While talking with some of you about your STEP proposals, I’ve emphasized the importance of turning an experience (what you’ll be doing) into a project (something that connects with your own goals for yourself). How do you do this? Well, think about how you can communicate a sense of purpose. Here is a short piece exploring the idea of purpose:
What do we mean by purpose?
Where are you going with your life? What kind of person do you want to be? What can you contribute to others? These are questions about your purpose in life. They are sometimes difficult questions, depending on where we are in our lives. But evidence suggests strongly that having answers to these questions will help us flourish.
Purpose is a stable and generalised intention to accomplish something that is at once meaningful to the self and of consequence to the world beyond the self. (Damon et al, 2003)
As suggested by the definition above, purpose is a desire to achieve something that is important to you, as well as a desire to make a difference in the world. Making a difference to the world sounds like it has to be something that affects the lives of lots of other people, but this is not the case. It could be as simple as making a difference to someone in your family. The point is that purpose is about more than just ourselves – it’s also about having a positive impact on the lives of others in some way. Purpose can be described as a goal, but is much broader and long-lasting than goals such as getting mince in for tea tonight or finding a good parking space!
We may have one strong purpose in life, like to be a great teacher or to work for the welfare of animals or to bring up children successfully. This one strong purpose may steer the course of our life. We may have several different purposes at the same time, such as being a good parent, loving our partner or best friends, being helpful to others by the work that we do and giving, in some way, to our local community. Or we may have different purposes at different times in our lives depending on our age and family circumstances.
Our purpose may be about what we want to do or it may be more focused on what kind of person we want to be. For example, we may have a purpose always to be kind to others or to be a good friend or to be courageous in all that we do.
Tell me, what it is you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?
Mary Oliver
from: http://www.handsonscotland.co.uk/flourishing_and_wellbeing_in_children_and_young_people/sense_of_purpose/sense_of_purpose.html
Somali President Hassan Sheik Mohamud will deliver a speech on Monday (9/23) in the Ohio Union, Great Hall Meeting Room that is open to the public; registration is required for admittance and space is limited. Elected president of Somalia in 2012, Mohamud is leading the first constitutional government of Somalia in 20 years. He was listed by Time magazine as one the 100 most influential people in the world.