Purpose

insight

This morning I was asked a really simple but fundamental question.

Why are you doing this?

It's pretty generic, but take a second and think about the things you did today...the things you're doing right now. Why are you doing them? Is it for recognition? Is it for a sale? Is it for pride? None of those are good reasons to be doing what you're doing.

So you ask yourself that question, but practically what does the answer to this mean to your day-to-day life? Well, I think it impacts stuff like how you network. Do you just get out there to be popular or make a sale or do you actually care about the person your talking to and feel you can bring value to their lives? I think it impacts how you approach something like a blog or a Facebook page too. Are you just doing it because everyone else is doing it, or are you doing it because you see it as a powerful way to connect to your audience. To be in relationship and bring value to them. Forget the sale. Forget the recognition. Forget how great you think your idea is. Listen...and ask yourself often, "Why am I doing this?"

Andrew VanderPloeg Guest Blogger, Consultant

Andrew served at Bark for over 20 years before recently taking over the role of Vice President of Marketing & Communications at ShareWord, one of our favorite organizations.