Student, teacher, Why coach… here to support and inspire others as that is what inspires me!
“When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.”
You may have heard the line that when we look for something and find it, it is always in the very last place we look. Well, I realized recently that this isn’t always the case.
My Why is to inspire and support others to live an inspiring life. I have embraced my Why, and my hope is that by reading this you will be inspired in some way that helps you. However until very recently I was denying my Why. For the last four years I’ve been on a personal development journey and while I love exploring new ideas and experiences, I have also felt very frustrated that I just couldn’t find my path. I was searching and searching, but I just couldn’t get clear on what I was meant to be doing with my life.
Then a few weeks ago, I heard someone say that often we know our Why; that there is a voice inside that calls to us, but sometimes we pretend not to hear. My first reaction was that of course this didn’t apply to me. I was actively looking for my Why, so surely I would know it when I saw it. Then someone else said almost the same thing: that when we say we don’t know what we are meant to do with our life, deep down we know that we know.
So I started pondering this idea, and I tried to quiet my mind instead of frantically searching. And then the most amazing thing happened. I was watching a video of someone else talking about finding their Why, and in an instant, I knew mine. Perhaps it was the tears streaming down my face that gave it away. But at that moment, I knew I wanted to inspire others to live an inspiring life; in that moment I owned it. And I realized that I had known my Why for a long time, but I had been playing small, and I had allowed myself to question – who was I to be inspiring, who was I to want to change the world.
I came to another realization in that moment of clarity. I had been seeking and I thought that I couldn’t find it. But in reality, I had found but wouldn’t see. So I now had a choice. I could try and forget that I had found my Why and I could go back to my personal development journey and I could continue to search and play small. And I knew that if I chose that path, it would be as if I was ever so slowly killing myself; I would be rejecting my true self a little more each day. The idea of doing that now makes me cry. The alternative was that I could embrace my Why and ask better questions. Who am I not to inspire? Who am I not to use all that I have learned to inspire others? My very existence has changed the world already, so why not live my Why and make the world even better?
I appreciate now that there were many times in the past that I caught a glimpse of my Why. Okay, maybe it wasn’t a glimpse – maybe it was as clear as day, and yes, I know it’s not really a maybe either. I clearly found my Why four years ago, but I allowed myself to pretend otherwise. I bought into something many of us do, and that is to think it is being humble to play small. Let me say this: it’s not. If all the people who have inspired me throughout my life had chosen to play small, my life wouldn’t be as rich.
My advice to you, as you seek your Why, is that when you find it, please stop looking. Please embrace it and live it and share it with the world. Share your unique gifts, your insights, your passions. Only you can be you… so listen to that voice that is calling and allow yourself to hear.
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