Book 72 - A Year of Magical Learning
- cmsears8384
- Dec 19, 2021
- 3 min read
Updated: Aug 7, 2022
Reflection Title - You don't find your why...your why finds you!
Book - START WITH WHY: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action by Simon Sinek
Book Description: START WITH WHY asks (and answers) the questions: why are some people and organizations more innovative, more influential, and more profitable than others? Why do some command greater loyalty from customers and employees alike? Even among the successful, why are so few able to repeat their success over and over? START WITH WHY shows that the leaders who have had the greatest influence in the world all think, act and communicate the same way—and it's the opposite of what everyone else does. Sinek calls this powerful idea The Golden Circle, and it provides a framework upon which organizations can be built, movements can be led, and people can be inspired. And it all starts with WHY.
Reflection:
I loved this book and quickly found one of my new favorite authors / voices in this world in Simon Sinek after I finished it. Even though this book has a more business focus to it, I was actually reading it for a more personal reason. I picked up this book in the first place because I was curious to learn more about the concept of one's "why" around this time in my life as I felt like I had just recently found my own.
A few weeks before beginning this book, my infant daughter had tragically passed away. When she was still with us and I was back in the NICU fighting by her side for her to make it home, I had read a book next to her in the hospital called The Compound Effect by an author named Darren Hardy where I first encountered the concept of the "personal" why. Darren described "a why" as something so deeply motivating inside you that you wouldn't think twice about crossing between 2 skyscrapers on a wooden plan to get to the other rooftop. It got me thinking that day as I looked out over my daughter as she was fighting for a chance at life in this world for the first time, "What's my personal why?". Upon reflection in my journal, I came to discover that for my entire life, I had no why or anything to what Darren described in his book that would to propel me to act without thinking. It actually was pretty disappointing to reflect on.
However, that was about to change as I sat and watched my daughter's fight from the sidelines over the course of the 39 short days of her time here on Earth. My why soon became incredibly obvious as I watching my courageous daughter's battle for life. My why was to channel the living embodiment of the beauty of humanity I was witnessing from my tiny hero to endure, to fight, and never give up no matter what obstacles are thrown our way.
I can never forget this and it propels me forward in all that I do every single day. It is how I wrote our book, I Can't Imagine, for an hour each morning before work for a year straight. It is how I'm doing this year of magical learning journey where I'm reading 365 book and writing 365 reflections and so much more. Every single morning, I literally wake up and start with why. I look at photo's of my daughter on my wall. I read my why at the top of my journal, I look at the little wrist band on my arm, and I think of my daughter and what she endured. Then...I get to work on living my values for her.
After my journey with my daughter, I think that I've learned that, sadly, the most powerful and real "why's" in this world are born out of pain and suffering. I'm more convinced now than ever that is the case. I can never forget what I saw from my daughter. It will never happen and will stay with me until the day I die. There is nothing else in this world that I've ever experienced that comes even remotely close.
Because of this, I don't personally think that you find your why in this life...your why finds you and it must be born out of pain for it to last.
Question: What's your why?
Links:
What is The Year of Magical Learning? An Introduction
YOML Podcast Discussion - Start with Why
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