X Marks the Spot
Where do you land on the map?
All,
As was made evident in Sunday’s discussion, the notion of mattering is at the forefront of my professional work.
So much so, that my team and I are currently undergoing a guided reading of the book The Mattering Instinct by Rebecca Newberger Goldstein.
Heavy on psychology and philosophy, the read explores how the need to matter is literally in our DNA, a theory that, once explained, doesn’t feel as outlandish as it may sound. What’s critical to applying this perspective, however, is the understanding that what it means to matter has evolved just as we have as a species.
And as the subtitle of the book stoically remarks, we have now arrived in a time where our “deepest longing” both “drives us and divides us.”
To help illustrate her point – quite literally – the author presents her vision of what she refers to as The Mattering Map, to describe the most common ways humans pursue significance (which, by the way, is what it means to matter).
I am including it here for a little self-exploration and to prompt you to think about where you might fall on this map.
If you view it conceptually, you will see that as a species, we’re primarily fueled by one or more of 4 distinct areas:
A Higher Power (Transcenders)
Human Connection (Socializers)
Mastery (Heroic Strivers)
Dominance (Competitors)
Oh, and do you notice that around the land masses there is the Sea of Longing?
I know I was *very* clear where I lived when I first viewed this illustration and wonder if any specific destination calls out to you.
Because what struck me when I first saw this was that in various ways, each of these 4 elements is in the midst of major upheaval due to rapid advancements in AI.
(Hence the term “The Mattering Crisis.”)
So chew on it and know that we’ll be exploring it further on Sunday when we discuss how to recalibrate in the midst of the unknown.
Funny, isn’t it, when you give some thought to where you belong?
Here’s to you,
