One of the amazing things I find with folks is that they have not drilled down to their “Big WHY” and thus they fall short in all they wish to do.

By this I mean, WHY do you want to do something?

Many times we say I want a nice house. But WHY? I want a successful career. But WHY? I want to volunteer. But WHY? I want to make a difference. But WHY?

Many people set goals for their careers or for their retirement (or second half as we refer to it) but over 95% of the folks I come in contact have a hard time answering the WHY. And for many of them they don’t ever get to their big goal because they have not identified their real WHY. The WHY is WHY we do something, the energy behind the goal? I feel that in today’s goal oriented world that the setting of goals is easy but the WHY is difficult. Sort of like when you run into someone and ask how they are- standard answer “fine”. But are they really? How do you answer the question when asked? Surfacy but not real.

One of the things that I worked with people was to drill down into WHY they want something. WHY do they want that goal? And what I found is that sometimes it takes asking the WHY question 15 or more times. In fact in one of my classes I asked a student as part of an exercise if we could drill down their goal. It took asking WHY over 50! times to find out WHY they wanted the goal. And the surprising part was that the original goal was not going to help get them to answer, to fulfill their WHY!

If your goal in your second half is to make a difference in a certain area, maybe you know where or what. But then the question is WHY? WHY do you want that? Then WHY do you want that and so on till we find out what the goal really is for YOU! What will having those goals do for you.

Each of us is wired differently and today many times people want to give the right answer or the politically correct answer. What I have found is that when people connect with WHY they want something, WHY they want to do something then they are more likely to achieve it. It is so easy to come upon challenges, to get off track, to have others tell us no, to have society tell us no. However if you are clear about your wants, clear about WHY you want it, the world is yours. God gave us the greatest gift of all, the ability of choice. He only wants the best for us and he knows your WHY. The question is do if you are clear and you can articulate it to others then you will achieve it.

My recommendation is to take your goal – whether it’s in work, family, your second half (retirement) or whatever it is and ask yourself WHY do you want it. What does getting that, doing that do for you? Then ask WHY that is important to you. Then ask about your answer WHY that is important to you.

To truly make a difference in all you do, figure out your BIG WHY.