Many of you are aware that Divergentis a novel by the New York Times bestselling author Veronica Roth.
Set in post apocalyptic Chicago, the novel follows the story's protagonist, Beatrice, who is faced with numerous societal challenges in this dystopian world. Here, there are 5 distinct factions, and each faction has a virtue which they believe is best.
The faction Abnegation values selfishness, Amity values peace, Candour values honesty, Dauntless values bravery, and Erudite intelligence. People can only belong in one group.
I took a short Divergent Aptitude test to determine my faction, and the results were surprising.
What happened to me? I use to be nice, and to be honest, I am not that brave. However, I think the questions let me to answer in a way that would make me seem brave. I tried taking the test a day later and the results were similar.
I have been told twice now that I am divergent. This is an interesting group, if you can call it a group, and it is what the story's protagonist is, which really complicated her life.
This test is interesting. I think if you are someone who focuses on solving problems, you will get results similar to mine.
I tried another aptitude test to see what faction I would fit into at Divergent Aptitude Test.
My results were even stranger:
This is the third time I have been told I am divergent. It might be that the test (just 10 questions) is so quirky, that most people will test as divergent.
On the other hand, when I read the book, I identified most closely with the Dauntless and Erudite factions because to survive in this apocalyptic Chicago, one needs to be smart and brave.
All in all, I don't recommend taking these test too seriously.
Because I want to recommend quality online personality inventories, I took a couple of these tests to determine how accurate they are.
I began with 16 Personalities. Before I go any further, it is important to point out that a lot of personality testing is based on the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. According to this theory, there are four different pairs of personality traits:
Introversion (I) or Extraversion (E)
Intuition (N) or Sensing (S)
Thinking (T) or Feeling (F)
Judging (J) or Perceiving (P)
One can is either introverted or extraverted, and the same holds true to the remaining pairs listed above. The 16 personalities test reportedly takes approximately 12 minutes, and is composed of 100 questions. I took the test and my results showed:
According to my test results, I am a ESFJ. 16 personalities also claims to be able to tell how assertive one is.
In a nutshell, the Consul personality is
“CONSUL”
ESFJ (-A/-T)
Extraordinarily caring, social and popular people, always eager to help.
According to 16 personalities, "ESFJ's best careers all have the additional benefit of providing them with perhaps the most important requirement: to feel appreciated and know they've helped someone." I cannot deny that this matters a lot to me. For me, this is one of the best ways to connect with others, and I understand and appreciate that being able to help others is to be in a place of privilege, because I have something that others need, and I do not take what I have for granted.
Next, I looked at a website called truity.com, and looked at an infographic on this site and was told that ESFJ's are caretakers, and that the best careers for us are as follows: elementary school teacher, child care director, nutritionalist, cosmetologist, or registered nurse. I did begin my teaching career as an elementary school teacher, so maybe there is something to this. Actually, I am reasonably sure that there is something to this. When I went to typefocus.com and took a test designed to test the same four personality attributes as 16 Personalities, my test results showed that I was an ENFP. This would make me a campaigner according to 16 personalities, which looks like this
“CAMPAIGNER”
ENFP (-A/-T)
Enthusiastic, creative and sociable free spirits, who can always find a reason to smile.
Before continuing, I should point out that while the test on typefocus took less time, the questions were more difficult than 16 Personalities, because that the truity.com test asks the taker to choose between two short phrases. The test taker is asked to select the phrase that appeals to him or her most. The problem is that sometimes they both seem appealing. With 16 personalities, the test taker has to agree or disagree with a statement, but can somewhat agree, agree, strongly agree, somewhat disagree, disagree or strongly disagree.
According to infographic at truity.com, as an ENFP, I am now an empath, and the careers that best suit me are recreational therapist, restaurateur preschool teacher, travel writer, or landscape architect.
I would be happy doing any of these jobs; however, I feel that I am more of a consul than a campaigner.
