Finding My Why

​I’ve had the privilege of taking some professional development classes lately, and one of the exercises my colleagues and I were asked to do was to “find our why.” We had to do some deep thinking to figure out what makes us tick, what makes us get out of bed in the morning.
 
We went through a number of activities to get our brain juices flowing in an effort to narrow in on that unique thing for each of us. We answered questions such as “What are your values?” “What makes you unique?” “When are you at your best?” “Why is that so great?” “When have you failed?” And “What would your family and friends say about you?”
 
This called for some deep soul searching. And after a few days of contemplation, I thought I had it all figured out. With a confident sense of accomplishment, I decided my “why” is to encourage and inspire the lives I come in contact with.
 
What a relief! I finally knew exactly what it was that drove me. Or so I thought. With the idea of encouraging and inspiring those I come in contact with in mind, I found myself not doing that around every single person I encountered. And that took me through another round of introspection.
 
Could my why really center on encouraging and inspiring others if I didn’t do it all the time — and it wasn’t the first thing I went to when confronted with a life? After all, I’m more of a task person than a people person. I decided that must not be my why. And I thought long and hard about that.
 
Suddenly, a light bulb illuminated in my head. I realized my why, the true reason I get out of bed in the morning, is to celebrate life. And I beamed. This was definitely it. This IS it. God has given me a second chance at life after battling breast cancer in the face of losing both of my sisters to the disease. Every day I get up is a gift. And I want to celebrate that gift.
 
How about you? What’s your why?

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