If you’ve been to any speaker on motivation or leadership, you know it is important to find and know your “why?”. Why do we do the things we do? Why do we work where we work? Why do we work late or on weekends?  Why do we take part in professional development opportunities? Why do we get up in the morning? Why?

Why do we work? To support ourselves (and families) financially. It’s easy to say that we work for money. We exchange our time so someone gives us a paycheck and after 5 pm we can do what we please with our lives. Yes, making money is important and we all need to do that, but personally, I don’t want to just work to live. If we are going to spend the majority of our days at work, we might as well enjoy it and find something we love to do. To me, the saying “love what you do and you’ll never work a day in your life” is completely true. Of course, there will always be nuances of a position that are more ‘work-like’ but if you can find a position that allows you to pursue your passions the majority of the time, that is so much more that working to live. It’s a creative outlet for yourself.

A lot of people’s “why?s” are ‘for their kids’ once they have them and sometimes it is hard to relate. This is completely alright because your “why?” and someone else’s are not supposed to be the same. We all have different motivating factors and it takes some true reflection to figure out “why?”. I always knew I wanted to be a coach and help others succeed on and off the playing field. So, I’ve been a coach of some sort since after high school, starting with summer sports performance programs and most recently as the Human Performance Specialist here at USD. About a month or so ago, I was offered a full-time teaching position in the Kinesiology & Sport Science department. I taught one class in the spring, but was not expecting to become a full blown instructor! This is definitely a path that I had never even considered. After accepting the offer and taking a bit of a left turn in my coaching path, I decided I really needed to figure out WHY I am doing this and what is making me excited to make this change.

First of all, what is coaching? Who is a coach? Three definitions come up:
– a person who teaches and trains an athlete or performer
– a person who teaches and trains the members of a sports team and makes decisions about how the team plays during games
– a private teacher who gives someone lessons in a particular subject

To me, becoming a teacher is no different than being a coach. “Teacher” is in the definition of coaching! Teachers are coaches and coaches are teachers. Instead of coaching athletes on how to lift, run, or jump, I am coaching future coaches how to become great coaches. It is simply a different type of coaching that takes place in the classroom instead of on the field or in the weight room. Being able to help future coaches find their niche and explore the sport science world is exciting and I cannot wait to see where they all end up.

So, after all of this thought, I finally came up with my “why?”: To make an impact on others’ lives. 
This is a “why?” that isn’t tangible. It’s not to get athletes to throw 63 feet or to jump 20 feet or to power clean 400 pounds. But, a “why?” doesn’t have to be tangible, it just has to inspire and motivate you. Your “why?” should be the guide from which you can then make tangible, S.M.A.R.T. goals from, but you must begin by discovering your “why?”.