Part 2: Practical Application
Part 1 of this blog dealt with the important process of defining words. Part 2 will discuss the practicality, and criticality, of definitions to our daily and future life, relationships, and interactions.
As a reminder, the definition of definition is: A statement of the exact meaning of a word, especially in a dictionary.
The act of defining is a powerful preparatory exercise that I recommend we take part in often – actually, ALWAYS – before engaging in thoughtful discourse. Denying this step shows a lack of commitment to the discussion and precludes the ‘thoughtful’ part of the discourse.
Besides, defining (or researching) helps you understand what the heck you are talking about and establishes a foundation of understanding from which effective and productive communication can flourish. This is a good thing!
I have had a recurring conversation of late with some very smart, driven, and ‘successful’ people. It goes something like this:
Me: “What do you want from your career?”
High performing individual, whom we’ll call HPI: “I want to be successful.”
Me: “Interesting, what does that mean to you? Or said in another way, have you defined success?”
HPI: “I have not defined it, but I think it means I’m financially independent and my business is going well and growing.”
Me: “Also very interesting and sounds great! But without defining success, how do you know what financially independent, going well, and growing all mean? Have you defined each of those terms? For financial independence, have you assigned a number? If yes, what is that number based on? Have you backwards planned from whatever that number is and put a plan in place that will give you a tangible path to follow? Same for going well and growing?”
HPI: “I didn’t really think of it that way.”
Me: “Let’s dig in.”
What followed was very rich and intentional discussion that we all grew significantly from. This same conversation has happened dozens of times, the details of which were obviously specific to the individuals. But the general theme is the same and tells me we are way too surface level with words we use to define our actions and futures. This ALWAYS leads to confusion, unintentionality, and a lack of focus.
I want to be clear here. I do NOT believe I have the answers. I just know that I must engage in this exercise regularly, and it continuously forces me deeper, adding clarity to what I truly want my life to look like.
One last word that I keep hearing and deserves definition: comfort/comfortable. “I want to be comfortable,” is something we’ve all heard, and hear repeatedly. Most likely, we’ve also used those words to describe a big future goal we’d like to attain. But what does that mean? I’d argue that without actively defining what comfort means to you, it means NOTHING. At best, it just means more, which is also very difficult to build a plan around.
My challenge to you: the next time you describe what you want your career, relationships, your life, to look like, honor the process and put meat on the bones. DEFINE what these things really mean to you, what success looks like, how comfort feels, then intentionally seek to make them a reality!
Written by David Gutierrez
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