The Celery Test: Put your Why into action - Simon Sinek

Now it's time to put your why into action discovering your Y is just the beginning in order to enjoy all the benefits of having a clearly articulated y you'll need to have the courage and discipline to use it like Thomas Edison said vision with that execution is hallucination there is an ideal order of implementing your Y though sometimes reality does get in the way and it all starts with you our natural tendency is to start with the tangible.

We define our value by what we do so it takes practice to start with Y like riding a bicycle at first we're unsure unsteady we're in our heads thinking about all the things we need to do pedal fast keep enough speed so we don't fall over we have to really concentrate we may even fall over you can scrape our knees but we get back on the bike and try again and eventually it becomes natural starting with WHY is no different at first it feels awkward it may not even work but with practice it will become so natural that you won't even be able to imagine.

A time when you couldn't do it just like riding a bicycle in time your Y will act as a filter for many of the decisions and choices you make it becomes a tool to help you find a job or seize an opportunity in which you're more likely to succeed it removes a lot of the guessing here's a metaphor to show you what I mean it's called the celery test we're constantly asking people for their advice on what to do or how to do it it's like going to a dinner party and somebody says do you know what you need you need MMS we've done so well with MMS you've got to use MMS somebody else says to us rice milk in this economy you have to use rice milk someone else says to us Kit Kats you have to use Kit Kats and somebody else says to you it's all about celery we go to the supermarket.

With all this good advice from all these smart people with brilliant case studies and we buy everything we buy Kit Kats and M&Ms celery and rice milk there's a lot of time we spend at the supermarket and a lot of money we spend at the supermarket and when we get to the checkout line we're standing there with all these products in our hands and no one can see we believe because we bought everything but let's imagine we know ry let's imagine our wise to always be healthy and only do things that protect the health of our bodies now which products do we buy given all the same advice from all.

The same smart people this time we only buy celery and we only buy rice milk they're the only two that makes sense we spend less time and less money at the supermarket and when we're standing there in line with only celery and only rice milk now people can see what we believe somebody walking past can say hey I can see that you're healthy so am I you just attracted an opportunity or a referral or a friend simply by saying and doing the things that you believe and the best part is it scalable as soon as I said the WHY you knew exactly which products we were going to buy.

This means the more you can articulate your why the more others will know what you stand for and will be able to help you make the right decisions from now on you will work to ensure everything you do is a good fit if you do too many things that aren't a good fit you will feel uncomfortable and people will feel that you're being inauthentic on the other hand when you start with WHY your ability to stand out find support and work to all your natural strengths will flourish with practice you will learn to trust your WHY.

You will eventually start to see your job and the things you do as ways to breathe life into your cause and the better you get at it the more you will feel that your life and everything you do has purpose the best way to implement your Y is to work in it slowly you don't have to do all the tips we suggest what is important is that you pick up 2 3 and commit to practicing and using them now