3 Ways to remember WHY you started

"When you feel like quitting, remember WHY you started." - Anonymous

When I was growing up, I always used to look at the stars and think to myself, that if I am to aim for the galaxy, I can fall on the stars. This is from a statement I heard often, aim for the stars so that you can fall on the clouds. In my young mind, I thought, if the world aims for the stars, then surely I need to aim higher.

I have lived my life with this philosophy since. I have applied it in different aspects and learned to wire my brain to always give 150% of myself in everything I do. This is because, if you want to achieve what most people want which is success, generational wealth or true happiness, then surely you will have to apply yourself diligently and consistently.

Since then I have had three things that have helped me remember why I started my career.

Here are three ways that can help you remember the WHY you started:

1. WHAT made you get up

When you think back at the very moment you cast your dream, what was happening around you and in your life. Every dream was born with a seed, it is planted in us long before we realize it. Going back to the moments we started dreaming allows us to journey back into time and both remember how far you have come and the initial stages.

For me, it happened in watching my mother and my father power through life. I looked on with awe at watching them do life together. Their love for each other vivid and their zeal for life evident. It made me want to live my life to the fullest, to ensure that every gift and talent I possess, be lived out to the fullest.

Everyone has had a moment of inspiration that planted the dream, it can be that you watched a cooking show and decided that you too will have a cooking show one day. It could be walking down the grocery aisle at a store and seeing the face of an entrepreneur on a magazine and deciding that you too will see your face on the cover of a magazine one day. It could be walking into a medical practice and watching a doctor attend to a patient and deciding that you too want to be a doctor one day.

The question is simply, what was the moment in which the dream was planted?

2. WHY did you get up

When one plants a dream, there comes a point at which the dream grows from your mind and starts to sprout into your reality. The process happens when you water your dream. This looks different for everyone, for one it can be going to study to get a qualification, for another it can be purchasing a camera to learn photography, for another it can be creating a blog to work on your writing, it is different for each one of us.

However, we all have one common denominator and it is that we made a decision. A thought process happened, and it transpired into an action. That is where one finds the WHY. Why did you register for the qualification? Why did you purchase the camera? Why did you register the blog? WHY?

When one can retrace your steps backward, it takes you to the sweet moment when it all started. It matters little whether the first attempt failed, what matters is why you started and that WHY will inform your getting back up to try again, your continuing despite the difficulties and your preserving in spite of the challenges.

3. How did you get up

We have all had to go through the process of making our dreams a reality. There has been the process of relearning yourself to work on your toxic traits to grow into a better version of yourself. There has been the process of equipping yourself with knowledge and various skills to set yourself up for acquiring your dreams. You have had to draft the proposal, do the presentation and get the job. You have had to compile a resume, apply for the job and ace the interview. Each of these moments were defining in that, at that point, you really wanted it. You wanted the job, the opportunity or the skill.

The journey to where you are started somewhere. It took one step, and then another and it brought you to this moment right here.

Do not despise small beginnings. Do not overlook the steps you took to get here.

Those beginning moments, those steps, will always remind you WHY you started. Do not overlook them, they provide the fuel you need to keep going and they remind you WHY you started.

Now, although things look bleak and uncertain, you do not quit. You continue taking one step in front of the other. This moment right now allows you to take a deep breath, remember why you started, pause and reflect, and then keep moving.

The fruits lie in the consistency.

"Success does not come from what you do occasionally, it comes from what you do consistently." - Marie Forleo

From one Powerhouse to another

Love

Mavis

Find me on twitter - @mavisbraga