What’s Your Purpose: Weaving Warp and Weft with Intention and Finding Your Kokorozashi

[00:00:00] Welcome to Chain of Learning, where the links of leadership and learning unite. This is your connection for actionable strategies and practices to empower you to build a people centered learning culture, get results, and expand your impact so that you and your team can leave a lasting legacy. I’m your host and fellow learning enthusiast.

[00:00:19] Katie Anderson. It’s a big year for me. Actually, a big week for me. As the day before this podcast releases, I turn 50. I can’t quite believe I’m reaching the half century mark. I look at the 100 year calendar behind me in my office, and I’m astounded that my life has ticked off 50 of the mini calendars already.

[00:00:40] I remember thinking back in Y2K that 50 would be double my age then, and it seemed so far away. And yet time flies. 20 years ago, I was in Australia celebrating my 30th birthday. And 10 years ago, when I had just turned 40, my family and I had only weeks before I moved to Japan, forever altering the fabric of my life.

[00:01:02] And here I am recording at the cusp of turning 50, taking a pause to reflect on life, And purpose. We can always take time to reflect. It can happen in micro moments or daily to help us learn and adjust and realign our actions in the moment, or it can be on a bigger scale. Big milestones, whether it be the end of the year or a major project or stepping into a new decade like I am are especially good time to pause to zoom out and reflect with a different perspective on the big picture of your life.

[00:01:35] I like to say that reflection is the beginning, not the end of learning. It’s what gives us insights into what happened versus what we thought would happen and how we can learn our way forward. Reflection by zooming out helps us see the big picture and the interconnectedness of experiences that play out over time or scale.

[00:01:54] As Sal Yoshino told me in our multi year interview process for creating our book, Learning to Lead, Leading to Learn. The years of conversation we had exploring his 40 year career at Toyota and actually his whole lifetime that in these conversations he was learning and relearning more about his life and the things that he knew years ago at a certain level, he started to understand more deeply with the perspective of time and reflection.

[00:02:22] So here I am age 50 or almost 50 recording this podcast a half century taking a look back and reflecting on purpose in life. And I wanted to share with you some of the concepts and frameworks that I found invaluable in understanding what it really means. To lead a meaningful life, to have purpose, and to take action with intention.

[00:02:45] One of the concepts I haven’t explored here on the podcast yet is that of the warp and weft weaving metaphor that I discovered when writing my book, Learning to Lead, Leading to Learn. It’s a metaphor for understanding purpose. Based on the concepts of the interweaving of the warp, the vertical threads that are set down on a loom and the weft threads, the horizontal threads that are interconnected and woven together to create the fabric.

[00:03:11] This metaphor became the foundation on which I literally wove Esau Yoshino’s stories of his lifetime and career in the book. And I also thought it was a pretty cool coincidence that Toyota started as a weaving company. So the metaphor really spoke to me at many levels. I even included the Warp and Weft metaphor on the cover of the book.

[00:03:30] You can see the vertical threads and the horizontal threads interwoven there, and it’s become a really powerful metaphor as I think about life and how we weave the fabric of our life. So let’s talk about what this metaphor means and how I came to discover it. Actually, when I was starting to sit down to write the book after years of conversations, I was feeling really stuck on how I was going to interweave or tell the stories, uh, for Mr.

[00:03:57] Yoshino. And I kept thinking and even said to him that there were two threads of purpose that seemed to run through his life. And he said to me one night, you know, we have a metaphor in Japan that talks about a kimono weavers purpose and how they create their fabric. Kimono actually in Japanese means clothing.

[00:04:17] So we typically think of it as, you know, the traditional Japanese garb, but it actually means clothing into itself. So, I asked him to explain more. He said that in Japan, the kimono weavers see the warp threads as representing the vertical threads laid down on the loom. They’re known and constant, they don’t often break, and they represent the weaver’s internal mission and drive to create the fabric.

[00:04:44] It’s their vision, their purpose, the reason they’re there to weave the whole fabric together. The warp threads are the horizontal threads that are woven between and around the weft threads. They’re more practical and physical. They’re chosen by the weaver and incorporated with the weft threads to create the unique pattern of the fabric.

