Did you ever wonder what is it that separates the man that succeeds and the man that nearly always falls short in life?
What is it that the champions have clued into that the mediocre performer lacks?
There exists a driving force for human behaviour that, when used to ones benefit, unleashes the infinite potential of man to achieve what first appeared impossible.
This force is called emotion and it’s full benefit is found in asking “why?”
A Lesson In The Importance Of Why
Samuel Pierpont Langley is a relative unknown name in the history of humanity. Yet in the drive to crack man-powered flight in the world at the beginning of the 1900’s, he was supposedly the leading light in the race.
The U.S. War Department had granted him a massive budget of $50,000 to procure the best tools and minds available in pursuit of this goal. He had a seat at Harvard University and worked at the Smithsonian Institute so he had some of the best minds at his disposal. And the New York Times followed him everywhere. Everyone was rooting for Langley.
He wanted the fame and riches that came with being first. His team worked for the pay check only.
Yet a few hundred miles away, Wilbur and Orville Wright were using all their spare time to crack the same challenge. Their only source of money came from the proceeds of their bicycle shop and nobody on their team had a college education.
However, the brothers had a vision of how man-powered flight would change the world forever. Their why was deep and strong and so the team worked giving sweat, blood and tears to the cause.
And so it was that the Wright brothers won the race leaving Pierpont Langley to retire on hearing they had got there first; more evidence that he was in it for superficial reasons of vanity. Their “why” drove them to transcend all obstacles on the road to their spectacular success.
Great Performers Start With Why
Every person knows what they do. A portion of these know how they do it. But it is rare the person who knows why they do what they are doing.
Great performers instead start with why. They centre themselves in the emotions of why it is they are alive and pursuing what they do. They think, speak and act from this starting point before concerning themselves with the how and the what of their activity.
They live in a reality of dreams and visions of what is possible and their emotional system propels them to the achievement of whatever they focus their mind on.
Martin Luther King declared, “I have a dream!” submerged in his “why” and not, “I have a plan!” submerged in “what” and “how”. His power of influence was in his why.
Why “Why” Is So Potent
Starting with why, one accesses the limbic part of the brain and the“second brain” of the gut. These are the emotional centres which drive all human behaviour and decision-making. Emotions, coming fromemotere meaning literally to put into motion, are what put humans into behavioural motion.
When a man is grounded in a powerful “why” behind his vision, he has the full transformative force of his emotions behind him. The vibrational state of his being and thinking elevates to inspired levels to a point where he stops perceiving obstacles, seeing only opportunities to achieving his goal.
Go Beyond The Severely Limited Thinking Mind
Society has endoctrinated us into a complete over-reliance on the logical thinking brain as being the pinnacle of human intelligence yet it is inherently severely limited in its capacity to create within the human experience.
This neocortex part of the brain is our thought producing factory. It houses the “what” we do and the “how” we do it but its lack of emotionality means it will never drive behaviour.
A thought can be likened to a seed. Take the classic example of an acorn. It has enormous potential to grow into a massive oak tree but without the auspicious conditions of soil, water, sunlight etc. it can never germinate and grow.
A thought has a creative potential within it but without emotions this potential can never be realised to its fullest potential. Without e-motion there can never be strong motion forward.
Find Your Why and Start to Fly!
Do whatever it takes to unearth why it is you are alive. Discover what you are most passionate about and go that direction in life.
Your greatest impact as a human can only ever come from following your passionate interest because only this will have the miraculous transcending energy of your emotions behind it completely.
Just never forget that without being saturated in your “why”, your dreams will die!
This post was inspired deeply by the superb TED talk by Simon Sinek called Start With Why. One of the top ten most watched TED talks of all time, this is a powerful investment of eighteen minutes of your life.