Your “why” energizes you, sustains you, and pushes you forward when things are awful.

There might be a lot of positive reasons to want whatever you want from your business.

Maybe you want to correct an injustice, make life better for someone, or protect the rights of others.

Maybe you want a secure future for your children or yourself.

Maybe you want to use the profits to start a children’s hospital to care for kids in the developing world. I had a client who built a business for that very reason.

But you could just as easily have a negative reason to want whatever you want from your business. Negativity is surprisingly energizing for some people.

Maybe you want to crush the lawyer who fired you ten years ago.

Maybe you want to leave him with nothing when you corner his market (I know lawyers who are all about revenge.)

It could be anything. It could be greed, or hate, or fear. Negativity fuels a lot of people, though most keep it to themselves.

I’m here to help you succeed, but your “why” doesn’t matter to me. That’s your private business. But it should matter to you. A lot.

If it doesn’t matter to you, then you’re unlikely to succeed. You need a reason to be passionate about what you do.

Your “why” will be fuel in the tough moments when you need to reignite your engine.

You need to keep that “why” in your mind when…

• The client screams “Whose side are you on?”
• The judge tells you it’ll be “one minute” for three hours.
• The client’s mother accuses you of misleading the client about her chances.
• The staff member quits an hour before the brief is due.
• The other lawyer claims you lied.
• Payroll is about to come out of your account, but you’re short.
• You lose a document in a spontaneous computer reboot.
• Your spouse complains you should be more “present” in conversations.
• You’re on vacation (what’s that?), but stuck on client phone calls.
• You’re months into a down, difficult, awful period with no end in sight.

Yep, sometimes you really need to remind yourself of “why” this is important to you.

It’s quick & easy: Vision + plan + persistence

First, we start with a vision. We figure out what we want.

Then we step back and create a plan. Now we know the steps to get to what we want.

Then we execute. We’re persistent, day after day, relentlessly checking off tasks and plodding closer to the vision.

The vision + plan + persistence approach sounds simple. That’s because, intellectually, it is simple.

There’s not much to running a business when you break it down. People have a problem, you know how to solve that problem, they buy your solution. You keep doing it and they keep coming back.

But it’s hard to see the simplicity when you’re mired in the day-to-day.

Emotions come into play. People get messy. Mistakes are made. We underestimate challenges. We overestimate our capacity.

The simplicity gets lost in the moment.

What should have been easy gets incredibly hard

Bad things happen.

We get lost in marketing plans we didn’t fully understand with budgets we didn’t anticipate.

We run short of cash when we hire more people than we need.

We build a great team and then someone crucial abandons us.

We have to fire someone we like who has betrayed our trust.

We can’t sleep, our stomach churns, and we feel awful. Family priorities interfere with the practice. Life gets in the way.

It’s easy to lose sight of the “why” when we can’t see past the crisis of the moment. Deadlines loom. Getting help proves more challenging than we expected. Clients demand things we never promised and can’t deliver.

How did it go from vision + plan + persistence to this mess? How did it go from simple and clear to complicated and murky?

Why are we doing this to ourselves?

Here’s how to be ready for the hard part

There comes a moment for all of us when we need to remember the “why.” Often, this is when we are least able.

The thought process, when we’re about to break from the pressure, is more likely to be, “It doesn’t matter why I’m doing this–I just need to get out of this mess!”

We focus on the short-term, the urgent. The long-term is a faint and distant memory.

In the chaos, we not only forget the “why,” but we’re incapable of even asking ourselves the question. We just want the immediate problem resolved.

So when your “why” feels good, while it’s empowering, motivating, and uplifting, take some steps to prepare for the inevitable down moments.

If one of those moments is now, put these tasks on your list and do them when you come out of your darkness. This preparation will enable you to bounce back faster and to return to persistently building the vision by following the plan.

