Finding your ‘why’: How to dig deep and define your purpose | Dan Cable | Big Think

Finding your ‘why’: How to dig deep and define your purpose | Dan Cable
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Purpose is one of the activators of a network in the human brain often called the seeking system. It's what fuels our thirst for new knowledge and pushes us to explore.

The question ""What are you doing right now?"" has a myriad of valid answers, some more involved and layered than others.

Shifting your response to be about the ""why"" recontextualizes the action and speaks to the purpose of the work rather than the behaviors.
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DAN CABLE:

Dan Cable is Professor of Organisational Behaviour at London Business School. Dan's research and teaching focus on employee engagement, change, organizational culture, leadership mindset, and the linkage between brands and employee behaviors. Dan was selected for the 2018 Thinkers50 Radar List, The Academy of Management has twice honored Dan with Best Article awards, and The Academy of Management Perspectives ranked Dan in the 'Top 25 most influential management scholars'.

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TRANSCRIPT:

DAN CABLE: It seems that this concept of purpose is uniquely human. It's a really interesting one. It's this idea of having an answer to the why of what we do.
We know that that is one of the activators of the seeking system. We know that the concept of looking for the outcome or the effect of our behavior is something that our seeking system is urging us to do. But it's also interesting to take a step back from that and just think about how all of us have stories running around in our brains about why we do what we do. For example, if I'm taking to a class I sometimes would say to them, you know, what are you doing right now? And it's possible to think about sitting. A lot of times when I'm teaching a class full of MBAs or a class full of executives they're all sitting and that would be a truthful answer. But they also could say I'm listening. And if they're listening that's a slightly different story because it moves the emphasis off of the bum and into the ear and engages the brain a little bit. But they also could say I'm learning. And the idea of learning is a big different again because that implies that I'm listening to what you're saying but I'm also comparing it to what I used to believe and then I'm deciding if I need to do any updating on what I believe.

You also could say I'm trying to learn how to be a better leader so that I can ignite the people that I lead. Each one of these is just a different purpose. They can all be true. They all have the opportunity to be a true story in our brain. But we as humans have the ability to shift that focus. And sometimes that work, especially menial work that we feel is repetitive we start to think about the behaviors. And so when somebody says what are you doing? They might say what do I do at work? I put these screws on that machine. What do I do at work? I process this film and I clip this out and I upload it. And those are the behaviors of the work. You also can think about the why of that work. What do I do? I delight customers by putting this film online that they can watch and enjoy. What do I do? I build an automobile which is a piece of equipment that moves 80 to 100 miles an hour. Those can all be true stories but what we're finding is is a lot of time this sense of purpose, the higher order of purpose is lost. And it's lost and it's nudged out by the lower level: what do I do with my body all day long. The evidence and the research suggests that when we think about our work as a set of behaviors, scripted behaviors that we do in a repetitive way, we lose stamina, we lose resilience. When we think of it at a high level of construal, the why of the work meaning what is the impact, the final result of this on the world it really makes our stamina higher. It makes us much more resilient to difficulties in accomplishing that effect.

[TheEternalOuroboros]

"He who has a why to live can bear almost any how." --- Friedrich Nietzsche

[Krakikoko]

Very interesting how changing our narrative about what we do affects our motivation and energy 😮

[DiyEcoProjects]

*More of Dan Cable, hes great ~ thanks*

[DeAguaMusic]

"Can you feel it Mr. Anderson? Closing in on you? Oh I can. I really should thank you for it, after all it was your life that taught me the purpose of all life. The purpose of life... is to end."

[susank]

I am updating my brain with new information so that when I write Indivdual Education Plans (IEPs) for my students, I will tap into the higher order purpose instead dreading the task at hand.

[DiyEcoProjects]

~ Personally i think it has something to do with if weve had kids or not. I havent, and i often wonder if ive missed the point to life itself. My friends have an innate purpose now that they have kids, beyond themselves. The only purpose i have is in what i choose to give myself... So been trying to figure that out. For me its come down to finding out "what do i want to be responsible for?" and THAT becomes your purpose.... in the words of someone else "it doesnt matter what you do, only state of mind matters"

[bigthink]

Hello big thinkers! Did you find your purpose? If so, how did you come to define it?

[utkarshkothimbire]

If we think about our day to day work, Ability to have a higher-order purpose which tells us that we are working on something which is having value or will create impact is of prime importance.

[HambaAllah-ceit]

"When we think about our work as a set of a behavior, scripted behaviours that we do in a repetitive way we lose stamina, we lose resilience. When we think of it at a high level of control, the why of the work meaning, what is the impact, the final result of this on the world, it really makes our stamina higher, makes us much more resilient to difficulties in accomplishing that effect." - Dan Cable

Example :
Ask a student, what are you doing?

The answer that the student gave is the meaning that the student put in what he is doing. The meaning will effect the stamina and the resilience that the student have.

If the answer is sitting, then the purpose will be only a low level purpose and thus will not gave much stamina, energy and resilience to that student. If the answer is "learn to be a better leader" or "changing the world by improving myself and my life" then the stamina and resilience will be higher.

Example of answers :
1. Sitting
2. Listening
3. Learning
4. Learn to be a better leader
5. Changing the world by improving myself and my life.

[EugeneKhutoryansky]

Very good message. My only criticism is that I disagree with the comment that this is a uniquely "human" activity.

[QDoledgamer]

Almost 3 million subscribers with only 6000 views. Big Think has to change something on how to relay information and idea's.

The idea of having very short videos are good.... on paper. 15-20 ish could be the sweet spot, this way you can truly have a conversation with an individual. But that is just my preference, as long if Big Think chooses a different approach. Also try to link a certain subject with what is happening right now or what has happened in the past. Name some events that happened.

Edit: or do a collab with an YouTuber and see how their perspective is. Seeing the difference between those who have kept thinking about a certain subject and someone who hasn't been thinking about it continually would be interesting.

[nkqrteh]

Motivation is the key to find out higher purpose then real Q is how we keep people motivated with day in day out monotony?

[soundknight]

Well this needs ironing out but I think I can manage converting it.

[castroirabradleys.]

I think you just have to pursue something. It does not matter whatever your philosophy. Coz philosophy is just an endless loop imho. Human emotion will lead you to something and human logic will do the plan

[canibaloxide]

This message for meaning has been brought to you by the fine people at McDonald's, now hiring

[Oklon]

Czyli, ze cele istotniejsze sa istotniejsze. Genialne.

[siddhartha_]

Maybe so but thinking differently about something has its limits

[ytubeanon]

I transform pictures of pretty girls into used kleenex

[markkravitz]

👍 Try and fail, but don't fail to try. The main man @evenkingsfall (his insta) never stops saying you have to THINK BIG to WIN BIG! Always keep that mindframe! Keep up the good content 💥

[splitlip]

This is an alien. Look at this fucking alian. It's like a scene from MIB.