Taking things a little further, I took the test at 16 Personalities again on a different day. If I am an ESFJ or Consul, this should not change from day to day. My results to the test on the second day were interesting:
I will make you smile! Personality type:“The Entertainer” (ESFP-A) Individual traits: Extraverted – 67%, Observant – 66%, Feeling – 66%, Prospecting – 56%, Assertive – 64%. Role: Explorer Strategy: People Mastery
You will notice that my strategy is still people mastery, but my role has changed from sentinel to explorer. On the second day that I took the test, I was 3 percent more extraverted, equally observant, equally feeling, and 6 percent more assertive.
The most interesting change is in the judging or perceiving/prospecting realm. The first time, I took the test, I received a borderline J (for judging) with 51 percent. The next time, I took the test was 56 percent prospecting (P), which changed my personality type from an ESFJ to an ESFP.
When I look at the infographic on truity.com, ESFJs and ESFPs are both caretakers. However, the suggested career pursuits for an ESFP are recreation director, customer service representative, receptionist, dental assistant or bartender. In all honesty, I cannot see myself as a bartender...ever. This does not mean it is bad job, but just that it is not the right job for me.
The most important thing that I have come to understand from doing this and need to convey to you is that if you are passionate about a career path, and it does not show up in your results, you should pursue that career path provided that it is obtainable. I could never be a nuclear physicist, and all the passion in the world would not make this happen for me. Personality inventories are interesting, and probably in most cases somewhat accurate. They help us see where we may fit in the world, but they do not define our places. These inventories allow us to consider options that we may not have otherwise considered. Approached with an open mind, these tools are valuable. As for my results, I feel that the ESFJ best suits me, but it is a bit of a loose fit.
Let's face it. Most of us want to be excellent, and if we could, we would be excellent in everything we undertook. But...how realistic is this?
When I wrote my last blog entry, Author John Green and his Passion for Learning, a strange thing happened. Actually, if you know me, it is not so strange. This blog entry became the gold standard for all subsequent blog entries that I would write, and all the subsequent blog entries were to meet this gold standard of surpass it. This all happened on a subconscious level.
What is wrong with that? You may even be thinking that my John Green blog entry was my best blog entry, and I would be upping my game if I just kept posting blog entries like that one. (Some of you may even be thinking, hey, you would might gain a few subscribers.)
Personally, I liked my John Green blog entry the best. Unlike, my other blog entries, it took a lot of time, and some research.
My John Green blog is probably also the reason I have not written a blog entry in a while. While that blog entry is not perfect, it is the closest blog entry that I have to perfection. Subconsciously, I raised the bar for myself, and I raised it too high.
Perfection can paralyze us. It stopped me from blogging for over a week, which is in the big scheme of things is tiny. But what if the stakes were higher? What if I was writing a book, and I decided that I could not write the next chapter because the previous chapter was the best? What if I were a famous Youtuber, like PewDiePie, and could not produce another Youtube video because it would not be as good as my previous one? (Is anyone impressed because I know who PewDiePie is?)
We all want to be excellent. I want each one of these blog entries to be excellent, but when I define excellence as almost perfect, reaching excellence on a regular basis is almost unattainable.
I have other things that I want to be excellent at, and some of them are of more importance to me. Since I am unable to obtain excellence in everything I do at all times in my life, it is best I strike a balance.
We want to be excellent, and we have been taught to always to our best, but we must consider at any given time how much we realistically can give to something that we want to do well, and what impact using that time and energy will have on other areas of our lives.
If you are like me, and you keep raising the bar for yourself, learn to recognize this pattern, and learn to recognize when your self-expectations are too high. Most importantly, never let your desire for perfection stop you from doing something.
Many of you know John Green as the author of "The Fault in Our Stars." Some of you may be familiar with some of his other work. According to Wikipedia John Green is also a vlogger, director, producer, cinematographer, editor, stunt performer and actor. Green appears to have multiple passions.