Here’s what you need to do to be ready…

1. Gather pictures of your “why”

Find pictures that illustrate your “why” and create a photo album. Just cut and paste photos into a file on your computer, or print the photos and stick them in a folder.

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If you’re going to build hospitals, find hospital pictures, pictures of sick kids, pictures of kids being reunited with their parents, or whatever works.

This isn’t about right now. This is about later when you need these images to inspire you, motivate you, and remind yourself what this effort is all about.

Lawyers are word people. We don’t usually express ourselves through visuals, so images will knock you back to your “why” more powerfully than you expect.

2. Go with poetry about your why

I’m the most non-poetic person you’ll ever meet.

I’m married to a woman with a Ph.D. in English Literature and she walks around reciting poetry. I’m not sure how this happened to me. She’s constantly muttering about “do I dare to eat a peach,” and “zero at the bone.”

But poetry works in ways we literal people don’t always understand.

Words are powerful. They creep into our hearts in unexpected ways.

Poetry is the right words, in the right order, at the right time. It’s the prescription that mends us when our “why” gets lost or broken. Find meaningful poetry now so you’ll have it when you need it.

Google is your friend when it comes to poetry. Find the words that inspire you, elevate your mood, lift you up, and remind you of your purpose.

3. Listen to more music

Music is poetry with a beat, right?

Find the songs that inspire you and feed your “why.” Search YouTube to build your collection. It will come in handy when you need inspiration.

Make a playlist called “why.” Don’t play it all the time – that’s wasteful. Save it for the moment you really need it. Then crank it up, sing along, and let your “why” wash over you.

4. Tell your story

There’s a reason your “why” is your “why.”

Why are you doing this? Write it down. Tell the truth, as this is only for you.

Write to your demotivated self. Remind that self of how you realized this is the “why” that matters.

You’re likely reading this article on a device with a camera and a microphone. How about telling your story into that device and saving it for later? There’s no one better at telling your story than you. Speak to your future self so you’ll be able to hear the story from the source.

5. What if you don’t know your “why?”

It may not matter right now.

You may be one of these highly motivated “I do it for the money” folks. You may be excited by the idea of growing a business without clarity about your larger purpose. That’s okay for now.

But most of us hit a wall eventually. We conclude that playing the game for the sake of playing the game isn’t fulfilling.

The odds are good that you’ll need your “why” at some point.

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The odds are also good that your “why” is in your heart, but you haven’t spent time examining it because you’re busy loving the work. That’s great, but it’ll serve you well to sit, sort your thoughts, dig deep, and think about what it is that drives you forward.

Use your “why” to climb over the wall

Now you’ve got a full toolbox. You’re ready for the moment you hit the wall. When bad things happen, you’ve got good things ready to rescue you.

When you find yourself struggling to connect the dots between today’s activities and a larger vision, it’s time remind yourself why you’re working.

The resources you’ve created are a powerful, motivating, energizing way of reminding yourself of your point.

Your tools put your “why” back in your mind.

Your tools touch your heart.

Your tools remind you that today’s obstacle is merely a bump on the road toward achieving something much bigger and far more important.

When the obstacles become overwhelming, it’s incredibly useful to go back to your “why.” It’s the source of your energy. You’ll be glad you invested a small amount of energy building these tools before you needed them.

To people like me, building these resources might seem silly

I know, I know. Some of this seems silly.

That’s especially true for many of us when we’re moving forward and feeling good. When we’re making quick progress, we can’t really understand how hard it will be to recall our “why.”

It’s difficult to appreciate how useful it’ll be when we encounter obstacles. Those of us who hesitate to spend energy on our “why” are the folks who need it the most.

Having a clear reason for what we’re doing matters most when we’re struggling. Struggling makes it hard to feel the power of our reason.

The struggle makes it difficult to see the destination. Struggling makes it easier to deviate or quit.

Your toolbox full of resources is critical to reaching your destination. It’s the energy you need to stay the course, keep moving forward, and complete the creation of the vision.