[00:05:04] They’re fluid and flexible and they can be various colors or thicknesses. They can break or be tightly interwoven, giving strength to the fabric. It’s this intersection of the warp and the weft, the interweaving that creates the fabric. And it’s unique pattern and through the course of writing the book, I really began to see this metaphor as a way to represent our life purpose and the process of discovering and understanding our purpose over time.

[00:05:32] So if we think about the warp and weft metaphor as it relates to purpose, the warp threads are the known elements in our life. They’re the foundation. And to which we lead our life, the core elements that have always been there, our purpose, what gives us meaning, even if they’re not always visible or obvious to us.

[00:05:52] The weft threads then are the discovered elements that what we learn through doing, through the process of living our life. Our choices, the experiences we have, the threads we choose to incorporate, and how we respond. They can be broken threads or holes in our fabric from loss or challenge. There can be dark colors and bright colors, depending on our level of happiness and experience at the time.

[00:06:16] There can be places of unexpected patterns or high levels of consistency. What’s important is what we discover through the process of living our life. The warp threads are the discovered and how do they interrelate with the known elements of our life? How do our experiences intersect with our purpose?

[00:06:34] Are we tightly connected with it or are we losing our way? Are threads breaking? Are we having hard times? And how are we getting up and moving forward and repairing those areas? And how are we learning our way forward? And how are we using what we’re learning to influence the rest of the pattern in the weaving of our life?

[00:06:52] When we’re focused on the doing, the living, the weaving, we can just see one tiny part of the fabric of our life. We can’t see that full pattern. So when we pause and zoom out and look at the whole fabric that we’ve woven to date, for me now 50 years, the macro. We can see the pattern that we’ve created, the lessons we’ve learned, and the deeper understanding of our purpose that we have from the interconnection of the known and the discovered along the way.

[00:07:22] As I reflect back on the 50 years of my life fabric to date, my warp threads are the constant of the core of who I am as a human being. They’re about learning and helping others learn and grow, exploring the world through international experiences and connecting with people on a deeper level by building and maintaining relationships.

[00:07:43] It’s my fuel and energy that’s compelled me forward. It’s the foundation of the choices I’ve made to pursue high level academics, to write a book, to learn a new language, actually, too. It’s compelled me to move to seven countries, starting when I was a 16 year old. Teen year old as an exchange student to the Dominican Republic, pursue my master’s degree in Australia and move to Japan with my family.

[00:08:05] It’s why I love the work I do and it’s one of the reasons I started this podcast. My warp threads are the foundation for all the things that have really compelled me forward in life. Then when I look at my WEF threads, what I’ve discovered along the path of life, the choices my warp threads have sort of compelled me to make, or what’s come up in my life, both planned and unplanned, they’re the experiences and learning that have come from both success and through trial and error and failure.

[00:08:35] The deep learning that’s come from the experience of moving the countries when I didn’t know anyone of the internal conflict that I had in choosing to leave a secure leadership role that was no longer serving me and leap into then the unknown and start my consulting practice when I was just a few months pregnant with my second child, navigating my dad’s ALS or motor neuron disease diagnosis and decline when we are living in Japan and his death six months after we returned just eight years ago.

[00:09:05] There have been many dark threads and broken threads, but I’ve learned from those experiences and they’ve enriched my understanding of my purpose and myself and how I actually embody and live my purpose. And of course, there have been a ton of bright threads and delightful patterns interwoven to amongst the challenges.

[00:09:25] And that’s the beauty of the interweaving of our warp and our weft. As we go through life and have more experiences, we weave more weft threads in with our purpose of our warp threads. Our fabric grows. And so does our understanding of our purpose. If we take the time to look back to zoom out and look at the fabric that we have created over time, I’ve come to understand my purpose through the interweaving of my work and my weft and the discovery of life, which I now articulate as connecting the hearts and minds of people around the world.

[00:09:58] So that together. We can make it a better place. Readers of my book, including Isaac Mitchell back in episode 32, often share with me how powerful this warp and weft metaphor has been for them and reflecting on their own purpose. So I wanted to share it here with you too. It’s so easy to just focus on what’s in front of us.

[00:10:18] So I encourage you to, to take a moment and zoom out to examine your own fabric of life, the interweaving of purpose and experience. What are your warp threads? Those constants that have been the foundation for your life, your choices, your heart. It can be many different things and they don’t have to all be the same.

