Unlock Your Potential: 'Start With Why’ And Transform Your Purpose

Pictured: Simon Sinek (simonsinek.com)

If you are like most business professionals, you have at least heard of or even watched Simon Sinek's Start With Why TED Talk, which in the moment of writing this has 11.5M views on YouTube alone.

I have been intrigued about the concept of the WHY and my WHY specifically ever since I first watched the video of Sinek. As it often happens, the haunting need to know returned in April 2023 (if it had ever left, that is), and I decided to go to the source and do the online courses that one can find on Sinek's website.

The whole process consists of four parts - Start with WHY, Refine Your WHY, Apply Your WHY and Live Your WHY. These are online meetings with an instructor from the Optimism Company (Simon Sinek's organisation). The first session is the longest - it takes two hours, because you are working to unearth and spell out your WHY, but the other three are an hour long. I mostly had the same group of people on the calls, with the tendency to have fewer with each call which is normal, especially as the four classes are not a bundle but something you opt in for separately and they happen on different days too.

Anyhow, these are the technical details and having those out of the way, let's move to the fun part of the course.

THE PROCESS OF FINDING YOUR WHY

I truly enjoyed the work with the group and the instructor really helped create a safe space for so many complete strangers. We were quickly asked to pair up and discover our WHYs together. The process is broken down into steps and without giving up too much of the sauce, I will tell you it is all based on stories - your stories and those of your fellow classmates. What surprised me was that it was not me finding my WHY, but the other person who spelled it out for me, as I did the same for them. Then it comes the fun play with words, trying to find the best fit in the formula “To (contribution), so that (impact).”

The first version of my WHY was “To empower people, so that they don’t settle.”

REFINING & APPLYING YOUR WHY

The second class helps you clarify your WHY, finding if there is correlation between contribution and impact, among other things. There is some pair work again, but of course, it is not necessary that you will do that with your partner from the first class. Here I arrives at the final version of my WHY “To inspire others, so that we don’t settle.” Subtle change, yet it felt so much more powerful and more true to me.
​
You might be thinking that this might be enough, but I’d still encourage you to go through with the whole process, as the next step - applying your WHY, is very interesting in helping you activate the whole Golden Circle (that’s the WHY in the middle, followed by the bigger circle of the HOW, which is in turn surrounded by the even bigger circle of the WHAT). In this one hour you go through all other parts helping you crystalize the whole and what each means for you.

LIVING YOUR WHY

My main takeaway from the final class was finding a way to be constantly reminded of my WHY and making sure I check with it when I find myself at crossroads. Having a symbol helps a lot with this or using a colour. That’s how the strawberry took a more prominent place in my life - the symbol of my WHY. It was interesting to be shown the subtle ways Simon Sinek himself uses orange as a reminder of his WHY.

It is a powerful concept, a fun and engaging process that helps you find your core, spell it out for yourself and the world. This in turn gives you the ability to live truly aligned with your own self and move away from “living by accident” to living “on purpose” as the course description states. The course is suitable to everyone. What are you waiting for?

Stay inspired. Keep inspiring.

The Golden Circle in the distinct Sinek orange colour (courtesy of simonsinek.com)