What Gets You Out of Bed?
It’s often easy to get swept away on the tide that is life, especially when it comes to Monday morning and the next week stretches out in front of us, waiting to be taken full advantage of. As the world starts to move on from the various versions of paralysis that the past few months have brought, some of it still seems surreal, and some people are still uncertain which step to take next to move forward.
Time has taken on new qualities. Arielle Pardes described it in Wired as Coronatime. She said, “Coronatime has no scale. ‘Time’ has become a stand-in for all that we cannot control. It is both the breakneck speed at which things are changing, and the burden of how much is staying the same. We are scared this might go on forever. We are scared it might end too soon.”
What has become abundantly clear is that this has been a time of reinspection. A time of introspection. A time of asking ourselves what is truly important, truly valuable to us; and of others reflecting back what they hold dear. Everyone has different answers, but we have none the less been refocused. In many cases, priorities have shifted; or perhaps we’ve just remembered what they were… before Monday got going and the week ran away with us.
In April, I wrote an article entitled “Keep Your Scan Going – Don’t Fixate” in which I theorised about what the human counter response would be to the restrictions we were feeling. It read, “ As we move through this next chapter, we will look for ease, for joy, for freedom. We will look for ease of movement and of doing business. Joy of giving and receiving value, of genuine communication and authentic delivery. We will look for freedom of choice.”
In May, I wrote on “Never Has WHY Been More Important” reiterating that we all make decisions based on our core value systems, that maintaining stability requires that we know and understand our core value structure, and that the stability and power of a team is in knowing where the overlap lies in those core values and operating accordingly.
In June, I wrote about “Communication, Truth & Purpose” – how our humanity will remain our most powerful strength no matter what else is stripped away during crisis, and the beautiful and powerful emerging need for new communities of trust built not on place, but on purpose.
This last week, I listened to two gentlemen by the names of Mark Steenhoff and Peter Schmitt talk further about the human condition, the values that this period of time will amplify within us (values of community, co-operation, Ubuntu, generosity, simplicity and wellbeing) and how to communicate these values best to those we serve. I was reminded about the driving power of knowing what gets you out of bed in the morning. The driving power of knowing what your purpose is.
My purpose, my core values, my reasons for doing what I do how I do it have percolated down to a single statement over the past few years of study, which has stood and not changed. My “WHY”, my purpose, my reason for doing what I do is because:
“I believe that people who understand and trust each other produced powerful outcomes”
I hold that belief in my personal relationships, in how I parent my child, in how I do business, in what I set out to help the teams I work with achieve, and in the greater mark that I’d like to leave on the world. When my Mother said, “Everyone is entitled to their opinion. That theirs differs from yours does not necessarily make one of you wrong.”, that really landed with me. I don’t believe that people have to agree with each other to understand and trust each other.
I DO believe that people who are prepared to work towards gaining understanding of each other’s unique points of view and reasons for doing things the way they do; and who are able to grow trust based on mutual respect of each other’s ways and beliefs can work together to produce powerful outcomes.
When I tap into the essence of that belief, it fills me with energy, passion and purpose for what I do. It influences how I set out to raise the young man I’m raising. It fuels how I communicate in my personal relationships and friendships, and pushes me to share with authenticity and vulnerability. It fuels how I do business and who I do business with in my quest to help people connect with each other to achieve powerful outcomes. This belief widens my view of what it’s possible for me to effect in the greater world if I truly use my power for good and don’t allow myself to stay small.
What is it that gets you out of bed in the morning? What is it that lights your fire? What is it you won’t tolerate because it goes against what you deeply believe? How far have you expanded your thinking lately to include the greater mark you could leave on your people, on your society, on the greater world? When was the last time you hooked yourself up to the powerful fuelling of a core belief? What matters to you most deeply? This past few months should have helped to strip away what may have been clouding that – are you watching to see what’s revealed? What is it that drives and fuels you – before Monday gets going and the week runs away….?
by Christen Killick
July 20th, 2020