[Applause]
before we start I would like you to take
a few moments and listen to yourself
closely please
thank you
what did you hear
breathing all right your breathing what
else did you hear
digestion all right you got you got good
hearing senses they’re pardon cheddar
and thoughts what I think you heard was
possibly the most important voice within
your life what I think you heard was
possibly the most important person
within your life yourself and what I
want to show you today is how the
process of active self listening can be
connected to the concept of becoming a
life work architect and what happened to
me when I stopped listening to myself
and what changed within the last two
years since I started again and as most
of you will possibly wonder what a life
work architect is I might just tell you
right from the start a life work
architect is someone who understands
that his life is under general
construction and that it is on him for
his life’s work to be completed and that
it is on him to set up a plan to reflect
on his own personal strengths to think
about how should my house my future self
my life’s work look like in the future
to come who is not looking on the left
on the right hand-side
watching the neighbors build their
houses their life’s work but who is
individual who knows about his
uniqueness and starts building his house
bottom to top and what I want to invite
you to today is to come with me and join
me looking at my construction site and
how it possibly might have looked like
about two years ago as you can see in
the back of the picture it’s quite dark
and if you are looking in front of the
picture you’re seeing stairs climbing up
into the light that might just how I
felt like about two years ago it was a
moment
that had changed for me personally
nearly everything it was the 18th of
December 2015 the 21st birthday of my
sister who had already gone out with her
friends partying so it was only my
parents and me sitting on the couch and
my father was sitting on the left hand
side and my mother was sitting on the
right hand side and I was sitting kind
of like a cross towards them and was
sitting them down to be truly honest
with him because what my inner voice had
been shouting at me for 12 months was
that there was something completely
wrong with me that I had somehow along
the way lost the connection to me
personally and at my house although it
might have looked beautifully on the
outside started to cripple on the inside
because to be honest it looked all
pretty well when I was 23 it was 3 years
of running through all the gates of
success and back so to speak I had
enrolled in University in Heidelberg
after had been to Australia for a year
and then while I was studying on
University I started working as a
financial consultant and I was doing
great I was responsible for a team of
employees I worked together with good
friends of mine I had a living which I
couldn’t have ever dreamed about being
2023 and it was working seven days a
week so I felt like already life had
rolled it all out for me but inside I
felt this house lost all his furniture
I felt that emptiness and loneliness had
already taken over the place and I
didn’t really know how to get along any
further so what did I do I set my
parents down and I was telling them I
need your help and something started
back then when my father asked me a
simple question and what I want to tell
you today is what this question was and
might some of you will have similar
experiences today or for the future to
come and possibly this question might
help you as well because what I feel and
what I experienced within the last two
years since I started listening again is
that we are
all facing exactly the same challenge we
are facing the challenge that all around
us there is change we heard about change
today we heard about climate change we
heard about change concerning fish we
heard about any kind of change and what
I see is that we are also having change
in a working area if we look at the
speed of innovation all around us it
will never be as slow as it is today
quite the opposite the speed will from
now on only increase in its speed at the
innovation I’m sorry as a question for
you what do you think just answered
inside your head how long did it take
for electricity to be used by more than
25% of worldwide population back in the
nineteenth century what do you think
think about a number how many years did
it take for electricity to be used by
more than 25% of the worldwide
population back in the nineteenth
century
it took us back then 46 years until we
can say that the innovation got through
if we look back to the earlier days or
at least to the last couple of years
what we find is that for us it only took
a year to use three-dimensional
television back in 2014-2015
so that one and a half billion people
used one of those gadgets besides that
if we only look at the technology and in
the industry and the four major
companies within the technology industry
we see Google Amazon Facebook and Apple
and thinking back 10 15 years ago what
has changed is enormous Amazon was a
online bookstore
ten years ago and we were thinking about
and wondering if it’s all right to
purchase an item a book online today
Amazon for some of us is a market store
that we are only going to Apple another
example how smartphones have changed the
way we are communicating is nearly or
what’s nearly impossible to imagine
about 15 years ago and some of you might
have as well similar to me taken the
quote apple a day keeps the doctor away
too literally
and we’re always closest to their hearts
Facebook what at Facebook do Facebook
whatsapp Instagram what happened is that
our way of communicating changed from
the core today we are expressing
emotions via Smiley’s and emoticons and
we are thankful to whatsapp that they
have this new upgrade which allows us
even more
Smiley’s what else are we doing we are
we are just voicing or we are just
speaking into our mobiles having this
message send that we can try and repeat
12 times until we are relatively happy
with our sound of the voice and how the
voice sounds and the message that we are