In 2014, Green was listed by Time magazine as "One of the Most Influential People in the World."
What stood out for me in this Ted Talk that Green gave is his passion for learning.
This Ted Talk is called "John Green on Paper Towns and Why Learning is Awesome." Comparing learning to map making, Green shows his passion for learning, and explains that through learning, we are able to go to many places.
Green begins his Ted Talk by discussing why cartographers create paper towns, otherwise known as copyright traps. He explains that map makers insert fake places on their maps. If someone was to copy a map with a fake place, then the original map maker would know that copyright laws were broken.
This all sounds great in theory, and I reasonably sure it is effective, with the exception of Agloe, New York, which started out as a paper town. The original map was released in 1937. Decades later a map maker released a map with Agloe, New York on it, setting of alarm bells....theft, theft, theft!
Green explains that when the original map maker contacted the new map maker, the new map maker argued that Agloe is real, and indeed it its. The paper town became a town because people kept going to the place, where the town would be located on the original map. In other words, people were looking for Agloe. Because people kept coming to this spot, Green tells us, "Someone built a place called Agloe, New York."
"And this is completely an irresistible metaphor to a novelist, because we would all like to believe that the stuff we write down on paper can change the actual world in which we're living, which is why my third book is called "Paper Towns," Green asserts.
Green then goes on to say what interests him more than the medium in which this happened is the phenomenon itself. He tells us that what he finds more interesting is how the way we map the world changes the world. He explains that if North were down and South were up, we would perceive the world differently.
"The world is changed by our maps of the world," Green enthusiastically tells listeners.
Green then links this to our own lives, saying that, "I believe that what we map, changes the life that we lead."
Green then discusses his own learning, and how he was a really terrible student when he was a kid.
( In my experience, some of the smartest and most creative people do not start out getting along with school.)
He explains that he saw education as a series of arbitrary hurdles that he had to jump over to reach adulthood.
However, everything changed for Green when he was in tenth grade and began attending a small boarding school outside of Indian Springs.
"And all at once I became a learner," says Green. He then explains that he became a learner because he found himself amongst a community of learners. Community and learning is very important for Green. For John Green, community is the magic bullet, changing everything as mentioned earlier.
Green then talks about some of the things that he learned because learning was cool. He says that he learned that some infinite sets were bigger than other infinite sets, and this was exciting. I never would have thought of this if I had not read Green's "The Fault in Our Stars."
“There are infinite numbers between 0 and 1. There's .1 and .12 and .112 and an infinite collection of others. Of course, there is a bigger infinite set of numbers between 0 and 2, or between 0 and a million. Some infinities are bigger than other infinities. A writer we used to like taught us that. There are days, many of them, when I resent the size of my unbounded set. I want more numbers than I'm likely to get, and God, I want more numbers for Augustus Waters than he got. But, Gus, my love, I cannot tell you how thankful I am for our little infinity. I wouldn't trade it for the world. You gave me a forever within the numbered days, and I'm grateful.”― John Green, The Fault in Our Stars
Many of you will recall that Hazel wrote this for Augustus before he died in "The Fault in Our Stars." She also read it to him, because Augustus wanted to know what people would say about him before he died.
Back to the Ted Talk...Green tells us he learned what iambic pentameter is and why it sounds so good to the human ear.
Hopefully, we all learn things that we feel enthusiastic about. As an educator, I am supposed to be helping all my students become life long learners. I know I am a life long learner, and that I love to learn. You can never really be lonely if you are involved in learning. Somewhere I read that "books are quiet friends," and so too can be the Internet.
Again, back to the Ted Talk...Green lists a few more things that he learned, and then he drives home the point: "All of these things enriched my life on a literally daily basis."
Green presents his learning like a map that a cartographer was creating.
He says that "a lot of the learning he did in high school was not about what happened inside the classroom. It was about what happened outside of the classroom."
