Hi, and welcome back to TEA of Life Podcast. I’m so glad that you’re here.
Today, I’m jumping right into our topic and talking about making a list of your goals or finding your purpose. Think about what it is that you want to accomplish in your journey. Think about what you want your outcome to be. Don’t think about what you may have to do along the way or what steps you may need to take, but just what you want your finish to look like.
But first, I would like to remind you to SUBSCRIBE to this podcast wherever you may be listening. Also, remember to visit my website, teaoflifepodcast.com, for all show notes, links, and transcripts. You can also subscribe to my website and always be notified immediately every time I post something new there.
We need to understand that stating our why is important to help keep us motivated. It leads us to our specific goals. It’s what gets us there. It doesn’t lay the process of getting there out for us, but it actually helps us vision the end result in the here and now.
You need to know your why and state it. Write it down somewhere, and refer to it often.
In a moment, I will give ideas on how to form your why.
But for now, I want to impress why it’s important to state your why. It’s important because in the not-so-distant future, when you feel like everything is going crazy (and you will feel this way, and chances are things WILL be going crazy!) You’ll feel like you’ve lost track and have absolutely no idea what’s going on, you can look back at your “why” and bring it all back home.
In a video titled How Great Leaders Inspire Action, Simon Sinek also talks about stating your why. He says that “by why I mean what’s your purpose? What’s your cause? What’s your belief? Why do you get out of bed in the morning?”
Another good question that I would add to that is, “What keeps you up at night?”
Your why can be related to your own personal calling. It can be related to your convictions. It can be a vision that you may have or have had.
Your why will be your benchmark for every decision that you make. It will motivate you and put a definition to what you do. It’s basically your main source of motivation for doing what you do.
Most people who quit don’t ever define their why. They get overwhelmed or lose focus on their reasons, and they never have anything to come back to because it was never defined to begin with.
Over the years, the reasons that we homeschool have somewhat changed, but our why has stayed the same. We may think that the reason may be why we do something, but our reason is not our why. Reasons and whys are similar but are not the same. A reason is a cause and a why stems from that reason, so a cause creates a reason which then forms a why.
Ha! As my dad used to say… ”Clear as mud,” right?
So, our reason is not is not our why. Our reasons can change, but our why may not. All of our reasons can be different over the years, but every reason that we have focuses back to our original why.
So, an example of a reason for us would be that we felt God’s call on us to homeschool our children. In the beginning, I didn’t want to, and I told my story of that back in the beginning of this podcast, a few years back. Our reason for homeschooling is because we felt that gentle nudge from God to do it in the beginning, and I’ve never felt that release; however, it has nothing, really, to do with our why, or maybe it does. I don’t know, but soon after starting our journey, we decided that our why is for building strong character in our children. Little did I know, though, that it would also build strong character in me as well.
According to calcoast.edu, People with strong character show compassion. They are considered to be honest and fair. They display self-discipline. They set and meet goals. They make good judgments. They show respect to others. They show courage in standing up for what they believe. They have a strong sense of responsibility, and are good citizens who are concerned for their community. They maintain self-respect.
Another side outcome of that obedience to doing what we felt God was asking us to do is that our kids know it, see it, and live out that obedience as well. God has a plan for our kids that we don’t even know. All we are doing is “raising them up in the way they should go” according to the plans and purpose that God has specifically for them.
We also didn’t like what we saw happening in the school system. There was a lot of controversy in our opinion of that, but we just stuck it out, and now, we see mass exodus happening on a regular basis from the traditional brick-n-mortar system – especially since COVID.
We felt that our influence on our children would become minor once they were away from us for 8 to 10 hours a day. We didn’t like allowing just anyone to speak into their lives. We didn’t want the world telling our kids who they are. We wanted and still want them to know who they are and mainly whose they are – meaning in Christ.
As I mentioned in a previous episode called, “You Are Enough,” we want them to know that they were known before they were ever formed – that they are fearfully and wonderfully made – that they were carefully knit together in the womb by our creator, God.
It’s not that we can’t teach them that if they are not homeschooled. We certainly can, but the influence that we see in the other system is outrageously opposite to those teachings, and we didn’t want to exhaust ourselves by un-teaching the falsehood while trying to cling to our remaining influence on them.
So, we decided early on that our WHY for homeschooling is to build a strong character by allowing them to enjoy life and not get lost in the “social norm.” We wanted them to find a life of their own…allowing them to figure out who they are and what they want out of life without feeling the pressures of others telling them who they are and trying to make them someone they aren’t and weren’t created to be.
We also didn’t want our kids to get caught up in what I refer to as “conveyor belt society.”
If you’re not sure what I mean by “conveyor belt society, here is what the100yearlifestyle.com has to say about it.
“The Culturally Conforming Conveyor Belt™
From a very early age, people are taught to suppress what’s truly possible and become a good rider on the Culturally Conforming Conveyor Belt™. Through countless, repetitive experiences, people learn to compromise, cope and conform. No one tells what is waiting at the end of the ride. Obedient riders are likely to face early disengagement, accelerated decline and premature death. The good news is you were born with everything you need to rethink, redefine and reinvent the best years of your life… starting now! You just need the support and structure to break free.”
That was written by Brad Berger, Founder and CEO – Ideal Life 360, LLC He is a Financial Planning Practitioner, Holistic Life Planner, and Certified Master Integrative Life Coach, and you can visit IdealLife360.com for more info on that.
My husband and I have also been known to be a bit of a rebel when it comes to doing things just because that’s how we’re told it should be done or because that’s how everyone else is doing it. We’ve never quite fit in with the normal ways of living life that way, and if you knew our goals and dreams, you’d probably agree. We do things a little differently and sometimes take risks that others may be afraid of taking.
We like to think of ourselves as pioneers instead of rebels though. Because we tend to do things way before they are considered the social norm. And, usually when others are like, “Hey! Look at this new idea!” We’re like, “Yeah… we did that years ago, or yeah, we’re already doing that.” However, at the time we started it, people thought we were crazy! Kinda like when we started our homeschooling journey.
So, one of our reasons for choosing “building a strong character” as our why is because we wanted to build a strong character in our kids, but, make no mistake about it, homeschooling doesn’t only build strong character in our kids. It also builds strong character in us!
If you’re homeschooling, your reason or cause is more-than-likely vastly different from ours or even from your best friend’s reason, and that’s totally ok and great!
Your why also needs to be uniquely your own as well, or it’ll never stick. You can’t adopt someone else’s why and expect good results. If it is not your own, you will grow tired of it very quickly and lose traction, focus, and motivation.
This goes for anything that you are doing. I’ve said many times before in this series that these episodes, so far, don’t have to be JUST for homeschooling. They are really for anything and everything in life. Think about where you need motivation and think about your why. Maybe it’s because you have never stated your why. Maybe it’s time to do so right now.
Thank you for listening today. I’d like to remind you once again to subscribe to this podcast if you haven’t already, and I look forward to chatting with you again very soon.
Until then, write down the reasons that you want to do what you want to do, and then allow that to help you form your why.
