In this part, we will talk more about how to find and define your WHY. In the first post I talked about the importance of having a strong WHY as a creative. Because without a strong WHY and a defined meaning of what success is for you, you won’t know where to go or have the stamina to make it there.
The inspiration for this post comes from “Framgångsboken” by Alexander Pärleros. Where he talks about this topic and how important it is to have a strong WHY in your life among a healthy mind and soul. That book was on my list of summer reads and the inspiration for this blog post.
What would you do if you didn’t get paid?
Finding a WHY is easy for some and can be a bit tricky for others. A good start is to think about what you would be doing even if you didn’t get paid to do it. For me, it’s photography. If I decided that I won’t do it as profession anymore, I would still keep creating images, just because I love it so much. It fuels my creativity, I get to meet new and interesting people and I feel good while doing it.
Another good question to ask yourself is why am I doing this? Is it for me and my own vision and goals or is it because of pressure from society, parents or family? Of course, some of our jobs and decisions be because of the will of others, that’s just normal and what a professional life as a creative and creator looks like. But, if your main goal and dream is because of someone else, your heart will also be somewhere else. This is one of the reasons I chose to run my own business, as a freelance creative and content creator. I always felt that I was making reality of someone else’s dream when working as an employee. I didn’t want to spend my life not fulfilling my own.
Defining and narrowing down
Alexander Pärleros, in his book “Framgångsboken” (the success book), makes a list of the 100 top things he wants in life, both personal and professional. I think that listing 100 things is to overdo it, but the tool he is using it is a very powerful one to help you narrow down your WHY and goals.
Step 1– Start by writing down things you want in life. Both as a professional and on a personal level. Don’t think of it too much, just list it down as it comes to your mind. Don’t do this in five minutes, let it take a while and your list will be better. As an example, here are an outtake from my list (no specific order):
- Run my business successfully
- Make more books
- Give speech/talk internationally
- Travel more
- Ski more
- Have financial security
- Be an internationally successful photographer
- Have an exhibition in an art gallery
- Spend more time with my parents
- Spend more time in nature
- Be financially independent
- Feel happy in my body and soul as a human being
- Host a ”sommarprat” (a Swedish radio show)
- Play golf without losing my temper and feel it’s a meaningless sport
Step 2– In these posts we talk about finding your WHY as an aspiring or professional creative, so I’m not going to dive in to my personal points. Highlight the ones that you feel would maximize your success and will send you a step closer to your goal. For me it looks like this:
- Run my business successfully
- Make more books
- Give speech/talk internationally
- Be an internationally successful photographer
- Have an exhibition in an art gallery
- Spend more time in nature
- Be financially independent
- Feel happy in my body and soul as a human being
- Host a ”sommarprat” (a Swedish radio show)
This will end this post, so it doesn’t get too long. I really urge you to spend some time with making your list and then trying to define it even more. In part 3 of these posts we will keep defining our list and make our goals even more clear.
Love,
Johan
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