What Is Your Why?

Who besides me is flabbergasted that it is 2026? I blink and a whole year has gone by.

I’m very excited about this year. I’ve already been busy planning and calendaring my projects, setting goals and the way to get there. My vision hasn’t changed, but I am carrying over some goals from 2025. And that’s okay because goals simply give us direction; they’re not a destination. If we don’t meet the deadline we set, we don’t give up—we set a new deadline!

My professional development coach, David Neagle, said something recently that resonated with me. “One brave action changes you. But if you become brave, it changes the world.”

I’d bet that none of you thinks of yourself as brave. But writing a book is brave. Yes, it is! How many people say they want to write a book but never do? Fear is a big factor in that.

Being Seen

When you write a book, you’re putting yourself out there for all the world to see. Whether you’re telling a part of your life story or writing fiction, it’s your creative work…published…and vulnerable. Will readers like it? Love it? Hate it? What will they say in their reviews?

If that’s not brave…

What makes that bravery possible? The reason why you’re writing your book. That why provides the motivation and bravery required.

So what is your why?

• To earn money?
• To establish credibility in your field?
• To become famous?

I often hear “God told me to write it.”

• Maybe He told you to write it with no intention to publish it so you could find healing for yourself.
• Maybe it’s because you want to help others through the same problem you experienced. That’s certainly the reason I wrote my first book.
• Maybe it’s because you want to make money doing it (nothing wrong with that).
• Maybe, if you write fiction, it’s because your story communicates a life-giving principle readers can learn and apply to their lives

Do you know your why? Determine what it is and write it down somewhere you can see it each day. It will build your confidence and give you direction.

Belief

I made a lot of mindset shifts in 2025. In other words, I got rid of false beliefs and embraced the truth. Some of them were…

• Believing in myself—that I have value, am worthy and lovable
• Believing that God wants me to succeed
• Believing that He has already provided everything I need to succeed
• Believing that what I do does make a difference in the lives of others—and in my life

Belief is foundational to living. If you don’t believe in anything, life is miserable. You have no hope that things can change. Belief brings hope, motivation to get up each day, and direction for our lives, whether our belief is in a higher being or something else.

Belief is also foundational to receiving. “Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them” (Mark 11:24 NKJV). We must believe we have received it before we see it in the physical realm.

Do you truly believe your words will make a difference? If you do, you’ll have the motivation and energy needed to write and publish that book. If you don’t, you’ll find all kinds of excuses not to write it, even though something keeps nagging at you to do it.

Maybe you’ve already created your goals for 2026. But have you examined the true why that’s driving you toward those goals?

Your why gives you direction.

If you want to earn money with your book, you’ll launch it using different methods than you would if you want to use that book to position yourself as an expert in your field, and so on.

It’s Not About You

And guess what. That book isn’t all about you (even if you’ve written a memoir). It’s all about the reader. About giving them an experience. Helping them…

• Discover something about themselves
• Learn a new skill
• Solve a problem
• See life from a different perspective
• Bring transformation to their lives
• And more.

And when we think about our readers first, we forget about ourselves. I kinda think that’s what Matthew 16:25 is getting at, “For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.”

We find the courage to write, publish, and market because it isn’t about us. It’s about what our words can do for someone else.

Do the one thing that will have the greatest impact on reaching your 2026 goals by spending time to determine why you do what you do and allow it to guide you through the year one step at a time.

Recommended reading: God Works Through Faith (affiliate link)