Start with why

Today in church our pastor focused his sermon around a really cool TED talk by Simon Sinek about why successful people and companies are successful. The model he uses to explain these successes is called "the golden circle" and it diagrams two different perspectives: those that start with "what" and those that start with "why" (see below). When you start with what, you're focused on the end result, your own actions and reactions to life, and the here and now. Often times you can see the "how" from where you are but you'll never get to the "why" behind your actions and motivations. When you start with why, you have a focused vision of your beliefs, dreams, and motivations that then lead to how you do it and what you do. While the end result may be the same, starting with "why" gives your results purpose and provides inspiration to those who realize your why and can see how it lead to your what.

While the context of the golden circle in the sermon was about how we act and live as Christians (and I thought this was a great model for that) I also see how starting with why can also improve my professional life as well. I feel like my "why" is getting clearer and I have a general idea of what I want to accomplish with my career but the "how" is really eluding me. I think this is also why graduate school can be frustrating, when often times we get stuck in the "what" of classes, lab work, etc and forget about the reason we got into school in the first place.

As I complete my final 1.5(ish?) years of graduate school, my goal is to get a clearer image of my "why", let that vision help me develop my "how", and then as my projects are completed and I start to look for jobs I'll have a better idea of "what" needs to be done next.

Here is a link to the TED talk if you're interested: