2025 Summit Keynote Reflection
We invited community members to volunteer their time in exchange for a complimentary pass to our Summit by writing session recaps and reflections for our Summit. We hope you enjoy their reflections! Want to watch the Summit on-demand? Learn more here.
Vic Strecher has a PhD in health behavior and education, a degree he earned at University of Michigan, where he is a Professor in the Department of Health Behavior and Health Equity. Along with teaching he has been a Principal Investigator of various research projects through National Institutes of Health and created digital health platforms like HealthMedia and Kumanu. Even as a digitally driven innovator, where data can outweigh emotion, his commitment to tailoring spaces and technology that optimize the individual experience of wellness in the public health sector goes far beyond a surface level.
During his Keynote speech titled Thriving Together: The Role of Purpose in Transforming Workplace Culture he spoke on the importance of purpose as humans, how it can affect our mental health as individuals and as a collective society. In psychology our purpose is described as a: self-characterizing framework toward a meaningful goal. As a collective society with all unique individuals, sometimes the organizations we work for can be that shared purpose we may have with another member of society, now a co-worker. Whether in a professional setting with co-workers or a personal setting with family and friends, each individual is able to see what they contribute to help support a thriving dynamic and through that contribution we find purpose.
When we find purpose, it allows us to perform better throughout life, make value-based decisions and can help regulate our anxiety. Vic expressed we must realize that we can have more than one purpose. There are various domains our purpose can exist in, for example, our purpose at work may not be the same purpose we have with our family or friends and even those can change over time. Vic helped us see the connection between mindfulness, understanding our purpose and how it can help us cope with certain fears as a way to regulate our anxiety. It is our purpose that motivates us and that purpose often centers around: personal health, interpersonal connections, wealth, personal growth and the status of a career is beneath all of those. With our purpose being so tied into our identity we find comfort in a career that supports our identity and lets us feel purpose in the work we do. In spaces where the reason we are there is to earn an income, having a purpose can help reduce the feeling of it being purely transactional.
Once we can find our purpose whether in a professional or personal setting we can begin to see an increase in our overall energy, motivation, mood and ability to manage our emotions which are top areas of individual growth. And in order to achieve that personalized growth Vic says we must look at the root system in our tree of life. The root system of our life goes beyond a surface level when we begin to evaluate our behaviors, emotions, core values and our identity to name a few as we begin to find our “why?”. A philosopher named Jean-Paul Sartre said, “Everything has been figured out (a generalization of the sciences), except how to live.”. Meaning how to live a perfect life is so subjective and the answers cannot be found in a book. We must take chances with ourselves and continue that exploration to find what truly serves us and brings us purpose.