sending we are afraid to call someone
because we don’t really know if we will
be able to have the right answer at the
right moment when we are asked what I
feel is that the innovation around us
increases in its speed and what I feel
is that we are searching for safety that
we are searching for securities that we
are searching for some way of knowing
that it will be alright in the future to
come but if we look at the bass words
and I don’t want to contemplate on them
but the bus words as automatisation
digitalization artificial intelligence
machine learning I don’t want to set
this room on fire and spread fear but we
should feel a distinct version of
respect at least and if I look back on
my personal history 10 years ago I heard
that it is teachers that are searched
for all over Germany five years ago it
was engineers and right now everybody is
speaking about IT so what am I supposed
to do what am I supposed to learn and
what is going to secure my future I
don’t know I think nobody really knows
out there and someone who believes that
he is well prepared for the future to
come
I don’t know if there’s any hope I think
the only preparation that we can truly
take is to accept that there is no
preparation at all we are searching for
external accomplishments external
decrease external achievements someone
to clap us on the back and say you are
the way you are just perfectly prepared
prepared for the future to come your
acknowledgement your degree will save
you for the future I’m sorry but I don’t
believe that I think that the competence
to learn knowledge by heart and to
reproduce it in the future won’t solve
the issues that are about to come
I believe that companies in the future
are going to search for someone who
comes up with answers or who comes up
with questions that have not been asked
yet because googling something which we
are doing constantly and receiving
knowledge might not solve the issues so
what I believe is that we should start
looking somewhere else for safety and
that was the moment when I sat down my
parents looked them in the eyes and told
them that I was feeling empty that I was
feeling lonely although everything
worked out beautifully on the outside
what had started was me feeling like
being a composition of what others were
thinking is right of what I am supposed
to be of word which strengths I am about
to have and this composition had nothing
to do with me personally so we be need
or we are needing edges I believe I
believe we should and we learned this
throughout the day within the topics of
education for example we should start
educating ourselves differently we
should focus more on edges but on the
perfect Vita with a perfect amount of
internships with the perfect amount of
months that we have studied abroad we
should rather start
besides all those aspects to look inside
and ask ourselves what are my strengths
what are the things that I am passionate
about and in which field wanna I want to
become an expert that no machine
learning is ever going to replace back
then my father asked me a question he
said if you would ask yourself right now
how you are feeling and what has to
change for you so that you are feeling
all right again there was a process
initiated a process of jumping from an
external way of living to looking inside
and making my own decisions because we
are living in times where everybody has
opinions on everything but never really
put into in the effort to truly
understand we are living in a time where
everybody knows what’s best for us but
it’s desperate oneself we are living in
times and we have to think about that
where we spent 4 and a half hours on
average a day being online and if we
only add on the hours we are watching
television and serious we are about 9
hours awake consuming distraction what
from my point of view we are losing is
touch the touch to ourselves because the
moment there is this inner voice
starting to shout that there is
something wrong
we start switching the television on we
start writing into our Kroop chat only
to receive 10 answers immediately we
start uploading the new selfie from this
perfect spot that I had been searching
for for the last 10 days which tells
everybody else and my friend lists that
I’m living the perfect awesome life what
I think we need to do is we need to
start looking inside and some of you
might have heard that we have to develop
a certain sense of self-awareness and
some of you might have already started
to think about what is my uniqueness
what is my edge how can I start working
on my construction site thinking about
what is true and important to me not
what others are telling me what the next
popular trend will be but what I am
truly passionate about and it’s hard and
I’m failing at it daily to build this
connection to establish that connection
to start to learn to know the person
that is most important in my life
because I’m so taken by everything else
around me that I don’t really have the
time for that
which is the shame and which I believe
we should change and where I believe the
process of active listening starts
because to truly listen on the outside
we should start listening on the inside
at least as well and for that reason I
have one invitation for you for the
future to come ask yourself the
questions you would normally ask others
and start listening to your answers it’s
easy but I believe that every great
truth is easy and it can be as easy as
asking how are you feeling and looking
yourself in the mirror and answering it
because that way I believe that we can
not only build our construction sites
then we can dare the leap from the
external based lifestyle to an internal
fulfillment which leads up into the sky
there was this moment two years ago and
I set down my parents and I was
desperate and my father asked me if you
would ask yourself today how you are
feeling and what you have to change for
the future so that you are feeling
better I started the dialogue
I started a conversation which changed
nearly everything and I want to want you
to do what I want you to invite is start
asking ourselves question and start
listening actively thank you
[Applause]
before we start I would like you to take
