Prime (noun)
the state or time of greatest vigour or success in a person’s life.

Hi, I’m Jason. This is where I share openly about the challenges, insights and lessons from my own journey. My hope is that these thoughts spark reflections that help you navigate your own path to living better and leading better. 

Jason Leavy
Founder

Prime Perspective:
Reflections on Leadership and Growth

I had a call with a friend and former colleague based in New York a few days ago and he told me something beautiful that made me light up - he's just moved to a new C-suite role, and said that for the first time in years he'd got his 'mojo' back.

Now here's the thing, he's still working crazy hours, the role is demanding and there are high expectations, but because of the culture of the company he's joined and the autonomy and trust that he's been given, he's rediscovered a sense of 'why' that had been chiselled away from him over the years.

It got me thinking about something I want to share.

We're drowning in numbers right now… sleep scores, HRV readings, step counts, blood tests… the quest for optimization can seem like Sisyphus pushing his boulder uphill.

I'm a huge believer in the power of data, but here's my provocation: too many of us are getting absorbed in the what and it's negatively impacting on the sense of our why.

When I talk about 'why’ in this context, I mean what researchers define as a sense that your life is significant, purposeful, and coherent - for me this is the essence of authenticity.

Psychiatrist Viktor Frankl identified what he called an "existential vacuum"; that emptiness people feel when they lose this sense of purpose and their 'why', and this is something I'm increasingly seeing right now - leaders obsessing over their own data in the hope it’s heading in the right direction, but then struggling to understand why they still feel lost.

Even if the data says they're making progress, internally they feel like they're treading water.

It's easier to ignore the things that can't easily be measured, but research by Dr. Patricia Boyle at Rush University Medical Center found something that at first glance is remarkable: people with a strong sense of purpose had a 44% lower risk of developing Alzheimer's disease.

However, I suspect when you stop and actually think about this, you won't be surprised.

Strip away the noise from that constant stream of data, hit pause on your autopilot and tap into what it feels like when you have that sense of 'why' - the energy flowing through your veins, the clarity of vision and the feeling that you can overcome any challenges that lie in your path.

What Nietzsche's quote captures so well is the human truth that with a strong enough why, you can figure out almost any how.

With that in mind, I wanted to share the 3 insights I took away from that conversation with my friend: 

1. Finding your ‘why’ doesn’t have to involve radical change. In this case, the ‘course correction’ of a role change was enough for him to recapture his ‘why’ (to the extent that his partner told him: “It’s the first time you’ve been happy in years!”).
   

2. Purpose beats pressure - his life hasn't got easier in terms of demands and expectations, but with his 'why' restored, he's now bursting with energy and powering through.
   

3. Change is always possible when you take agency over your life. If you feel you’re like Sisyphus pushing his boulder uphill, you know what you have to do…

…and if you don’t, remember we’re always here to help.