This is not the start of some pithy meaningful post about the brevity of life.
This is actually a question about personal motivation. Why do you do what you do?
- Why do you make the choices you make?
- Why do you say the things you say?
- What drives you to do the things you do?
This simple three letter word is the question suggested by a certain direct selling company when a person signs up to be a consultant… Why do you want to be a consultant? What drives you to be in the business of selling this product?
Right on the front page of the login page there is a place where consultants are encouraged to write their “Why” in a Goals section. For the year that I played with this company, this was my why:
Why? Because I love the beautiful products and want to purchase them with a discount. Because I love the Christian connection. Because I enjoy selling and though I haven’t done it much, so I’m excited to try this! Because I look forward to having a career that is all my own, and be my own boss.
I could have gone on. I do want a career that is all my own. I want to pay off not only my monthly debts but I want to pay off my college loans, which are woefully past due. I want to pay off my kid’s college loans, which they are dutifully trying to pay off (but which are more than my mortgage).
I don’t know if I believed that a part-time job could ever do all of that. And that may have been my downfall. I needed to have more faith in myself and say that I want to make my car payment every month (my car payment is about the amount of my rent back in the 80’s). But in the meantime, I wrote the truth.
However, after I began to hold a few parties I realized my true Why. Why I took this path for a year of fun. Why I decided to get involved with direct sales of these fun products. I was at loose ends as my youngest child was preparing to graduate high school and go off to college.
As I began to participate in parties, I found a family of friends I didn’t know I was missing.
And this was a wonderful reason – a wonderful and fulfilling Why.
