Getting to Your "Why"
Discovering your “why” gives you the superpower to sustain your motivation in your work, come rain or shine.
Hello, Talking About Money Community, how are you?
If you hesitated to answer after reading the above question, I invite you to a re-read of a post from May 2020 titled Self-Care for Financial Capability Professionals: Friends, This is a Marathon, Not a Sprint.
In today’s post I want you to reflect on your “why.” What, you may ask, am I talking about? I am talking about the “why” of what you do professionally as a financial educator, counselor, or coach. This is a job that carries with it a huge cognitive and emotional toll, even in a thriving economy. But in a pandemic-induced recession with daily reports of high unemployment, an impending wave of evictions, and historic food insecurity, your professional duties might be leaving you feeling overwhelmed.
To add insult to injury, did you see the news that women accounted for 100% of the 140,000 jobs shed by the U.S. economy in December 2020? Yes, read that twice: Job losses in December 2020 were experienced by women 100% of the time. In a field that tends to serve more financially vulnerable women than men, that news headline is enough to make you want to duck back under the covers and not come out until everyone is vaccinated and you get the “all clear” signal.
The sense of being out of control as you are doom-scrolling Twitter, combined with the sheer volume of work that you have to perform each day while working alone in your home is surely a recipe for burnout, that disastrous combination of exhaustion, cynicism, and inefficiency. While there are many specific tactics to combat burnout (see my blog post mentioned above for a few tips), I think that one way to replenish your spirit is to acknowledge your “why,” as in:
Why are you a financial educator/counselor/coach?
Your knee-jerk response might be, “Because I like to help people!” Sure, that is a fine reason, as I like to help people too. But you can help people in many different ways.
Why then, do you want to help people with their personal finances?
5 Steps in Getting to Your “Why”
You might be initially stumped, as I was when I first posed this question to myself (and I have been working in this field for over two decades). Why do I want to help people with their finances? After all, I have lots of different interests. I like food, so I could help people in that realm. I also like to travel, so I might have had a great job in that domain too. So why did I choose this specific type of work?
You might be asking yourself this question too. For a little support in getting to your why, I turned to the Life Skills That Matter blog post called “Find Your Why to Get Unstuck.” Here are five questions to ask yourself about your personal “Why:”
What gets you excited or what can you not stop thinking about? First, ask yourself what kinds of things that you do that you would willing do, regardless of whether or not you were getting paid. Do you love the back-and-forth of client engagement? Do you enjoy hunting down the answers to challenging financial questions? Do you live to see you clients have those “lightbulb” moments that change the trajectory of their lives? Recognizing what it most exciting to you is an important first step.
Is there a problem or challenge that emotionally moves you to act? Now look at how your emotions play into your work. Is there a wrong that you are trying to right? Is there a problem that you are working on, one that once you have solved it (or at least made a dent in it) you will feel like your life’s work will have been accomplished? This is helpful to recognize in getting to your why.
What kind of work gives you a sense of satisfaction or fulfillment? What aspects of your work leave you with that satisfying “I built that” feeling? Do you create lesson plans that maximize learner participation? Do you write in a compelling and meaningful manner? Do you build killer spreadsheets? Knowing what leaves you satisfied is important to making space for it in your daily work.
What aspect of your career have you enjoyed across all your past work positions? Looking back at your past jobs, in what situations were you the happiest? Did you enjoy working solo or did you prefer teams? Did you like supervising or mentoring younger professionals? What about presenting your work to senior management or external stakeholders? Once you can identify these feelings of warmth and satisfaction, you can work towards replicating them.
What kind of work feels effortless to you, but drives your curiosity to learn more? This last question points to your natural talents and abilities, those that you want to pursue for the totality of your life. By recognizing those skills that you are both good at and like to do will set you on the path of satisfaction for your career.
Writing Your “Why” Statement
Now that you have answered these five questions for yourself, you can begin to craft a statement that expresses your “Why.” Simon Sinek, author of Find Your Why and many other books, suggests writing your Why is this format:
TO ____ SO THAT ____
Please note that this is not intended to be an easy exercise. Play around with the phrases and tweak them again and again until you feel like you have come up with a Why statement that fully describes your unique characteristics.
Here is my first-ish attempt at my Why statement:
TO give people the space to examine their inner wisdom and strengths, SO THAT they may live their financial lives with confidence and grace.