The Beginning of Living What Matters

Several years ago, I’m on a flight at 30,000 feet, returning home after participating in a retreat, and I just can’t get these questions out of my mind: “What do people really want? What’s really going on out there?” They just keep swirling around like a little cyclone in my brain. It wasn’t particularly fun.

After significantly too much time has passed in this fog, my brain all but shouts at me: “Why are you so stuck?”

Instead of shouting back at it (I’m Italian and can occasionally… perhaps, frequently, carry on full conversations and arguments with myself), I relax. I breathe. I feel – there’s a lot of truth to that question for more than just me.

What Happens Next?

I’m a coach, an amateur researcher, a curious interviewer, so I go with what I know: I start asking questions of clients, experts, speakers, colleagues, friends and family.

I ask questions such as:

“When you signed up for that course (or program, training, seminar, etc.), what were you hoping you’d get out of it?”

“When you left that job (or relationship), what were you hoping to leave behind? And what were you hoping to find?”

“Before you made that decision, what were you feeling? And after?”

Ultimately, as we’re on the same page and off of the surface stuff, I ask “What do you really want?”

Patterns started to emerge…

“I want to feel more peace.”

“I want to feel like I’m making a difference.”

“I want to live more to my values.”

“I want to be happy.”

“I want more joy.”

“I want to be true to myself!”

“I want to feel free.”

“I want to matter.”

Uncovering What Matters — For You

There were many nuances and various contexts to these statements, but the overriding theme was being true to one’s self and in a way that embodied the experience of life they wished to have… in essence they want to live what matters to them personally – what I’ve taken to calling The Meaningful Way (which is unique to us all, even if there seems to be a whole lot of shared values and experiences that we wish to have).

Since that time, I’ve moved this conversation from coffee shops and video chats to this mission — Living What Matters. Through our community, podcast and resources, we can explore what matters, what empowers us to be truer to ourselves and the path we wish to travel, what limits us and how to break free and explore what’s truly possible.

Join the Living What Matters Movement

Consider this… if you could live a life that was in alignment with what matters most to you (and I mean what truly matters, not the material possessions but instead love, joy, freedom, connection, contribution, etc.), how would you feel? In what ways might that change the way you show up in your life? In your work? in your relationships?

If more and more of us were clear on what matters AND understanding of what matters to others, what might change in our neighborhoods, our communities, our cities?

Living What Matters is a project meant to help us reconnect to what matters most, breakdown what stands in our way, discover what we have in common, and building understanding and appreciation for our uniqueness and differences.

I hope you’ll join in – with the dialogues and interviews here or at least by prioritizing and living what matters to you!

MISSION