Marcus Buckingham Module 4: Finding Your Red Threads

Summary

If you want to figure out who you are, says New York Times bestselling author Marcus Buckingham, pay attention to what you love daily. 

What does he mean by that? Well, Buckingham says to think of life as made up of thousands of different actions and interactions. Some actions are emotionally neutral, while others are red threads (i.e. the things you love). 

Buckingham says three clues can indicate when an action is a red thread:

• You look forward to it.
• Time speeds up while doing it.
• You want to do it again when it’s done.

Weave red threads into your day for mental well-being and resilience, says Buckingham.  You are smarter when you’re doing a red thread activity, he says, citing research from the Mayo Clinic. “Your brain on love is just smarter,” he adds.

And focusing 20% of your activity on red threads every day leads to feeling better, learning more, and doing more, Buckingham says. 

Red threads can help solve problems in your life or business without needing to rewire your brain. For example, Buckingham says he overcame his stutter by focusing on his love for speaking in front of people, something he discovered only when he was picked to speak in front of his entire chapel at age 12.

“I just what I would call today … a red thread,” he says. “All the signs of that, time sped up, I kind of wanted to do it again. It was like I found a red … a bizarre red, ‘I can only speak when I’m talking to a lot of people.'”

Discussion questions

1. What are your red threads? Where do you find them most?

2. When was the last time you lost track of time in a project or task at work?

3. How can you learn more about your team and their red threads?

4. How might you develop a culture that honors each individual’s red threads? What are the risks to that?

Related Resources 

Marcus Buckingham on ‘Love + Work [Member Exclusive]  

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