Give Yourself a Reason to Be Great
Make hard choices easy by creating a reason to be great.
Every Sunday, Prompted delivers insights and prompts designed to help readers become a bit better each day.
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He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.
Friedrich Nietzsche
Without structure or purpose in our lives, we default to the path of least resistance.
To become better and accomplish things that are worthwhile requires that we do things that are difficult and uncomfortable.
We don’t do hard things unless we have a reason. There is no sense in suffering for suffering’s sake.
Without a purpose, we float aimlessly through life trying to do what feels good and what feels right, but there is no reason for us to sacrifice or engage in anything worthwhile.
Because we’re not not creating or doing anything in life we feel regretful and lost, making it even harder to make the right choices to move ourselves forward.
When we create meaningful goals in our lives, decisions become easier. Sacrifice is rewarded. We start to move towards something worthwhile.
Simplify Decisions
The goals we define create purpose for ourselves and become the scaffolding for our decision-making. Having a clear purpose makes decisions easier and focuses our energy in one direction instead of having it pulled in opposing directions all the time.
We know we should eat the healthy meal, call friends we haven’t seen in a long time, and spend the extra hour to make something great instead of settling for good, but without a reason, we just don’t do it.
A reason, a goal, a purpose; they unlock something in our brains. They give us the rationale, the psychological cover, and the social justification to do the hard thing.
Leaving a social event early to get a full night’s sleep is selfish and difficult on its own, but noble and encouraged when it’s done for a greater purpose, like caring for kids or training for a marathon.
We face countless small but difficult decisions every day. Each presents an opportunity to improve ourselves and move our lives forward.
Without goals or purpose, we might learn to make the right choice most of the time, but it will be hard, tiring, and far from perfect.
With meaningful goals, we still won't be perfect, but the hard choices become easier. The correct path and its justification become crystal clear. What were once uncomfortable decisions become automatic tendencies.
Create Commitment
Our purpose in life defines our behavior. No matter how badly we want to do the “right” thing we need a reason to help us do it consistently.
When we’re struggling with our habits and making hard decisions on a day-to-day basis we often look to our routines to fix the problem, but we should be looking at our goals, our purpose, and our mission.
We should be sharing our goals with others, signing up for things we can’t back out of, and putting our money where our mouth is. We should be deciding what’s important, committing to it, and letting those commitments drive our decision-making on a daily basis.
When we clarify and commit to meaningful goals we give ourselves a reason to do what’s right and the scaffolding to make decisions that will help us become a bit better each day.
Prompts
Have you ever had a clear goal or purpose that made difficult decisions easy?
Do you have a meaningful goal that is driving your decision-making today?
How can you create social justification and sound reasons to do something difficult but important?
Deep Dive
Sinek introduces a theory that “starting with why” inspires others to take meaningful action.
Thanks for reading! I’ll see you next Sunday.
Kevin