[00:10:39] For me, it’s global experiences and deep learning and connection. For one of the participants on one of my recent Japan study trips, it’s her love of animals, which has led her to volunteer and serve on the board for pet shelters. For a biotech founder who engaged me to facilitate his leadership retreat, it’s conducting research and founding the business to find a cure for cancer.

[00:10:59] So reflect for yourself. What are those known constants that have really guided and been the foundation of your life and then reflect on your life experiences, your weft threads? What have you incorporated in your life through experience? What have you discovered through the process of living your life through the expected and the unexpected, the good and the challenging?

[00:11:22] How have your experiences influenced your understanding of your purpose? And what have you learned and adjusted in your fabric’s pattern along the way? If you want some additional inspiration and guidance around understanding your own warp and weft as you weave your life fabric, you can learn more, both in my book, Learning to Lead, Leading to Learn, as well as the companion workbook in which I offer reflection questions and exercises.

[00:11:46] I’ll put links to these resources in the full episode show notes. I also see a relationship between this weaving metaphor of warp and weft and my guiding word intention, which I see more as daily alignment between purpose and actions. I have this word written in so many places in both Japanese and in English.

[00:12:10] You can see if you’re watching the video here of the word intention shiko in Japanese in calligraphy behind me on my office wall or on my Daruma dolls here and it’s even on my Stanley cup that my team made for me. Intention equals heart plus direction. It’s how we take action to fulfill our purpose, our heart, what’s important inside here.

[00:12:35] So it’s a very active word, not just something we set intellectually. I wanted to explore this more deeply here with you. I talk about intention in nearly every keynote workshop or talk I give because Of the power it’s had an influence on me since I really discovered this deeper meaning of the word intention when I moved to Japan 10 years ago, I didn’t have a logo for my company at the time, and I needed business cards, so I asked the business card company, the Meishi company in Japan to put the word in Japanese here, and I discovered this richer meaning intention equals heart plus direction.

[00:13:12] I talked a bit more about the story of discovering the meaning of intention and the difference between intentions and goals back in episode seven. So go and listen to that if you haven’t already. And I wanted to explore this concept even further here. As my 50th birthday has been approaching, I’ve been thinking about the energetic and heart focus of purpose and how it compels and shapes our life fabric.

[00:13:36] In Japanese, which you can see on the wall behind me, or I’ll put some photos in the full episode show notes, you can see that the word in Japanese is made up of two kanji symbols. The first symbol is made up of two radicals or sub symbols. The first meaning samurai representing strength and determination.

[00:13:57] And the second, which is pronounced kokoro, represents not just heart, but mind and spirit all combined. So really, this first part of the word intention or shiko is about the strength of your heart, mind, spirit all combined. And actually, if you take off the bottom symbol of the word intention, it’s a standalone word that is called Kokorozashi.

[00:14:21] This Japanese term kokorozashi translates roughly to aspiration, personal mission, or purpose with heart. However, Kokorozashi conveys a much deeper meaning than these English equivalents. Kokorozashi is something deep inside us and energetic. It’s inspiring. It’s compelling. It represents a purpose that comes from the heart, a deep intrinsic drive that aligns our values and passions.

[00:14:48] It’s about bringing that intellectual understanding, the mind and the emotional passion of the heart together in the pursuit of a meaningful mission or purpose. In Japan, the concept of Kokorozashi is often applied in leadership around leadership purpose, emphasizing the importance of leaders having a vision that transcends personal success, and where leaders have this energy and desire to leave a lasting positive impact.

[00:15:17] Kokorozashi itself is about living a life of meaning guided by bigger purpose and a commitment to contributing positively to the world. One’s Kokorozashi, an inner purpose and energy is what guides leaders actions and decisions through their life. So you could say it’s the essence of your warp threads, your fabrics foundation, not just about what your core goals are, but really how you are going to live a meaningful life.

[00:15:47] So if we go back to that word intention or shiko, which you can see written behind me. So the first word is kokorozashi, which is made of samurai and heart, mind, spirit combined. So the strength of your heart, the bottom symbol represents compass. Or direction. So if you think about that compass and direction, it’s about how do we align our actions to fulfill, to embody our kokorozashi, our life’s mission and purpose.