Green describes how through learning "the map of his life got better."
For this reason, I believe that we all need to take the learning opportunities that come into our lives and embrace them. When we are in sync with our need to know, we create more places on our personal maps, which in turn could lead to more opportunities.
Green speaks about imagining learning as cartography as opposed to imagining as a series of arbitrary hurdles that he needed to jump over. He says that when we see a bit of coastline, we want to see more.
He describes the different learning communities that he had been part of, and then what it was like not to be a part of of a learning community.
After writing his first book, Green quit his job. And shortly after this, Green was miserable. Can you guess why? Yes, he is no longer part of a learning community. Green says that he read many books, but he felt like he was creating his own arbitrary hurdles.
Learning after all is a social act. When we learn something, it is natural to want to talk about it with others. This may be more true for some people than others. I imagine that extroverts particularly like to share ideas.
Things change again for Green in 2006, when he finds Ze Frank on the internet. When Green discovered Frank, he was running a show called "The Show with Ze Frank."
Green says, "Ze is not just a great public intellectual, he is also a brilliant community builder, and the community that built up around these videos (Ze's online shows) was in many ways a community of learners."
Through Ze Frank, Green found himself taking place in "silly"ideas like turning the Earth into a sandwich. Green points out while these are "silly" ideas they are also "learny" ideas.
Green says that online we can find communities of learners all over the place, pointing out that one can follow the calculus tag on Tumblr. He further shows us that there are places on Reddit like "Ask a Historian" or "Ask Science."
To Green, "the most interesting communities of learners" are appearing on Youtube. Green admits to being biased.
Recall that Green is a vloger. This is where I first found Green, and the reason is that he has high quality thought provoking videos on works of literature. I highly recommend these videos. Green also makes videos on topics related to Social Studies. These videos appear on his show called "Crash Course" and at this point in time, there are 606 videos.
Green believes "that in many ways the YouTube page resembles a classroom," pointing to Minute Physics as an example, and his own video on "Crash Course" about WWI as another example.
These videos have half a million views on YouTube. Green describes the subscribers to youtube channels as communities of learners.
Green argues that YouTube is like an old fashioned classroom because the instructor makes the video, and the viewers and subscribers can use the comment section to discuss what they are learning. We know that there will be trolls. However, on channels like "Crash Course" people actually talk about the video content. In these channel comments, people ask challenging questions about the subject matter, and others answer these challenging questions.
Green concludes his Ted Talk stating, "I really believe that these spaces, these communities, have become for a new generation of learners the kind of communities, the kind of cartographic communities that I had when I was in high school, and then again in college. And as an adult, re-finding these communities has re-introduced me to a community of learners, and has encouraged me to be a learner even in my adulthood, so that I know longer feel that learning is something reserved for the young."
Firstly, it is apparent that John Green's passion for learning has taken him to many places, and he will continue to travel.
Secondly, as an adult, I feel good when I am learning new things, and thrive on learning. I have subscribed to several channels, and I am a student of YouTube school.
Thirdly, you can learn to do just about anything on YouTube...don't forget this. My next search will be on caring for Bamboo, because I bought 4 bamboo plants over the summer. (I know this is not "academic" as Green's learning, but it matters to me.)
By the way, I do not ask questions in the comment section, but I may thank the presenter for making the YouTube video, and give it a like. I do not think that I need community to the extent that Green does.
We all need to take stock of how we feel about learning, what we want to learn about, and what role community plays in our learning from time to time. We need to remember that we will be learning all our lives so the relationship that we have with learning is of great importance.
We have established that we all procrastinate. Do you identify as a chronic procrastinator? According to watchwellcast, 20 percent of the population identifies as chronic procrastinators. We are told that procrastinating is about lying to ourselves. We tell ourselves that there is plenty of time before we need to do X, Y or Z. I cannot help but wonder if it is not a lie when we believe that we do have plenty of time. However, this video is only five minutes, so let's take a look.
