How to Write a Why Statement: 10 Evidence-Based Coaching Practices
Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For How to Write a Why Statement, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.
About 2 minutes
Try it here: write your why in your own words
Write the purpose or belief that drives you, since putting your reasons on paper keeps them from staying vague.
What purpose or belief drives you, and why does it matter to you?
Practices that may help
- Find Your Why, Made Practical
Simon Sinek’s method says people are moved by why you do something before what or how — so the work is to articulate the purpose, cause, or belief that drives you, captured in a single Why statement. The Golden Circle and the Why-statement format are practitioner frameworks: useful and intuitive, but largely anecdotal in their specifics, even though purpose itself does correlate with motivation in research. - Use the correct I-statement structure
"I feel [emotion] when [specific observable situation] because [why it matters to me]."
I-Statements: How to Express Yourself Without Triggering Defensiveness - Write the explanation, do not just think it
Put the "why" in writing so vague mental hand-waving cannot pass as understanding.
Elaborative Interrogation: Ask "Why Is This True?" - Write your Why statement
Capture your purpose in one line: "To ___ so that ___."
Find Your Why, Made Practical - Communicate inside out: Why → How → What
Lead with the belief, then the approach, then the specifics — the reverse of the typical pitch order.
Start With Why: Leading Through Purpose - Start with why (the Golden Circle)
Lead with the purpose behind what you do, not the features of what you do.
Find Your Why, Made Practical - Articulate your personal "Why" as a leader
A leader who cannot state their own purpose clearly cannot communicate it to anyone else.
Start With Why: Leading Through Purpose - Write a values declaration as the core of your legacy letter
Name the two to four values you most want to have lived by — then write why they matter to you.
The Legacy Letter: Writing What You Want to Leave Behind - Use the Why as a decision filter
A stated Why that doesn’t actually filter decisions is just branding — the Why has to determine the choices.
Start With Why: Leading Through Purpose - Define your HOWs
Translate the abstract why into a few concrete principles for how you operate.
Find Your Why, Made Practical
Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?
- I have something hard to bring up and I keep rehearsing it in my head, but it always comes out as a tangled jab
- It all feels clear and connected in my head, but the second I try to actually write the explanation out the whole thing falls apart and I see how many steps I was just hand-waving over.
- I sort of know what drives me but it’s this big foggy feeling I can never pin down
- I’ve got an announcement to make and I’m about to do what I always do
- When I talk about what I do I just rattle off the tasks and the features, and people’s eyes glaze over
Related concerns
- How To Write Your Why
Simon Sinek’s method says people are moved by why you do something before what or how — so the work is to articulate the purpose, cause, or belief that drives you, captured in a single Why statement. The Golden Circle and the Why-statement format are practitioner frameworks: useful and intuitive, but largely anecdotal in their specifics, even though purpose itself does correlate with motivation in research.
- How To Start Purpose Statement
Capture your purpose in one line: "To ___ so that ___."
Write your Why statement
- Find Your Why Meaning
Simon Sinek’s method says people are moved by why you do something before what or how — so the work is to articulate the purpose, cause, or belief that drives you, captured in a single Why statement. The Golden Circle and the Why-statement format are practitioner frameworks: useful and intuitive, but largely anecdotal in their specifics, even though purpose itself does correlate with motivation in research.
- Find Your Why Statement
Simon Sinek’s method says people are moved by why you do something before what or how — so the work is to articulate the purpose, cause, or belief that drives you, captured in a single Why statement. The Golden Circle and the Why-statement format are practitioner frameworks: useful and intuitive, but largely anecdotal in their specifics, even though purpose itself does correlate with motivation in research.
- Simon Sinek Find Your Why Statement To So That Official
Simon Sinek’s method says people are moved by why you do something before what or how — so the work is to articulate the purpose, cause, or belief that drives you, captured in a single Why statement. The Golden Circle and the Why-statement format are practitioner frameworks: useful and intuitive, but largely anecdotal in their specifics, even though purpose itself does correlate with motivation in research.
- Use Your Why To Decide
Validate the why by using it as a filter for choices, then refining where it doesn’t fit.
Test your why against real decisions
Describe your situation in your own words to search the complete practice library.