Finding your purpose is one of the hardest things to do. Knowing yourself is harder said than done, and often we need to take the time to truly get to know yourself. I really started to figure out why I did the things I did, and why I responded the way that I did to situations when I was in my Master's program. It was eye opening to finally understand, and understanding the why meant that I could make better decisions about my own reactions. I also began to understand why I reacted the way I did. What lead to this was taking self inventories, like the Meyers Briggs, and self reflection that was required by my program. Once I saw the value of these activities, I have continued it to this day.
One thing I am doing right now to better understand myself, and my journey toward finding my purpose is that I am reading the book, "The Element" by: Ken Robinson. I have just started reading this book, but I wanted to share with you some of my initial thoughts. I am a HUGE Ken Robinson fan, and have posted about some of his TED talks in the past.
Right away in the book, Ken talks about students confidence, and how they are very confident early on with their creativity, but that they loose that confidence as they move through school and get older. he tells a story about a girl that is never very engaged in her school work. When the class is doing a drawing activity, she is engrossed, so the teacher walks over and asks what the girl is doing, and the girl says, "I', drawing a picture of God." the teacher says, "But, nobody knows what God looks like." the girl Replies, "They will in a minute." She doesn't doubt herself, she doesn't worry that she may be wrong, she states it as fact. Older students loose this confidence related to their creativity.
Other things that stood out: "Talent expresses itself differently in every individual". Many people have no sense of their talents & passions, but rather, they are "doing what they should" and they have no idea what would fulfill them. There are also highly successful passionate people who couldn't imagine doing anything other than what they are doing. (finding what makes the two types of people different is the key to finding your element). He talks about how many students are discouraged from their true passion, and don;t find their element, because society pressures them to take a safer route.
There are many stories about people who did, and people who didn't find their element. Ken points out key points in people's journey that helped them find their element. He calls the magical moment when someone finds their element, "epiphany stories". They are life changing events; people can distinctly tell that it changed the course of their life.
One of my favorite quotes so far, "Many people don;t discover who they really are until they'd left school and recovered from their education."
I will post again when I am finished, but so far, I am loving this book. I have already shared some thoughts from it with my students, and it is inspiring me to help students figure out who they are, and to help them find their element, so they don't have to wait till they recover from school ;)
One thing I am doing right now to better understand myself, and my journey toward finding my purpose is that I am reading the book, "The Element" by: Ken Robinson. I have just started reading this book, but I wanted to share with you some of my initial thoughts. I am a HUGE Ken Robinson fan, and have posted about some of his TED talks in the past.
Right away in the book, Ken talks about students confidence, and how they are very confident early on with their creativity, but that they loose that confidence as they move through school and get older. he tells a story about a girl that is never very engaged in her school work. When the class is doing a drawing activity, she is engrossed, so the teacher walks over and asks what the girl is doing, and the girl says, "I', drawing a picture of God." the teacher says, "But, nobody knows what God looks like." the girl Replies, "They will in a minute." She doesn't doubt herself, she doesn't worry that she may be wrong, she states it as fact. Older students loose this confidence related to their creativity.
Other things that stood out: "Talent expresses itself differently in every individual". Many people have no sense of their talents & passions, but rather, they are "doing what they should" and they have no idea what would fulfill them. There are also highly successful passionate people who couldn't imagine doing anything other than what they are doing. (finding what makes the two types of people different is the key to finding your element). He talks about how many students are discouraged from their true passion, and don;t find their element, because society pressures them to take a safer route.
There are many stories about people who did, and people who didn't find their element. Ken points out key points in people's journey that helped them find their element. He calls the magical moment when someone finds their element, "epiphany stories". They are life changing events; people can distinctly tell that it changed the course of their life.
One of my favorite quotes so far, "Many people don;t discover who they really are until they'd left school and recovered from their education."
I will post again when I am finished, but so far, I am loving this book. I have already shared some thoughts from it with my students, and it is inspiring me to help students figure out who they are, and to help them find their element, so they don't have to wait till they recover from school ;)
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