Clarity and Fulfillment

Clarity and fulfillment, with Chris Baldwin

What if you knew exactly what you wanted, and went after it without a doubt? Today, TEDx keynote speaker Chris Baldwin talks about the importance of gaining clarity through curiosity, action-taking, and adventure, why your success is measured by your impact on others,  the difference between happiness and fulfillment, and how storytelling is the cornerstone of creating a connection with your audience.

“Sometimes information hurts more than it helps”

Chris stresses the importance of having clarity: “What do I want?” He asks. “It’s the single hardest, yet most powerful question”. Helping people by giving them more information can bring even less clarity, says Baldwin. Instead, he likes to question “why” they think what they think. To help them get there, he tries to remove concepts from their minds. “The key to answering the question ‘what do I want’ is to want to less, and to want the right things.”

“It’s not about you”

“Realize that it’s not about you, who you are is not important to other people. What’s important is what you do.”  Chris Baldwin emphasizes the idea that we must free ourselves from the chains of what other people think of us, because most likely, they don’t think anything at all of us. Instead, they ask “How successful do you make me?” and that’s how people judge you. Life and success is therefore all about making the people around you better and more successful.

“Happiness is not everything”

“Happiness is acquired by having more. The house, the car, the love, the pleasures, the achievements, etc. Fulfillment comes from giving back.” Says Chris. It takes courage to live in authenticity.  “The most beautiful gift you can give is to have the courage and tenacity to be yourself and helping others do the same in a world of expectations and influence.” 

“We crave focused attention”

“The beauty of stage is focused attention.” Chris says. The world is tired of fragmented attention. “We’ve always been speakers, it’s just where we’re delivering it from that differs.” We start speaking  when we are small, and we do so every day. Speaking on stage however, is a very uncomfortable place, but also a place of leadership and influence. 

“Being on stage requires you to be the best version of you”. Life in its entirety wants you to be the best version of you. “For that, you must get out of your comfort zone”, he says. At its core, it’s a call to adventure. It’s about being curious.

“We only connect with stories” 

“Effective communication is the foundation of all growth, success and happiness in life,” says Baldwin. So many entrepreneurs with prototypes of ideas that could change the world don’t go nowhere because they can’t pitch their ideas.

“If you want someone to feel a certain way, he says, share a story that makes you feel that certain way”. We transfer emotions with stories. Baldwn also notes that If you can speak effectively to children, you can speak effectively to adults. “Learn how to speak to kids and that will give you everything you need to speak on stage.” 

If the talk resonates with you, we’d recommend you listen to this episode too: Srikumar Rao