family did not choose you). They will find it a strange question and difficult to answer at first, since humans cannot articulate words when using the emotive areas of our brains. After they’ve mentioned a couple of generic answers (which is very likely) follow up with:
What is it about me that makes you want to be there for me?
Now it becomes less abstract since the question revolves around the value you bring or individual contribution you make. As you push this line of questioning, Sinek says, your friend will eventually start talking about how you make them feel and that gets very close to the essence of the value you bring to their life. If you repeat this a couple of times with different friends, you will start to notice some themes repeating.
The value you bring is often closely related to the things you value personally, and it provides great insight into what your unique purpose might be. Now this is not a fool-proof strategy, but it’s a good place to start and at the very least a great topic of conversation.
The Takeaway
Your life is transformed the day you discover your unique purpose. Nothing you do is meaningless from that point onward. Let us help you on your journey to discovering your unique purpose. Get in touch at info@purposeworks.co.za
Thank you for reading. Our sincere hope is that the content we share enables you to see things in a fresh and insightful way, so you can go challenge ordinary.
At PurposeWorks we are all about Making You and Your Work Rock. Our focus is on Organisational Health and Design, Employee Centered Culture, Leadership Development and Performance Coaching. For more information on how we can help you create a work environment that rocks, develop a great team, become an inspiring leader or unlock your personal excellence talk to us at info@purposeworks.co.za.
