Understanding what you want

While this may initially seem redundant to what we covered in the previous lesson, there’s a big difference between why you started and what you actually want to get out of it. “Why” requires you to reflect and better understand your own motivation and thought process while “What” is more focused on thinking about what you can and want to achieve as a result.

The what is the vision. It’s the end goal. The big picture. In a more formal setting it would be known as a Vision Statement. But there’s not too many of us here looking to be the next Disney or Instagram, so maybe let’s keep it a bit simpler than that.

In the previous lesson, we explained how to work from an initial why toward your true, deeper why. That original, surface level why is quite useful to us because it’s often a great starting point for determining your what. That’s convenient! 

For example, maybe your first why was that you want to share your experience with others. Taking a closer look, we can see how that statement is more of a what than a why. How can we tell? Your what is more connected to your audience, while your why is more about you personally.

Your blog needs to have a purpose — it needs to achieve something, and in most cases it’s going to be achieving something for your audience. This is the what of your blog. 

Following our example above, if you want to share your experience with others, try to figure out the end goal behind that. What will that look like when your blog has achieved its purpose? Maybe you’ve struggled with something and you’re wanting to share that experience to help others.

In that case, maybe the purpose behind wanting to share your experience with others is to connect with them on an emotional level, give them hope or simply to let them know that someone else understands. Therefore, your what might be framed more like: I want to make a difference in the lives of others by sharing my own experience in a deep and meaningful way, that will help them to feel supported.

In that example, can you see how it’s an action that you’re taking that will ultimately do something for someone else? It has a purpose behind it. It’s what you want your blog to accomplish, rather than why you want to blog.

Much like the why exercise, this isn’t something we can answer for you. This comes down to what’s important to you — and there are no wrong answers. You can even change your mind and shift your answers as you grow and expand your blog.

But we’d like to encourage you to think big. This is your vision. Your dream. 

If you’re able to connect your what to something emotional it will be a much more impactful part of your journey. 

You might not figure it out on the first round, but this is something you can keep coming back to — and you should. Just like your why, you should revisit your what about every three months.

In the end, you want to give a purpose to the what. The focus here is: what do you want, not why do you want it. You want A so that B will happen.

Then you can tie the what and the why together.

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Examples:

“I want to make a difference in the lives of others by sharing my own experience in a deep and meaningful way, that will help them to feel supported, because I don’t want anyone to ever feel as alone as I felt, and connecting with these people will help me to not feel alone any more.”

“I want to build a large enough audience of people who will buy my book for the joy and escapism it will give them, because that will then generate enough extra revenue for me to pay for my daughter’s college tuition, without her having to take out a loan.”

“I want to showcase my skills in a professional manner so that the companies I’m interested in joining will be impressed enough to make me an offer, because I’m not happy in my current job and being happier will help me to be a better person for my family.”

“I want to establish a travel blog of my journeys so that I can take people to places that they may never have the opportunity to visit themselves, because traveling has helped me to connect with my inner-self in a way that nothing else has, and helping others to share in that experience will give me a deeper purpose to life.”

The deeper you can go with both your what and your why the more meaning your blogging journey will have for you, and the more likely you are to keep at it.

They’re difficult concepts to convey and they’re difficult exercises to complete, but the effort is well worth it in the long run.

Learning Action

Start the process of determining what you want. 

What do you want? What is the end goal? The big picture? 

As with figuring out your why, approach this from a brainstorming angle and jot down all the different ideas that come to mind. The right one will ring true for you when you find it. 

That said, please don’t pause here, banging your head against the wall, if you’re not able to figure out super deep and meaningful answers. 

These are things that rarely hit us when we’re staring them in the face. They are the things that will come to us in our sleep, or while we’re driving, or in the shower – usually when we are in some situation that we can’t write them down. 

Let your subconscious mull the ideas around for as long as it takes and in the meantime, the surface level what and why will be sufficient to move you forward. This is another reason to revisit these questions every three months. It might take you a full year to finally nail this down to something that makes you exclaim: AHA! THAT’S IT!

But you’ll still have had a glorious and rewarding blogging journey up to that point. Figuring out the why and what of your blogging journey aren’t excuses to procrastinate, they’re simply concepts to keep poking at until you’re happy with the answers.

For now, based on what you’ve considered for both your why and your what formulate a statement along the lines of:

“I want to [insert what you want to do] because [insert a reason why].“