Before Simon Sinek preached about "starting with why," Japanese inventor and industrialist Sakichi Toyoda and Toyota Production System architect Taiichi Ohno, since the 1950s, swore by the "5 Whys technique." This method gets to the root of a problem and zeroes in on possible solutions.
Today, lots of motivational posts champion finding our why. Or tracing the why of every issue that comes up in our lives.
While this is helpful when discovering our purpose or deciphering a situation, sometimes, overanalyzing the why's in every area of our lives cause unnecessary anguish. We become anxious, we overthink, we get stressed out. We become paralyzed by the fear of making mistakes (in case we chase the wrong why), or feel pressured to pinpoint the cause of every single circumstance.
But maybe, just maybe, we don't always have to know why some things happen.