Connectedness Continuum
Over the past couple of months we have started to write The Disconnected, Connected World. Susan Caba has made great progress at this point and we will hopefully have the book done by the fall. One of the main concepts of the book is about connectedness and how joy is an outcome of deep connectedness.
When talking about connectedness I started to think of a hierarchy, with different types of connectedness. Over the past few weeks I have talked with numerous people and yesterday someone mentioned the idea of a connectedness continuum vs a hierarchy. I actually agree 100% and have started to think about a connectedness continuum for the book.
The continuum starts with what I termed “surface” level connections in my talk, including connecting with others that share your favorite music, sports teams, Facebook friends and even your work if it is just to provide income. In the continuum instead of surface I believe these are societal connections.
The next section of the continuum would be the roles we play in life that we have in common with others. These would include being a parent, a spouse, a BFF or a volunteer. When you share time with others that share common roles in our life we feel a bit more deeply connected than just sharing our thoughts on Facebook or our favorite sports teams. But these roles are common among most people, roles that anyone can take on.
The final part of the continuum focuses on purpose level connectedness. These are the connections that we make with others that share a common purpose with us. What I talked about in the TEDx Talk of Shared Common Purpose. When you spend time with people that share a common purpose your connection seems to grow immensely. I have also found that the closer your purpose is to why you are uniquely put on this planet you seem to find even more connectedness.
We will see how this all plays out in the book, but I need to thank Dave Stiegerwald for his thoughts about the continuum concept. You never know where some of your best ideas will come from.
‘Til next time …….
Larry Kesslin 