Start with Why – Simon Sinek

Yes, this site is resuming its original purpose, as an online diary.  After all, that’s where this all started, back around 1995 before the word “blog” was even in use.

Anyway…

Last night, I watched the Simon Sinek interview on Fresh Take (BYU-TV).  It was probably the fifth time I’d seen it.

On previous viewings, I just couldn’t seem to find a single, illuminated, happy childhood memory.  I could look at times when I was generally happy.  I could recall incidents in which I started out happy, but they ended Very Badly. (Like the time I went out with my little notebook, deciding to be a poet.  And, lost in thought, a few blocks from home, I was attacked by a dog. Seriously.)

But… a single, early, happy memory…?  Nope. I kept coming up with nothing.  It was kind of depressing.

After that, I watched Simon Sinek’s TED talk.  That added even more clarity to the process.

That’s when I took out a lined, yellow pad of paper.  It’s what I like to journal on, when I just need to write and vent, and write some more.

I started writing down every happy childhood memory I could think of.  And, along the way, I remembered my grandfather showing me how striking one tuning fork could make another one hum.  It was a moment of awe, mystery, and delight.

I remember sitting at the back row of the movie theatre with my mother, watching Fantasia for the third or fifth or eighth time, and getting caught up in the fantasy and magic of it. (Mum was sketching ideas for her upcoming Fantasyland board game design.)

I uncovered several more, happy memories, and I found myself writing:

“Wonderful, magical things are everywhere, if you just look for them… and believe.”

Then I wrote:

“Magic and delight as a path, not a destination.”

Wow.  That was absolutely illuminating.

I thought about magic — Disney magic, that is — and how it influenced my childhood and my adult life.  I thought about faith: the belief and trust in things unseen.  I thought about optimism and happiness, and how important that is.

And, I realized that I was pretty far off-course.

Mr. Sinek talks about one “why”… one thing that connects everything that gives your life meaning… everything you do, and love.  Mine is about creativity, personal magic & delight, and miracles and beauty.

When I look at what I enjoy most, and what I want to share with others, it all comes down to that.  Everything else is just noise.  It takes me off my path.

I made a list of the things that can restore that happy, wonder-full vision of life… visual cues, music, books and movies, and even fragrances, that remind me of childlike delight and fantasy.

Along the way, I found myself getting a little sniffly. It’s like I found something that’s been lost (and badly missed), for years.