Could it be your “how” has less purpose than you think?

A few weeks ago, I asked a friend about his thoughts on a seminar he had attended. He thought the presenter focused a lot on the “why” of the topic, rather than providing more practical to-do steps.

In our discussion, I pointed out that you really can’t begin to resolve an issue, improve upon something, or start something well until you have the “why” behind what what you’re doing. Without the “why,” you’ll lack purpose in the “how” of what you do.

That reminds me of a story about a newly wed couple. The husband was watching his wife prepare a roast, and noted she cut off the end of the roast before placing it in the roasting pan.

“Why do you do that?” he asked?

Taken by surprise, the bride asked, “Do what?”

“Why do you cut off the end of the roast?” the husband clarified.

“Oh,” the wife responded, and then thought for a few seconds. “Well, I cut off the end of the roast because that’s what I always saw my mom do, but I don’t know why she did it.”

So the couple decided to call the bride’s mother and ask why she always cut off the end of the roast. They turned on the speakerphone and listened together as the wife asked her mother the question.

“Well,” replied the mother, “I always cut off the end of the roast because my mother always did … but I really don’t know why!”

So they decided to connect with the grandmother on a three-way call, and asked her the now perplexing question.

The grandmother answered, “Well children, I always cut off the end of the roast because my roasting pan was too small!”

There’s a lot of things we do the way we do because that’s how we’ve seen others do it. But that doesn’t mean there’s purpose in it for you. What we do, and how we do it, needs a “why” to have the fullest value in our lives.

Do you have a solid why behind what you’re doing, and how you’re doing it?

Scotty