WHAT DO YOU CARE ABOUT?

LEARNING TO LISTEN MORE

I just returned from a weekend with about 1000 fellow keynote speakers. Some are Hall of Fame speakers who have been on stages across the world for the past 20-30 years and some were just starting out in their speaking business. What struck me was that everyone was there because they cared about being of service to their audience in some way. Most of the conversations I had with my fellow speakers were about navigating a changing world and learning to be more agile because of it. Yet, the guiding principle that was very clear to me in all our conversations was CARE.

NAVIGATING THE MESSY MIDDLE

We humans are driven by what we care about.​​​​​​​ This shows up in how we work together and the level of care we show each other when it comes to communication and collaboration which essentially builds the culture we work in every day. It also shows up in the products and services that we offer our customers. If you are in marketing and sales, you often hear that we need to understand the customer's pain point.

Essentially you can think of longing for or losing what we care about as the pain point. It can be good health, a stable and secure life, a family that has what they need, or kids that are supported in their learning and growth. In our basic daily lives, it's shelter, food, and clothing. In our social lives, it is to belong and matter. And at work, it is to be respected, be included, and have agency over our work as well as the core human need to keep growing. Of course, growth is scary because it means change, and that brings us back to the dilemma we are in right now—the uncertainty of our daily lives, which is also the opportunity to make new decisions and grow.

The messy middle between what we know and where we are headed can feel like chaos or just a little shaky, but the guiding principle that gets us through is to keep focusing on what we care about.

The old version of thinking that people just want more money and more benefits is a misunderstanding of what drives us as human beings. It's not the money we want, it's the safety, the status, the experiences, the ability to take care of others, the ability to pay for the needs we suspect we will have in the future, and so on...

So if we want to understand how to stay motivated and inspired truly, it's important to pause for just a little longer and listen inside, not to your yearnings, longings, and desires, but to the heart of the matter. Listen for just a little longer to connect to what you care about.

REMEMBERING OUR HUMAN ADVANTAGE

Being with my fellow speakers, I was reminded once again of what I care about. I care about people, you. Recognizing that being human is not a problem to solve; we are an advantage to harness. Instead of always looking for how you are not good enough and measuring up to your own expectations or that of others, what do you need so that you can let yourself grow just a little bit more every single day? What seeds do you need to plant, and which do you need to water? Why do I care about that? Because every day, I saw my mom struggle, thinking she wasn't good enough because she simply could not see how amazing she was.

So what do you care about, and what do you need so that you can do just a little bit more to grow that every single day?