“We don’t have to wait for a natural disaster to work together. We’ve always been capable of it.”
Those words were spoken by Maja Kazazic on Sunday during her lunchtime keynote speech at the National Center for Assisted Living’s NCAL Day in Orlando, FL.
The natural disaster Kazazic was referring to was the expected Hurricane Milton, which the preceding evening was poised to pose such a threat to central Florida — almost all of the state, really — that the American Health Care Association and NCAL announced that they were canceling their larger conference set to start Monday and continue through Wednesday. But NCAL Day went on as planned, even if the suitcases that lined the back of the ballroom where Kazazic spoke, indicating attendees’ impending departures, had not originally been planned.
Kazazic is no stranger to disaster, and her talk was riveting. She did a masterful job of unpacking her personal story and weaving it into messages related to building a positive, healthy work environment, fostering meaningful relationships and becoming a better leader at work and elsewhere.
And her personal story is a doozy.
A native of the former Yugoslavia, she was severely injured by an exploding bomb during the Bosnian War in 1993, when she was 16. More than 100 surgeries followed, one of them to remove her left leg. She went to the United States for treatment, first living in Cumberland, MD, and ultimately living in the Tampa, FL, area, coincidentally one of the areas expected to be more heavily hit by Hurricane Milton. Today, she is a motivational speaker, sometimes joined by her Great Dane, Rosie, who also is an amputee.
I couldn’t possibly do justice in recounting her story or her talk. But Kazazic spent part of her time sharing these five points on the path to creating healthy environments and meaningful connections:
- Empathy fuels connections. Empathy, not sympathy, builds connections, she said, adding, “You have to be empathetic.”
- Positivity is a matter of perspective, and perspective is a matter of choice — your choice. “You have to choose it. And also, someone else can’t choose it for you, and you can’t choose it for someone else,” Kazazic said.
- Work together toward a common goal. Recent hurricanes provide good examples of this point, she said. “People are … working together,” Kazazic said, “because at the end of the day, humans are humans, and humans are good, and humans want to help each other.”
- Be vulnerable with yourself. “Be vulnerable with others. It creates mutually strong relationships that you’re going to cherish for life,” she advised.
- Recognize and accept help. “If you’re open to receiving it, it will come in many ways, and you have to be open and able to recognize it,” Kazazic said.
She concluded by noting that hundreds of people like NCAL Day attendees helped her get where she is today.
“Whether you realize it or not, no matter how small the task that you’re doing, it actually ripples out and makes a huge difference,” Kazazic said. “Many little people in many little places do many little things. That’s how the whole world changes.
“And you are those people. …No matter how small your acts of kindness and compassion are that drive you, they actually paint a better future for all of us.”
If you missed her keynote speech or would like to ponder her points further, Kazazic has posted a recap on her website.
I’m back from the abbreviated conference, safe from the storm after building some of my own meaningful connections. I’m keeping good thoughts for those in Florida and elsewhere affected by Milton. Please take care.
Lois A. Bowers is the editor of McKnight’s Senior Living. Read her other columns here. Follow her on X (formerly Twitter) at Lois_Bowers.
