Bob Marley lived for 36 years and impacted the world in such a short period.
One wouldn’t need to be rich, educated, American* or live long to be impactful.
And there is a difference between being impactful, successful and wealthy. It’s much harder to be impactful than being successful than being wealthy. Not every successful person is impactful.
For being impactful you need to have a story that resonates.
Matt Higgins has a great story and is a great storyteller. Like Raymond Rodriguez-Torres (Day 18/365). Their stories are emotional, a roller coaster with ups and downs, sharing their pain and happiness. and we need to hear more of these stories. The stories of resilience, burning boats, standing up after a fall, and making opportunities out of a crisis.
On top of the inspiration and education, there’s a mental health benefit for that. When you hear a compelling emotional story, your brain starts to release dopamine, oxytocin, and serotonin. Dopamine is the hormone pleasure and reward, and that’s the same pleasure hormone that makes us browse Instagram and TikTok, the dopamine-addictive platforms.
On top of the TikTok hormone, you have oxytocin, the hug hormone, with emotions of bonding and trust, this is the hormone of empathy.
and on top of that serotonin, the happiness hormone with mood regulation and feelings of well-being. This is the hormone that fights anxiety and depression.
These chemicals work together to create a range of emotional responses to the story, that beautifully crafted neuro-hormonal dance in your brain.
This hormonal dance is missing from our daily lives. This hormonal dance is also missing from the AI of today. AI of today is missing a lot of beautiful things, empathy, emotions, feelings of anxiety, hugs and pleasure. When I discussed this a couple of months ago with Caroline Yap she shared her story. That’s also a TED material.
And when these stories are in person with human connection the effect is a unique experience. Thanks, Patrick, DigitalEra Group and FIU for creating this platform to hear Matt’s story.
* Aka American dream