"When Your WHY Is Big Enough, You Will Find Your How."

In this episode of WORDS MATTER, Deanna Ley, The Catalytic Coach, explores the third pillar of self-confidence: I MUST. While belief (I CAN) and action (I WILL) are crucial, they are not enough on their own. To sustain confidence and commitment, your actions must be deeply rooted in a WHY that is unshakable.

Deanna shares a powerful personal story about the moment she realized that surface-level motivation wasn’t enough. She walks listeners through Dean Graziosi’s 7 Levels Deep WHY Exercise, revealing how digging deeper into your purpose transforms fleeting motivation into unstoppable drive.

What Listeners Will Learn:

• Why willpower and motivation aren’t enough to sustain lasting change.
 • The difference between surface-level reasons and a deeply rooted WHY.
 • How to use the 7 Levels Deep WHY Exercise to uncover what truly drives you.
 • Why clarity of purpose eliminates doubt, excuses, and fear.
 • How having a big enough WHY makes quitting not an option.
 • The shift from "I SHOULD" to "I MUST"—and why it changes everything.

Memorable Quotes:

• "When your WHY is big enough, you will find your how." — Les Brown
• "A surface-level WHY will never be enough. You have to dig deep until you find the thing that will hold you steady when everything in you wants to quit."
• "Unlike willpower, your WHY doesn’t fade by the end of the day. Unlike motivation, your WHY doesn’t come and go."
• "I refuse to let my own patterns, my own choices, steal me away from the life I was meant to live."
• "I don’t just want to make it to 90. I WANT TO LIVE."
• "This life? We get ONE. One mind. One body. One soul. One life. And I refuse to waste it."
• "When your WHY is big enough, quitting is no longer an option."
• "Excuses lose their power. Fear loses its voice. Because you are no longer someone who just tries. You are someone who DOES."

This episode challenges listeners to go beyond "I want to be healthy" or "I want to be successful" and find the deeper WHY that makes success inevitable. Because when your WHY is powerful enough, you stop negotiating with your potential and start owning your path forward.

Your WORDS MATTER because YOU MATTER.

Take a watch of Dean Graziosi's video on the 7 Levels DEEP WHY her

Transcript

Welcome back, friends, to another episode of WORDS MATTER. I'm sure you've been following along, and so you know that we're right in the middle of a powerful journey. One that isn't just about self-confidence, but about becoming the kind of person who follows through. The kind of person who stops negotiating with their own potential and starts owning their path forward.

We began two weeks ago with I CAN—where belief was born, because confidence starts with believing in what's possible, believing in your own ability, believing in YOU. Then we moved to I WILL last week—where belief became action, because confidence isn't built on what you hope to do, it's built on what you actually do. But belief and action together by themselves just aren't enough.

Because here's the truth…

Action that isn't rooted in something deeper will eventually fade. And that's why in this episode, we're stepping fully into I MUST.

And that brings us to today's quote:

"When your WHY is big enough, you will find your how."

This quote is often attributed to the fantastic Les Brown, but no matter who said it first, the truth behind it is unshakable. When you are anchored in a deep enough WHY—obstacles don't stop you, roadblocks don't deter you, and setbacks, well, they just don't shake you.

And let me tell you, it HAS to be that way.

Last week, we talked about willpower and motivation. We learned that willpower runs out and that motivation—highly unreliable. And science proves both of those. Studies show that willpower is a finite resource—it drains as the day goes on, as decisions pile up, and as stress wears you down. And motivation? It's even worse. It's fleeting, unpredictable, and impossible to depend on.

So if you're relying on your willpower and your motivation to carry you forward, you're setting yourself up for challenge after challenge after challenge. That's exactly why having a DEEP WHY changes everything. Unlike willpower, your WHY doesn't fade by the end of the day. And unlike motivation, your WHY doesn't come and go. A deeply rooted WHY keeps you steady because it's not about what you feel like doing in the moment. It's about what YOU MUST DO—no matter what.

And I know this to be true, not just from science and not just from reading a book, but from my own life.

See, for decades, I chased weight loss. I chased diets. I chased different plans and programs. And I struggled over and over. Because I know now that my WHY wasn't strong enough. I told myself I wanted to "be healthy." I told myself I wanted to "feel better." But the moment stress hit, the moment exhaustion crept in, the moment temptation appeared—those reasons weren't enough to keep me on my path.

Until everything changed. Until I saw it. Until I let myself imagine the world without me in it.

Friends…

I pictured my granddaughter growing up without me there. Her middle school years, navigating friendships, struggles, big emotions—without me there to guide her. Her high school years—without me there to cheer her on through her victories and lift her up in her losses. Her first job—without me there celebrating her achievement, helping her navigate those first steps into adulthood. Her heartbreaks. Her successes. Her ordinary days.

Without me by her side.

I forced myself to walk through all of it. And I realized—if I didn't change, it wasn't just a hypothetical. It was going to be my future. It was going to be her future.

See, I wasn't just unhealthy. I was on a fast track to disease, to deterioration, to missing out on every single thing that mattered to me most. And the thought of that, well, it shook me to my core.

In all of those realizations, I didn’t just want to change.

I knew I HAD to.

Because I refused to let her live in a world without me in it. I refused to let my own patterns, my own choices, steal me away from the life I was meant to live.

And here’s the thing. This isn’t just about avoiding an early death. I don’t want to just make it to 90, friends. No.

I WANT TO LIVE.

Not just exist. Not just survive.

LIVE.

I want to embrace life fully, to adventure through it, to explore everything this world has to offer, to experience joy in every single step, to love deeply, to show up fully for the people that I care about in this world, and to squeeze every ounce of meaning and purpose I have out of the time I have.

Because this life?

We get ONE.

One mind. One body. One soul. One life.

And friends, I refuse to waste it. I refuse to let old stories, old patterns, old programs steal me away from the life that I am meant to have.

And I need you to go there. I need you to dig until you find the thing that will hold you steady when everything in you wants to quit.

Because when your WHY is big enough, you will always find your how.

And that’s when confidence stops being something you hope for and starts being something that you own. Because when you have a WHY that’s unshakable, when you refuse to let life just happen to you, when you decide—truly decide—that YOU MUST do this, something inside of you shifts forever.

Doubt loses its grip. Excuses lose their power. Fear loses its voice. Because you are no longer someone who just tries.

You are someone who does. You are someone who rises. You are someone who refuses to settle. You are someone who looks at every single challenge, every temptation, every obstacle and says,

"I am stronger than this. My WHY is bigger than this. And nothing—nothing—will take me off my path."

That’s confidence. Not in theory. Not as a wish. As a fact. As a way of life. As who you are.

And friends, when your WHY is big enough, guess what? You don’t just find your how. You become the kind of person who makes it happen—no matter what.

Your WORDS MATTER, because YOU MATTER.

I’ll see you next week as we dive into two words that pack a powerful punch—I AM—because what follows I AM follows you.

Until then, hold tight to your WHY, take action like your future depends on it—because it does—and remember…

YOU CAN. YOU WILL. And YOU MUST.

And you’re worth it.

Have a great day.