In this video by watchwellcast, we are offered a three step program to help us stop procrastinating. The video begins by describing a study on two groups of University students. Each group has three papers to write in three weeks. One group can hand the papers whenever they want and the other group can has strict deadlines.
If you have not watched the video, which group do you think is more successful?
Yes, the group with the deadlines did better on their papers.
The video explains that "clearly humans are not the best at regulating themselves, and so when it comes to procrastination, you have to trick yourself into getting the job done."
Enter the three step method.
Step One: Eat an Elephant (Those of us, who are vegetarian or vegan, are now very concerned, but this is the first of three metaphors.) We told that if one were to eat an elephant, he would do it one bite at a time. We are encouraged to break down what we need to do into manageable steps so as not to feel overwhelmed. Furthermore, we are encouraged to reward ourselves after completing smaller steps, instead of waiting until we finish the entire project to reward ourselves. We are advised to write down specific steps describing how we will tackle the project.
Step Two: Pick off the Goblins (This appears to be getting weirder, but remember it is another metaphor.) We are told that the hardest part of any project is starting the whole project. This is sort of tricky step, and in my opinion is not always possible, but we can we are told to begin with some aspect of the project that is pleasant.
Step Three: Ignore the Siren Song (This is the best metaphor that the video uses.) It refers to Homer's epic poem The Odyssey in which beautiful creatures called Sirens lured sailors into the rocks. To avoid procrastination, we need to clear away things away that will distract our focus. This suggestion may be absolutely horrifying to some people. We are told to get someone to change the password to the internet until we finish what we are doing, assuming that what we need to do does not involve the internet.
No one has to eat an elephant, pick of goblins or ignore strange music that does not really exist. If we want to avoid procrastination, we need to break down our projects into smaller parts, and determine when we will have the smaller parts done by. We need to remain focused. I like to do the harder parts of a project when I am most energetic, and the more enjoyable parts when I am tired. Each one of us needs to find what works for him or her, and there is some useful advice in this video.
When I began thinking about how I would write this blog, I proudly thought about how I would describe not having a problem with procrastination. I am good at meeting deadlines, and managing my time. In University, I seldom crammed the night before a test, and I never pulled an all nighter. I think I only handed one assignment in late in five years of university, which is not bad at all.
Last night, I watched this Ted Talk by Tim Urban on procrastination. The video was engaging and thought provoking, but I did not think I would write about it because it did not address how to stop procrastinating, and his video did not fit into how I envisioned the topics of this blog to be. Perhaps, I was wrong.
You see, I woke up thinking about the video, and areas of my life where I need to stop procrastinating. My understanding of procrastination has changed, and for this reason I think it is worth sharing this video.
Before continuing, it is worth pointing out that Tim Urban is an engaging speaker. He is a writer and has a blog Wait but Why.
Urban describes being a student who typically procrastinated. He studied political science/government in college, which required him to write many papers. He did this in typical procrastinator style, writing his papers the night before they were due.
When he was in 5th year university, he was to write a 90 page senior thesis. Clearly, this is not a task to be done the night before. Urban had good intentions and was going to work on the paper throughout the year; however, procrastination gets the better of him, and he ends up writing the paper in three days. This did not work out so well for Urban, but he does not really go into in detail in the video.
He explains that he had an hypothesis that the world was broken up into two types of people: procrastinators and non-procrastinators. Urban thought that the brains of each type of person were different.
He then goes on to describe how a procrastinator fails to deal well with deadlines. Basically, Urban talks about the Instant Gratification Monkey that lurks inside the procrastinator's brain. If it is time to something difficult that involves work, enter the Instant Gratification Monkey who takes the procrastinator to "The Dark Playground."
The playground is dark because the procrastinator really should not be there. As a non-procrastinator, I don't know this place...at least, when it comes do deadlines.