a few moments and listen to yourself
closely please
thank you
what did you hear
breathing all right your breathing what
else did you hear
digestion all right you got you got good
hearing senses they’re pardon cheddar
and thoughts what I think you heard was
possibly the most important voice within
your life what I think you heard was
possibly the most important person
within your life yourself and what I
want to show you today is how the
process of active self listening can be
connected to the concept of becoming a
life work architect and what happened to
me when I stopped listening to myself
and what changed within the last two
years since I started again and as most
of you will possibly wonder what a life
work architect is I might just tell you
right from the start a life work
architect is someone who understands
that his life is under general
construction and that it is on him for
his life’s work to be completed and that
it is on him to set up a plan to reflect
on his own personal strengths to think
about how should my house my future self
my life’s work look like in the future
to come who is not looking on the left
on the right hand-side
watching the neighbors build their
houses their life’s work but who is
individual who knows about his
uniqueness and starts building his house
bottom to top and what I want to invite
you to today is to come with me and join
me looking at my construction site and
how it possibly might have looked like
about two years ago as you can see in
the back of the picture it’s quite dark
and if you are looking in front of the
picture you’re seeing stairs climbing up
into the light that might just how I
felt like about two years ago it was a
moment
that had changed for me personally
nearly everything it was the 18th of
December 2015 the 21st birthday of my
sister who had already gone out with her
friends partying so it was only my
parents and me sitting on the couch and
my father was sitting on the left hand
side and my mother was sitting on the
right hand side and I was sitting kind
of like a cross towards them and was
sitting them down to be truly honest
with him because what my inner voice had
been shouting at me for 12 months was
that there was something completely
wrong with me that I had somehow along
the way lost the connection to me
personally and at my house although it
might have looked beautifully on the
outside started to cripple on the inside
because to be honest it looked all
pretty well when I was 23 it was 3 years
of running through all the gates of
success and back so to speak I had
enrolled in University in Heidelberg
after had been to Australia for a year
and then while I was studying on
University I started working as a
financial consultant and I was doing
great I was responsible for a team of
employees I worked together with good
friends of mine I had a living which I
couldn’t have ever dreamed about being
2023 and it was working seven days a
week so I felt like already life had
rolled it all out for me but inside I
felt this house lost all his furniture
I felt that emptiness and loneliness had
already taken over the place and I
didn’t really know how to get along any
further so what did I do I set my
parents down and I was telling them I
need your help and something started
back then when my father asked me a
simple question and what I want to tell
you today is what this question was and
might some of you will have similar
experiences today or for the future to
come and possibly this question might
help you as well because what I feel and
what I experienced within the last two
years since I started listening again is
that we are
all facing exactly the same challenge we
are facing the challenge that all around
us there is change we heard about change
today we heard about climate change we
heard about change concerning fish we
heard about any kind of change and what
I see is that we are also having change
in a working area if we look at the
speed of innovation all around us it
will never be as slow as it is today
quite the opposite the speed will from
now on only increase in its speed at the
innovation I’m sorry as a question for
you what do you think just answered
inside your head how long did it take
for electricity to be used by more than
25% of worldwide population back in the
nineteenth century what do you think
think about a number how many years did
it take for electricity to be used by
more than 25% of the worldwide
population back in the nineteenth
century
it took us back then 46 years until we
can say that the innovation got through
if we look back to the earlier days or
at least to the last couple of years
what we find is that for us it only took
a year to use three-dimensional
television back in 2014-2015
so that one and a half billion people
used one of those gadgets besides that
if we only look at the technology and in
the industry and the four major
companies within the technology industry
we see Google Amazon Facebook and Apple
and thinking back 10 15 years ago what
has changed is enormous Amazon was a
online bookstore
ten years ago and we were thinking about
and wondering if it’s all right to
purchase an item a book online today
Amazon for some of us is a market store
that we are only going to Apple another
example how smartphones have changed the
way we are communicating is nearly or
what’s nearly impossible to imagine
about 15 years ago and some of you might
have as well similar to me taken the
quote apple a day keeps the doctor away
too literally
and we’re always closest to their hearts
Facebook what at Facebook do Facebook
whatsapp Instagram what happened is that
our way of communicating changed from
the core today we are expressing
emotions via Smiley’s and emoticons and
we are thankful to whatsapp that they
have this new upgrade which allows us
even more
Smiley’s what else are we doing we are
we are just voicing or we are just
speaking into our mobiles having this
message send that we can try and repeat
12 times until we are relatively happy
with our sound of the voice and how the
voice sounds and the message that we are
sending we are afraid to call someone
