We need the answer before we arrive at the starting line… before once upon a time. When we’re leaving our house and then while warming up, we have to know the answer to the question, why am I here?
Horses don’t know exactly why they’re led into the gate before a race. They know they’ve trained. They know they aren’t at their home barn. They probably know that a good meal greets them at the end of the race, but they don’t have a good answer as to why they are there.
When we’re younger, we’re like horses. We don’t know why we’re running either. That’s the whole premise of running laps in PE.
Kids don’t decide to put on soccer cleats the first time. In fact, there’s almost no chance that kids could get a soccer cleat on the first time—they’re weird shoes. Someone has to help. They know that the parents would like them there, and there will be orange slices and popsicles and the kids your Mom told you were your friends.
Unfortunately, at some point, we have to confront the “why am I here?” question before the starting line—without jockeys or parents or orange slices.
That’s when we need to know the answer to the why question and the answer is a story. Maybe it’s the story of a quest or you’re running for someone else. Maybe you’re trying to push yourself or make a paycheck, but it all starts with that question.
What we’re really searching for is a better story or a compelling reason. That all starts with the question that mediocre actors ask, what’s my motivation?
Once we have the question, the journey of solving it sparks compelling curiosity. Then there is a clear progression: What’s going to happen next? How will this resolve? What happens if I try this? What caused this reaction? Why does this phenomenon occur?
Solve the questions step-by-step, and we can get to the storyline.
Then we can run the race. We can tell others the story. We can explain the orange slices.