Focus On Your Mission

Our worlds may feel shaken. But we’re actually much sturdier than we think.

- By Jason Feifer

You are not what you do. You are why you do it. This is an especially important distinction today. The what and the why are two different things—and if you confuse the two, then you are not prepared for change. You will be disoriented and rocked, unable to envision a way forward. But if you see what and why as separate, then you become more adaptable. You become less afraid. You feel more in control.

That’s very abstract, so let’s talk specifics. We’ll start big.

I have a general theory about why people fear change: It’s because change makes familiar things look unrecognizable. In the 1950s, for example, people connected over bowling leagues and pasta dinners. This was their definition of community. Now that 1950s generation looks at young people today and they panic— because they see no bowling leagues and pasta dinners! Instead, they see WhatsApp groups and TikTok, and they assume that those tools can’t possibly build meaningful connections. The older generation therefore believes that community is gone.