My morning routine is one of the most essential elements in my life. I must honor it at all costs to ensure I live in accordance with my Ideal — who I want to be.
My routine consists of the following, give or take 30 minutes:
4:00 AM Wake-up & Workout & Shower
5:15 AM Vertical Alignment
6:30 AM Writing/Content Creation
7:30 AM One Thing (primary target for the day)
8:15 AM Check-In with EA
Between my workout and shower, I will turn on a motivational talk. One in particular, I had on repeat for a few weeks straight. Around six minutes into the litany of motivational messages, the following was stated:
The lion is King because the lion is hungry. The elephant is bigger than the lion, and the cheetah is faster than the lion. But nobody is more hungry than the lion. Ask any athlete, actor, musician, or philanthropist; it doesn’t matter. Ask anybody who is a champion; the difference between them and their opponent is that they were more hungry.
The most significant advice I can give is: Protect your hunger.
Hearing these words stirs a fire within me. I feel ready. I feel passionate. I feel hungry.
Yet it begs the necessary question: Hungry for what?
One particular morning, I began musing:
How do I maintain my drive when inspiration fades?
How do I power myself when I am alone in my pursuits?
How do I stay hungry?
To stop questioning yourself like this builds intensity because there is motivational input with no apparent outlet. Therefore, the question of What is critical if we want to experience real change.
The output hinges on this:
Knowing your “Why” powers your “What”.
The Why Is Your Calling
The Knowing Retreat had officially concluded, and I was sitting on the front porch of the Manor Estate, nestled in Northern Virginia, with one of my team members. She has been with me for nearly four years and has seen the good, the bad, and everything in between.
As we gazed over the rolling hills and acres of vineyards, she commented in a similar sentiment to what I was feeling: How exciting it is to see the actualization of something for which I was so passionate after testing multiple opportunities over the years. So many times, I had invested in different programs or ideas only to head in a different direction.
This is a familiar practice among entrepreneurs: experimenting, testing, and changing directions.
This practice is healthy when it comes to optimizations and exploring new terrains of opportunity. Perhaps in shifting ideas and ideations, we feel that we will arrive at the very thing that sparks our fire and propels us forward.
However, for me, it was only when I clarified my personal Why — the thing for which I feel called that propels me forward — that it integrated into my professional Why.
This knowledge changed how I determined my change of direction.
Money has never been a key propelling agent, and fame has never allured or enticed me. Impact drives my hunger. Impact is my Why.
But impact in what regard?
When I was 18, someone asked me what I wanted to do with my life. I exclaimed: “I just want to make a difference!” The heart of my answer revealed ambiguity, which promised meandering and potentially endless years of blind trying and testing. It’s like taking a free fall into the arms of fate, resting on the ‘maybe’s and ‘what ifs’, hoping that you’ll end up on the right path.
Desiring impact alone is far too vague of a foundation from which to live your life and make critical decisions. A desire for impact apart from roots grounded in a guiding, clarified Why will not stave off temptations to deviate when the going got tough.
Ultimately, when asked this question, I lacked direction because I lacked a Why.
Only in the process of knowing my self has my Why clarified. Through examining my soul and considering who I am uniquely designed and fashioned to be, not merely a sum of the expectations and narratives of others, have I zeroed in on the desires of my heart.
And these desires — the deep yearnings of the soul — are what point us toward our calling and thus clarify the very foundation from which we lead our every day.
In what way is my Why expressed?
Emotional health is the resounding anthem of my Why.
I have experienced a transformation within my soul as I have healed from the pain of the past and become free from the chains of expectations, opinions, and narratives – those placed on me externally or welling up in my subconscious internally.
And I am passionate to see this same transformation in the lives of every soul around me.
Why — your calling— translates into your vision. And if you’re lucky, as I am, you’ll find the integration of the personal with the professional.
We are not disparate beings, especially as business owners, founders, or entrepreneurs. And we should not operate as such.
The What Is Your Manifestation
The What is the external physical manifestation of your Why.
For example:
My Why (my calling translated into my vision) is to see emotional health permeate and transform individuals, businesses, families, and communities impacting them in a transformative way.
My What (the vision made manifest) is my soon-to-be-released book, Knowing, and The Knowing Retreat.
The goal is that vision and manifestation are always duality. The manifestation, apart from guidance by the calling, will be void of heart and passion. Likewise, the vision, apart from a direct actualization, is fruitless.
Knowing your Why maintains your hunger, so long as it is the very thing for which you were created to accomplish.
“The most powerful weapon on earth is the human soul on fire.” Ferdinand Foch
