So Much Personal Power By Asking One Question. "Why Was It Important?"

“Success is achieved by those who try. Where there is nothing to lose by trying and a great deal to gain if successful, by all means try!” W. Clement Stone

Things aren't always as complicated as we make them. Sometimes if we just take a direct path, rather than getting bogged down in minutia and territorialism, we can get to the solutions. This simple question, "Why was it important?" has a triumvirate power of effectiveness that makes it one of the most powerful tools for simplifying leadership development and promoting the accountability that is found in responsible citizens.

In this page we'll show the way those four words that form a question can be the catalyst to leadership growth and to being compassionately courageous. Our end goal for this page is to ask of our readers, would you like the results if the strategies we present were effective in your lives? Would such positive results improve our nation as a whole and offer renewed hope for every citizen?

Lets Put A Definition On The "It"

"Why was it important?" Lets give some context to that small word, "it." Remember our first paragraph. Take a direct path, rather than getting bogged down in minutia.

The "it" will have different specifics, but in every case "it" is significant because it represents an important event, a personal decision, or a life-changing development. Usually that "it" has long tail repercussions that continue to play a role in personal lives and/ or national consequences.

Not all of those results are necessarily bad. Asking ourselves and others, "Why was it important" will pave the way to understanding how situations came about, how we can learn from history to not only avoid repeating past mistakes, but also use past success to bring about progress and even higher standards, personally and as an accountable nation.

What If It Worked? Would It Be Worth It?

Why Was It Important?

We'll look at this question from a triad of viewpoints that tie together to help answer the questions in the second paragraph. What if it worked? Would the results be worth it?

Why was it important for us to launch this website? What was the goal? Why share such deeply personal pains such as my dark period languishing in the morass of being imprisoned in a mentally soul-crushing codependent relationship?

Our core values determine our purpose in life. And be assured that if we don't seek our purpose, it will find us. Core values are driven by emotions. What gives us joy, what tears us down?

Are we part of the solution or just more combustible ammunition for the proverbial fire of selfishness, greed, and apathy? What motivates us to reach higher, work harder, expect more and do good things with the talents we've been given. What causes us to overcome adversity and be the change we want to see.

For us, "it" was important because we wanted to share what worked and what didn't with one goal. To put action behind those three core values, one of which is to always be compassionately courageous. That would mean we had to be truthful and not shy away from calling out falsehoods. We don't help anyone by shielding them from the truth.

From a personal standpoint, you will answer for yourself, "Why was it important?" as you look within yourself and feel the emotions that drive you to use your immense talents, or shackle you to a life of "I wish I had!" For a more in depth look at emotions and how they help shape personal direction, check out this link.

We ask "Why was it important?" over and over in our work simplifying leadership development among teams of young potential leaders. We want them to look within themselves to see how emotions created reactions to events in their own lives as we help them find their own purpose.

Being an effective listener is a vital skill in leadership development. Asking a question and then just listening with the intent to hear and understand allows the person in front of us an opportunity to speak openly, with no fear of judgement or debate.

It leads that person in front of us to recognize the power of their emotions and how those emotions can guide them to a purpose in life that utilizes their skills to help people repeat the process.

Example is the best teacher. We've found that by modeling the power of listening, that example stays with these future leaders and they use the same strategy with even better results. Ask someone, "Why was it important?" and then just let them tell you. Simple direct paths work so much better than over-analyzing and getting bogged down in useless trivia.

In the next section we'll look at this from a historical perspective.

Three Events In History That Were Very Important

History is generally given significance by the age of those being asked to list the most important national events. Two of the three on our short list are found on most lists and the third has almost vanished from memory. We'll show you why it should never be forgotten.

The assassination of John F Kennedy has always carried a sort of mythical fascination in America. With reports of President Trump finally releasing classified documents, that dark day in our history has been brought back into focus. Who knows how much will be revealed in those pages. If indeed there was a smoking gun within government circles, they would have had years to remove any valuable evidence. But why was it important? Why does it matter now?

It matters because learning from history allows us to avoid repeating mistakes. It matters because it had an effect on our nation then and still has an effect. That's why it was important.

It is pretty certain that had President Kennedy lived, and served his full term, there might never had been a years long American presence in the Vietnam War. In addition to the terrible cost of human lives among our brave soldiers, there was a residual impact.

As a nation we were misled and flat out lied to about that war and the direction taken by appointed and elected position holders. A genuine mistrust of government blossomed and remains today as will be included in the next big event.

Another residual impact was a deep divide among our citizens and worse, a trend among the more pricey universities that allowed tenured professors to incite anger toward returning soldiers who were sent to a faraway land to follow orders.

Think about more recent history and the deep divides and the repeat of tenured professors inciting young people toward violence for causes they never really understood. This isn't to say that all discontent and division is due to that time in history, but there are direct lines to it.

September 11th, 2001 is still having an impact on our nation. That's why it was important. Think about how that event led us to involvement or more accurately, deeper involvement in foreign battles, just as followed Vietnam. Think about the added mistrust of government to explain the event itself and the resulting actions.

That's why it was important. Not so much to assign blame, but instead to learn the lessons from that event and from everything that surrounded the Kennedy assassination.

Here's one almost forgotten. In 1960, four guys went to lunch at a Woolworth's in North Carolina. Back in the day lunch counters were popular on main streets of America and in big department stores. So why was it important? Because in North Carolina in 1960, that lunch counter was labeled "whites only!"

These four guys just went to lunch and in doing so, were refused service. They didn't break windows or burn down adjacent buildings. They went in peacefully. But they also spurred a movement among ordinary folks, people who didn't face the same circumstances, but figured out this wasn't right in this land where everyone is entitled to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

We've devoted a full page to those guys and the Freedom Riders. That page describes how they helped build a movement of responsible protests to unfair laws. This was important because this event showed us how responsible citizens act to change bad things.

In Conclusion

Use this simple question, "Why was it important?" to shape your own destiny as you discover why your emotions lead you to your passion. Ask that question and then listen as you lift up other people to lead them to discover how they can join the movement of postive change.

And look at history. It's important because it teaches us to be better citizens. It teaches us to respect human life and it guides us to take direct routes to solve problems, without letting greed, envy, or falsehoods disrupt the process.

That's why it was important and is even more important today.

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