So the procrastinator hangs out in the playground, and the deadline fast approaches, so the watchful mind sends in the Panic Monster, according to Urban. All of the sudden, the procrastinator is thrown into action, trying to meet the deadline.
As for the Panic Monster, I sort of know this character, and he terrifies me. I don't want any problems with this guy, which is why I just don't procrastinate or so I thought.
After Urban mapped out what more or less goes on inside a procrastinator's mind, he worked on writing his blog (the link is above). People loved it, and something resonated with them when they saw it, so they would write Urban, who appears to have a good sense of humour, and to have made peace with procrastination around deadlines.
He read the messages, and noted that many of the people challenged with problems related to procrastination were sad, and that their problems with procrastination had profoundly impacted their lives.
At this point, Urban has an epiphany. He concludes that there are two types of procrastination. There is the first time which has to do with set deadlines, and the other kind where the deadlines are mirky and not set.
Maybe, you know of someone who is meaning to...and whatever they are meaning to do is important, but they just keep putting if off, because this is what we do when we procrastinate. Let's say that person has a heart condition, and knows they should go to the doctor. Furthermore, let's say this person does not go to the doctor....well, we all know where this could end.
My daily problems with procrastination at this point in my life are not as serious as the one above, but I still recognize that there are things that I avoid because they are difficult and unpleasant.
Urban concludes that we are all procrastinators, and I would have to agree.
Here is another poem by Langston Hughes about dreams.
Dreams by Langston Hughes
Hold fast to dreams For if dreams die Life is a broken-winged bird That cannot fly. Hold fast to dreams For when dreams go Life is a barren field Frozen with snow.
Dreams make our lives purposeful. Without them, we find our lives are meaningless.
The speaker in this poem encourages the reader to "hold fast to dreams." We are told not to let dreams die or go. Two metaphors are used to describe life without dreams. The speaker tells us if we cannot dream our lives will be like that of a broken-winged bird, that cannot fly, and like a barren field, frozen with snow.
The speaker does not tell us why this is the case. He does not explain why dreams, passions, aspirations, or hopes are so powerful. Nor does the speaker tell us why we might not hold onto our dreams.
I believe that sometimes we become discouraged and let a dream go. If we give up again and again, we will hope for nothing, and this is not a healthy state of mind. There are times we need to give up, but we have to consider this carefully. Maybe, another dream has ignited within us.
When we are pursuing a goal and come against an obstacle, we actually learn the most as we overcome this obstacle. These critical points in any journey are actually the most meaningful.
We might not be able to achieve everything we set out to do. Failure is in inevitable, and acceptable. What we learn about ourselves and our surroundings when we fail allows us to understand ourselves and the world around us.
Why do we need dreams? In many ways, what we hope for is who we are. Most of us get up in the morning knowing that we have several things to get done, and some of these things may bring us closer to achieving goals that we really value.
Passions, dreams or goals keep our blood pumping, and keep us from flatlining. While we do not need to have one purpose or passion, we do need to have passions and dreams that make our lives meaningful.
You may have looked at my blog entries, and thought what is wrong with the person, can she not be positive about passion. Rest assured, I am not a passion killjoy.
Here Nike uses a famous Langston Hughes poem, which is very short and powerful.
If this is what your passion feels like, "run with it." Sorry, I know this is a bad pun.
However, I understand that some people have amazing dreams and gifts. These people know their live's purpose and are genuinely connected with it. For those of you, who are fortunate enough to have a dream, I believe you need to follow it, while it follows you.
The poem "Harlem" or "Dream Deferred" speaks to what could happen if we postpone following our hearts. The poem works using extended metaphor.
The speaker begins by asking, "What happens to a dream deferred?" (Nice use of alliteration Lanston Hughes.)
Personally, I believe that in some cases it is may be okay to defer a dream. However, in other cases it may not work out. Let's take the case of an Olympic athlete. A break in training could lead to a serious set back.
