The power of knowing why

IN many psychology articles, posts, and quotes of today we find the habit of goal setting being highlighted and emphasised. The importance of setting achievable targets that keep you moving in a positive direction towards what you want. Be it achieving a winning performance, losing weight, hitting a personal best etc. As I have even discussed in previous articles there is quite the marriage between goal setting and motivation, indeed one is very much linked to the other.

While in conversation with one of my athletes recently this very topic came up and we began discussing a recent dip in their motivation despite the consistent habit of setting and achieving goals. Throughout the conversation, we dug deeper and unearthed something quite pivotal to the notion of goal setting and motivation that can often be overlooked…The reason why.

This very conversation inspired me to reflect on my own current goals and motivations and remind myself of the underlying reason “why” and I certainly struggled. I realised that I was not stating reasons why but instead highlighted hopes or dreams I wanted to achieve. My reflections then stirred me to begin a little social experiment among my sporting circles and challenge individuals to identify why they do what they do, “why do you play this sport?” “Why do you coach?” “Why do you want to achieve this?” and so on…

The findings were quite interesting and very much aligned with my initial responses. Oftentimes we as individuals don’t even realise that our answers to such a question are overly complicated, not self-focused, future-focused, or even difficult for us to come upon. Some of the answers I received included things like, “I want to make my family proud.” “I want to make a career of this.” “I want to represent my country.” And while those are all excellent answers, they are not core reasons, they are by-products. If we look back at the definition of motivation it’s “the direction and intensity of effort,” but a question that should always precede such is “why this direction?”

We get up and train every morning because we love the sport we play because discipline is a value we hold as important because commitment to my training will take me to where I need to be. These are reasons why, but many a time we get caught up in what we want to achieve rather than our purpose.

We as athletes and coaches can sometimes get lost in believing that it is a straightforward process: you set goals, you train, you compete, you win or lose…But encouraging individuals to regularly remind themselves and reflect on the reason why they are doing something is equally as important as setting their goals.

Beyond serving to tell you what kind of goals and tasks you should be pursuing knowing why serves two fundamentally important efficiency-related purposes as well: it motivates you and it orients you.

Knowing why you’re doing the work, training and sacrificing is motivating because it acts as a reminder that all of the run-of-the-mill work you put in is worth something more in the long term. Forgetting this can lead to you feeling discouraged and overwhelmed by the day-to-day grind.

The second big benefit to really understanding why you do the work that you do is that it orients your decision-making. If you don’t have a clear vision of what your work is for, it can be easy to overlook things and make poor decisions. For example, an athlete who is part of a team but doesn’t really have a reason for training and committing is more likely to drop out or not attend sessions versus an athlete who loves the sport and is purpose-driven.

This orientation also serves a macro purpose: to help guide you. Knowing why you do what you do can really help you to make smarter decisions and pursue the right kinds of opportunities to foster growth and progress towards an end goal you’re actually excited about.

Some simple questions we might begin to use to remind ourselves of our “why” can include:

What are my top three core values and how do they relate to what I am currently doing?

What am I most passionate about?

What is my mission? What do I ultimately want out of this?

Feel free to submit any questions to alexandriaolton@outlook.com