[00:16:18] And so it’s the impact you want in your heart and mind and how you are actually taking action to fulfill that. Just the other week on his 81st birthday, I was talking with Isao Yoshino about these words Kokorozashi and Shikou, or intention. And he reflected that Kokorozashi is indeed a very powerful word, especially as it comes to leadership.

[00:16:43] But he believed Shikou, or intention, was even more powerful because it connects action to purpose. And I agree. Our intention, Shikou, is how we fulfill our purpose. How we embody. Our kokorozashi, the strength of our heart. How do we make the impact that we really want? And so this is how we can think about our impact in our purpose on a daily basis.

[00:17:06] How are we actually showing up to be the person we want to be? And then we can look out on a bigger picture. How is that helping us navigate our life? So how about you? Reflect on the micro level about your purpose. Think about the energetic elements of purpose, of your heart and mind. What gives you energy, vitality, meaning where are your moments of content?

[00:17:34] When are you buzzing, just getting this great feel about things? This will give you also a sense of that energetic element of your purpose. What’s your purpose beyond your own personal achievement that stretches into contributing to a broader purpose, such as making the world a better place. For me, I realized how much I get energy and vitality from connecting with people and helping them become their better selves and how I can get out of the way of being the expert with all the answers and opening up that expertise and that knowledge for other people, how I convene spaces for people to learn, grow and connect.

[00:18:11] And when I can do that either with my family or my clients, people who come on my Japan study trips and you here listening to the podcast, this is what fills me with energy and purpose on a daily basis. So the more you live with intention where your actions are aligned in the direction of your purpose, what gives you energy, the more likely your life fabric will be strong even through challenging times.

[00:18:35] I think about this in another way too, that we don’t always have control over the things that happen in our life, but we always have control on how we’re showing up, what actions and behaviors we have in response to those things. So even though a certain situation, a challenge comes your way in your life fabric, how are you responding to that?

[00:18:56] How are you leveraging that Kokorozashi, that inner purpose, help you make the actions that are really aligned with the impact you want to have about who you want to be? I think about, you know, a few examples for myself during my dad’s death, it was a really hard and challenging time. I showed up with a lot of intention to be there, to be present, to stay connected, to have conversations and to be transparent with people about what was going on.

[00:19:22] And in doing so, it allowed me to have those darker moments have bright spots as well. So we can always have control of how we’re acting and that then influences. How we weave our life fabric. So now if we think about both zooming in and zooming out in reflection on purpose and how we’re living our lives, how about you, how are you reflecting at the micro level each and every day on how you’re showing up, how you’re living a life of purpose and how you’re aligning your actions with who you really want to be, and then how are you taking that time to zoom out, to understand the interconnectedness of the experiences in your life and how both the discovered.

[00:20:02] intersecting with the known can give greater shape and meaning to your life fabric. What’s your understanding of your purpose? What’s always been there and how does what you’re discovering along the way of life help shape your understanding of your purpose and your intention for making a meaningful impact?

[00:20:19] What patterns do you see in your life fabric and what can you learn from those patterns? And on a micro level, how are you aligning your actions with your purpose? kokorozashi on a daily basis. How are you doing the things that energize you and help and energize others too? How are you leading and living with intention, with purpose that’s connected to something more than self achievement or just completing goals?

[00:20:43] Now, more than ever, we need leaders at all levels who lead with deep purpose, who are guided by a mission that goes beyond self serving goals, but a deep desire to contribute positively to others and society. As I look back at my hundred year calendar, half of which I’ve lived through now, I’m reminded what a Japanese leader whose company uses this calendar to ground them in their employees and purpose and human happiness shared with me.

[00:21:10] Life is precious. Don’t waste a precious life. Indeed, this is the essence of what our role is as leaders, as change agents, as parents, friends and as humans for improving the world, creating the environments in your organizations where people feel connected to purpose, their own purpose and that of the company.

[00:21:30] And how can we all live our best lives filled with meaning and connection? So how will you live a life grounded in purpose and weave a unique and beautiful fabric? How will you leave a legacy and grow this chain of learning? Thanks for listening to chain of learning. And if you’re enjoying this podcast, please leave a rating review on your favorite podcast player or YouTube, and be sure to share it with your colleagues and friends.

[00:21:53] So we can all strengthen our chain of learning together. Thanks for being a link in my chain of learning. I’ll see you next time. Have a great day.