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'.
Check Dan Cable's latest book Alive at Work: The Neuroscience of Helping Your People Love What They Do at amzn.to/3dd32Mj
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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

[@aperson2730]

Tragic end to his life though 😑

[@TheEternalOuroboros]

@@aperson2730 With the truth, one cannot live. I respect him because even in the face of utter truth he strived on. He gave us wisdom and we should remember him for that.

[@aperson2730]

@@TheEternalOuroboros What is your "why"?

[@aperson2730]

@@TheEternalOuroboros I'm guessing you meant "WithOUT the truth" instead of "With"

[@TheEternalOuroboros]

@@aperson2730 I actually meant WITH. It's a reference to Otto Rank (Psychoanalyst) -- It's suggesting we in some way need to be ignorant of truth in order to be happy or satisfied in the moment.

[@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."

[@susank580]

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"

[@Matthew-ob7vb]

So simple so professional

[@utkarshkothimbire1484]

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.

[@JoshuaDHarvey]

Great video

[@Oklon86]

Czyli, ze cele istotniejsze sa istotniejsze. Genialne.

[@bigthink]

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

[@soundknight]

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

[@user-nk6qr8te6h]

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

[@EugeneKhutoryansky]

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

[@TheEternalOuroboros]

Which other animal is able to question their own existence?

[@TheEternalOuroboros]

@Eli Wiens The question now is: Why have we not found this out yet? If we were to find it out, why haven't we already? I imagine measuring self-awareness can be difficult.

[@EugeneKhutoryansky]

Animals clearly remember both their own and everyone else's place in the social hierarchy. They remember which individuals in their community are their friends. And they mourn their dead. With regards to self awareness, keep in mind that René Descartes and many of his contemporaries believed that black people did not possess self awareness.

[@TheEternalOuroboros]

@@EugeneKhutoryansky I'm not sure if i'd say they 'remember their place', but i would say they (by inference and instinct) can tell what they should be doing. Maybe i'm being picky with your wording, but is 'remember' (ie them thinking specific thoughts) the correct way of understanding this? (The rest i agree with) That's an interesting point about Descartes, i never knew that. However, i wouldn't blame him for it as it was the culture at the time to pick on races in particular. On Descartes though, i do think his Cogito Ergo Sum principle is the best we can get in order to understand the limit of our reality.

[@hannahr7543]

@@TheEternalOuroboros instinct can only go so far. for example, all spiders instinctively build webs, all over the world. but there are animals like monkeys and whales that have unique cultures (ways of eating, cleaning, tool usage, etc) that are specific to certain tribes. they can remember these cultures and transfer them to other groups. this is not instinct, it is learned and upheld by social standards. I'm not sure if you can call this self awareness, but it definitely changed they way I thought about animal conciousness.

[@castroirabradleys.4655]

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

[@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 KZbinr 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.

[@canibaloxide]

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

[@waitwhat9669]

Victor Frankl entered the chat...

[@siddhartha_1]

Maybe so but thinking differently about something has its limits

[@aperson2730]

1.5x

[@markkravitz4678]

👍 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 💥

[@ytubeanon]

I transform pictures of pretty girls into used kleenex

[@splitlip100]

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

[@InvictEUs]

Or... you know, you can do actual WHY discovery course by Simon Sinek that instead of hollow speculation will actually allow you to put into words what drives you in your life, whether you are at work, at home or anywhere else. Just saying.....

[@bbrenddon]

That man smoked alot of weed before going on screen i can tell take it from me

[@bbrenddon]

@Spiritual Healing AudioBooks i prefer listening to Sexual Healing my Marvin Gaye

[@DubTurd]

hahahaha now that you say it this video is really hilarious

[@timokaaarp7779]

Why do we need a why? We have what we do and how we do it but the why is usually a self-lie. Just be.