Why do you do what you do?
I was working on my WHY lately. It all started when I was browsing through some of my old blogposts that I once documented about creativity and how it helped me with the quality of my life.
Then it led to a discussion between my husband and I about overcoming self-worth insecurities and how our self-worth is connected to our truth, which is also connected to our purpose and what exactly does it mean to be authentic; and finally, the question of "Are we living our why?"
Now the question is, do I know my why? So, I kind of started going down the rabbit hole, and asked myself a bunch of whys.
Why do I do what I do?
Why am I putting in the effort of churning out content on a weekly basis?
Why do I feel the need to talk about creativity and its benefits?
Why do I paint?
Why do I do what I love doing most?
Why do I love art?
Why do I think creativity heals?
Why do I get up every day, and feel excited about my life's work?
Funny thing is, I just described the things that I have been working on for the past 10 years and I did not stop to ask myself why.
I begin to see that, the things that I do which is my life's work, has become some sort of automated task configured to work on a daily basis to serve my creative passion. But I didn't stop to check in with myself.
Here's where it gets interesting to me.
Asking ourselves WHY is a way to check in with ourselves, and checking in with ourselves is to check in with our own intentions on why we do what we do. But a lot of us, who are on the daily grind, we live to match the fast pace life while sliding in to what we have chosen to do as part of our lives. Yet we have forgotten the importance of pausing every once in a while, to ask ourselves why.
A three-letter word that has been overlooked.
As I browse through my archives, I reminded myself the real reason WHY I created The Artsy Craftsy. Minus the "extra" things, for instance, aiming to start the first Malaysian arts and crafts blog or striving to meet industry standards, those were basically just goals and expectations. I finally came to a conclusion that my WHY was simple: All I wanted to do was to document my creative journey. I wanted to share my process on how exploring my passion helped me with my self-esteem. I wanted to use that to help make a difference in people's lives and empower them with creativity.
That was all I wanted to do. The real reason was authentic, and it spoke my truth.
I have to admit that somewhere along the line, I have forgotten all about it because I was so caught up with my own goals and ambitions. If I were to look at this with compassion, I would say this is pretty normal as we go in depth into our projects. Sometimes, we lose track of the big picture. Nonetheless, this thought is an opportunity to awareness.
In the past one year just trying to survive Covid-19, I have learned a great deal of life lessons. Yes, the pandemic has affected me- in fact it has hit me hard too as I am sure it has affected others as well. Though it may have been a challenging year, something good came out of this pandemic. It has led me to this shift in perspective, so that I can work on rediscovering my WHY.
I needed this mindset shift, because like everybody else who may be struggling during this time, I was beginning to feel a little uncertain of my journey. I felt a change needed to happen, and instead of looking hard for a change, all I needed was just to pause and ask myself the word that is often overlooked.
So, what's your why?
Recommended read: Find Your Why: A Practical Guide for Discovering Purpose for You and Your Team by Simon Sinek
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