because we don’t really know if we will
be able to have the right answer at the
right moment when we are asked what I
feel is that the innovation around us
increases in its speed and what I feel
is that we are searching for safety that
we are searching for securities that we
are searching for some way of knowing
that it will be alright in the future to
come but if we look at the bass words
and I don’t want to contemplate on them
but the bus words as automatisation
digitalization artificial intelligence
machine learning I don’t want to set
this room on fire and spread fear but we
should feel a distinct version of
respect at least and if I look back on
my personal history 10 years ago I heard
that it is teachers that are searched
for all over Germany five years ago it
was engineers and right now everybody is
speaking about IT so what am I supposed
to do what am I supposed to learn and
what is going to secure my future I
don’t know I think nobody really knows
out there and someone who believes that
he is well prepared for the future to
come
I don’t know if there’s any hope I think
the only preparation that we can truly
take is to accept that there is no
preparation at all we are searching for
external accomplishments external
decrease external achievements someone
to clap us on the back and say you are
the way you are just perfectly prepared
prepared for the future to come your
acknowledgement your degree will save
you for the future I’m sorry but I don’t
believe that I think that the competence
to learn knowledge by heart and to
reproduce it in the future won’t solve
the issues that are about to come
I believe that companies in the future
are going to search for someone who
comes up with answers or who comes up
with questions that have not been asked
yet because googling something which we
are doing constantly and receiving
knowledge might not solve the issues so
what I believe is that we should start
looking somewhere else for safety and
that was the moment when I sat down my
parents looked them in the eyes and told
them that I was feeling empty that I was
feeling lonely although everything
worked out beautifully on the outside
what had started was me feeling like
being a composition of what others were
thinking is right of what I am supposed
to be of word which strengths I am about
to have and this composition had nothing
to do with me personally so we be need
or we are needing edges I believe I
believe we should and we learned this
throughout the day within the topics of
education for example we should start
educating ourselves differently we
should focus more on edges but on the
perfect Vita with a perfect amount of
internships with the perfect amount of
months that we have studied abroad we
should rather start
besides all those aspects to look inside
and ask ourselves what are my strengths
what are the things that I am passionate
about and in which field wanna I want to
become an expert that no machine
learning is ever going to replace back
then my father asked me a question he
said if you would ask yourself right now
how you are feeling and what has to
change for you so that you are feeling
all right again there was a process
initiated a process of jumping from an
external way of living to looking inside
and making my own decisions because we
are living in times where everybody has
opinions on everything but never really
put into in the effort to truly
understand we are living in a time where
everybody knows what’s best for us but
it’s desperate oneself we are living in
times and we have to think about that
where we spent 4 and a half hours on
average a day being online and if we
only add on the hours we are watching
television and serious we are about 9
hours awake consuming distraction what
from my point of view we are losing is
touch the touch to ourselves because the
moment there is this inner voice
starting to shout that there is
something wrong
we start switching the television on we
start writing into our Kroop chat only
to receive 10 answers immediately we
start uploading the new selfie from this
perfect spot that I had been searching
for for the last 10 days which tells
everybody else and my friend lists that
I’m living the perfect awesome life what
I think we need to do is we need to
start looking inside and some of you
might have heard that we have to develop
a certain sense of self-awareness and
some of you might have already started
to think about what is my uniqueness
what is my edge how can I start working
on my construction site thinking about
what is true and important to me not
what others are telling me what the next
popular trend will be but what I am
truly passionate about and it’s hard and
I’m failing at it daily to build this
connection to establish that connection
to start to learn to know the person
that is most important in my life
because I’m so taken by everything else
around me that I don’t really have the
time for that
which is the shame and which I believe
we should change and where I believe the
process of active listening starts
because to truly listen on the outside
we should start listening on the inside
at least as well and for that reason I
have one invitation for you for the
future to come ask yourself the
questions you would normally ask others
and start listening to your answers it’s
easy but I believe that every great
truth is easy and it can be as easy as
asking how are you feeling and looking
yourself in the mirror and answering it
because that way I believe that we can
not only build our construction sites
then we can dare the leap from the
external based lifestyle to an internal
fulfillment which leads up into the sky
there was this moment two years ago and
I set down my parents and I was
desperate and my father asked me if you
would ask yourself today how you are
feeling and what you have to change for
the future so that you are feeling
better I started the dialogue
I started a conversation which changed
nearly everything and I want to want you
to do what I want you to invite is start
asking ourselves question and start
listening actively thank you
[Applause]
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