As children, we rush to grow up. When we do, we strive to make something of ourselves and when we finally achieve something (or don’t), we pause and contemplate the meaning of it all.
What creates this value in life? Can it be measured or appraised? What value do I create for others?
If you contemplate similar questions, which keep dragging you down instead of rewarding you with a rush of motivation, I invite you to get acquainted with my recommendations, whether it is to find meaning or whether it is to cease the avalanche of endless questions.
In June of this year, during an international symposium on potential and imagination, titled “Agents of Reality,” professor Maurizio Ferrario, from the philosophy department at Turin university, reflected: “We often fail to recognise true value. Thereby employees think they work more than what is measured monetarily.”
The understanding of this value is complicated by excellent (without any irony!) working conditions: flexible work schedules or new technologies, which allow us to reach work from everywhere, anytime. In the long run, we do not count the time we start work or when we finish. We don’t notice that we reply to emails on weekends or at night. When work runs into our “off-work” time, we often feel that we are rewarded less than the time we put in.
The same value scheme is perceive by clients, the recipients of a service or buyers. It is therefore more difficult to sell an object when its value is undefined. The classic marketing formula dictates that the buyer seeks to purchase the object with added value. Therefore, in the role of the seller, we should never write off value as being “self-explanatory.”
Commonly, the value that is “self-explanatory” creates problems. Hidden value wards off the possibility of creating a connection with the recipient of the message, thus distancing them, sending them in search of broader meaning, raising queries such as “Why do I even need this?” and hence loosing them in the process.
The value of communication is often intangible. While it is difficult to squeeze it into a frame, it is easy to get confused and overwhelm yourself while searching for meaning. Yet, a simple realisation – the news of your product (or client) becoming widespread or possibly the public giving you credit for your idea – can make your morning alarm sound like another chance to move mountains.
A buyer’s decisive thought “I want to buy it because…” is an influential measurement of the power to convey a product’s worth. Very so often this “Because” is more eloquent than numerical results obtained from the communication. It encompasses the thoughts of the great creator of the product, without whom the world is unimaginable today.
Therefore, by creating value in our work, we add meaning to it. It is time to look back at oneself, while for some this may be associated with pilgrimage expeditions, mountaintops or closing oneself in a monastery. If that is what you need – let it be so, however the answer often lies on the surface. It is not only the time to look back at what you are doing, but it is likewise the time to push yourself to become the best in what you do. And here is where everything turns upside down – value is born and meaning is found.