I recently met with a business consultant and he recommended that before I proceed with creating more content, coming up with a schedule, or even writing a business plan that I should take a few steps back and get to the heart of why I am doing this.  What in life is fulfilling to me and how can Hurling Nation best serve me as well as the needs and desires of the community.

I met with a friend last year to help me get started on discovering my “WHY Statement” according to Simon Sinek’s teachings.  “The WHY is the purpose, cause, or belief that drives every organization and every person’s individual career.” (The Science of Why – Simon Sinek).  Once you find your WHY and are able to articulate it, “you’ll have a point of reference for everything you do going forward. You’ll be able to make more intentional choices for your business, your career and your life.”

At this moment, my WHY statement is: “To cultivate community and camaraderie so that together we can seek and live out our true selves.”  I feel pretty confident about the first half, but the second half still needs some work.  In writing this post I am seeing some edits that’ll help me get closer to my true WHY statement.

When I presented this to the business consultant he thought it was good, but challenged me to go even deeper and how it may apply specifically to Hurling Nation.  He gave me great questions to contemplate and tasked me with drawing connections between all the CU Gaelic Club members I’ve played with and coached over the last 7 years.

  • What about CU Gaelic Club has been the most fulfilling for me?
  • What do I see in this sport?  What do I love about it?
  • Why do I want to create community around hurling?
  • What growth do I see in myself, and what growth do I see in others as a result of being on the CU hurling team?

On the more business/practical side:

  • How will this business support the life that I want?
  • How can I set this up to ensure that I am running the business instead of the business running me?

When finding the similarites between CU hurlers, I honestly couldn’t find much.  I tried answering this over the last few years to employ a better marketing strategy, but the answer always eluded me and my coach.  The best way we could describe the team is that it’s like The Breakfast Club.  People from so many different backgrounds and interests, that you would never expect to see in the same room, came together through the odd sport of hurling.

Instead of searching for the commonalities between all the athletes, I shifted my focus to the most passionate hurlers I’ve played along side.  These hurlers are probably the weirdest people I know, and maybe that is the key.

Building something, a community, that brings out people’s weirdness, their uniqueness, their true selves is why I started CU Gaelic Club and why I wish to strengthen and build the hurling community at large.

If we we don’t let our weirdness out and keep it tucked away, afraid of external criticisms, we aren’t living our true lives.

I believe letting our weirdness flourish is the key to solving most or all of our internal struggles.