“People don’t buy what you do they buy why you do it.” Author and entrepreneur Simon Sinek spoke so eloquently in his 2009 Ted Talk. As a connoisseur quote collector, that stuck. I may have forgotten the other words in the talk but Mr. Sinek was in his bag when he wrote that one down. That line paired with me thinking about my last employer’s core values got me thinking about my what and why.

What am I doing and most importantly why am I doing it. Saying, “I go to work every day because I need to afford food and and a roof over my head” is a cop-out because operating off need is not sustainable on a mental health level, and 35 years in I need to operate a teeny bit more on want.

That brought me to the realization that before I could leap, I had to know what I wanted my what to be. That was easy.

Want: To build community while utilizing my passion for technology, communication, coordinating, writing, creativity, and capacity-building

Then came the harder work… exploring my why. Why do I like the thing I want to do? My why came down to I like helping people, meeting new people, learning, and leaving things better than I found them. Sharing creativity while building a community is much like painting (I imagine as I’m a terrible painter). The more colors you add to a canvas the easier it gets for people to see the picture.

So, why do I want to build community while utilizing technology, communication, coordination, writing, creativity, and capacity building? Because helping people doesn’t feel like work, it’s rewarding, educational, and helps create or at least spark change. And after so many careers that didn’t quite align with my what, a high financial value isn’t attached to my want because it really is true that if you like something and you’re passionate about it, do it for free and eventually someone will pay you for it. A great example is my recent part-time position as a community engagement consultant for Paradigm Global Innovations.

Unknowingly to myself, I’ve been community engagement consulting for free for years and now I’m starting to get paid for writing newsletters, hosting AI workshops, and helping bridge the gap between community and resources. This why journey recently was like a lightbulb and I didn’t need ChatGPT to help me come up with any of the materials as navigating off why gives life a little more purpose.

Next was coming up with a few core values as when I enter spaces I need to ensure that said spaces align with my personal core values.

Core Values

Education: Someone somewhere said that if you stop learning you stop growing and singer/songwriter Kehlani said, “What is not growing is dead.” I’m going to keep living and keep learning and even if learning something new frustrates me that’s not a valid reason to not be open to learning it.

Creativity: Being open-minded enough to know that there are many ways to get to the same destination is important.

Passion: I know from experience that if I’m not passionate about something, I’m not going to give it my all. Not giving something my all is frustrating so I must align my passion and purpose.

Usually, I just post a quote at the end of a post but I love this entire lecture by Alan Watts. My first time listening to it was in flight attendant training and now whenever I’m having a bad day or looking for direction, I play it.

“Because if you say that getting the money is the most important thing, you will spend your life completely wasting your time. You’ll be doing things you don’t like doing in order to go on living which is to go on doing things you don’t like doing, which is stupid. Better to have a short life that is full of what you like doing, than a long life, spent in a miserable way. And after all if you do really like what your doing, it doesn’t matter what it is, you can eventually become a master of it. The only way to become a master of something is to be really with it. And then you’ll be able to get a good fee for whatever it is. So don’t worry to much, somebody’s interested in everything. And anything you can be interested in you’ll find others who are.” – Alan Watts