It is important to be mindful of the disadvantages of delaying pursuing a dream. Sometimes life happens and we need put things off. And in many cases, there is a cost to deferring our dream. It may be big and it may be small.
"Harlem" looks at the bigger losses associated with not following one's dream. Passion and following one's passion appears as a romanticized notion in the poem.
The imagery in the poem is strong. When we defer a dream it may "fester like a sore," or "stink like rotten meat." And, yes, of course, it could explode, but remember, it may not. However, as suggested earlier, I do see some risk in doing this.
And so what happens to a dream that is not deferred, when passion is pumping through your veins, and you go with it? I believe that this is probably the best scenario, and if you can, you should always follow your dreams, as they follow you.
If you google "passion quotes" and click images, the page will quickly populate with quotes singing the praises of passion.
So I guess I just wont pay my bills, because I do not feel passionately about this. And if you are student, make sure that you only do your homework when you feel passionately about it. Is this good advice? The next time you take out the garbage remember to do it with passion...or not.
I prefer Nike's "Just do it." There things that we do everyday that are routine, mundane, and necessary. If we have the opportunity to do something that we are passionate about or to do something with passion once a day, we are fortunate and privileged.
Some people are living out their dreams, and these people inspire us to do what we love, but I think it is important to remember that those people living "the dream" are a minority.
Okay, do you see a problem with this? Yes, some exceptionally fortunate people will do this, but for most people, in my opinion, this is not a realistic goal.
As a sidebar, I would like to point out that I like teaching, and find it rewarding. Sometimes, I even do it passionately, but it is hard for me to mark papers with passion, no matter how brilliantly they are written.
I am actually one of the lucky ones. I have a job that I like, and not only that my job allows my inner multipotentialite to thrive. I have taught Special Education and English Language Learning at both elementary and secondary levels. Furthermore, I have taught Math and Social Studies at the elementary level. At the secondary level, I have taught Journalism, Media Arts, Yearbook Production, and English. I even taught Foods and Nutrition. And, now I am teaching Independent Studies.
However, once upon a time I worked in retail, and the moments felt like hours. You would be right if you said passion was not my pay check in this case. (By the way, quote writers, pay check is two words.) You might argue that I should have put more passion into my sales job. After all, we are supposed to do everything with passion or no do it.
Am I making passion synonymous with a positive attitude? Possibly. And it is possible that if we polish up our attitudes, we do get more out of what we perceive as a negative situation. It is just sometime, I run out of polish, and fail to shine.
And let's face if we did everything with passion, how would we know what we are passionate about because everything would be shiny and good?
Is passion over rated? What are your thoughts on these quotes?
In this TEdxBend talk, Emilie Wapnik speaks about being a Mulitpotentialite, and how this beneficial in today's society. A Multipotenitalite is someone who has many creative pursuits and passions/interests, which may vary as one becomes skilled in one pursuit, and then moves on to another, and then another, and another...I am sure you get the picture.
Wapnik says, "I began noticing this pattern in myself, where I would dive in and become invested in an area, and become all consumed, and I would get pretty good at whatever it was, and then I would hit this point where I would start to get bored."
Wapnik explains that she would try to persist with this interest, but we all know that boredom has away of killing passion, and so Wapnik would soon find another interest, which she would learn about, and then become uncommitted to this interest because it no longer challenged her. The pattern would repeat again and again.
Does this sound like you? I know that I am a Multipotentialite. I have always been a Multipotentialite. Wapnik believes that some of us are wired this way. In my opinion, it is possible that most of us are wired this way.
Being a Mulipotentialite has its challenges in a culture that "romanticizes the notion of the narrowly focused life. It is the idea of destiny or the one true calling. The idea that we have one great thing to do during our time on earth. And you need to figure out what that thing is and devote your life to it."
There is no doubt that some will excel and specialize in only one area much in the way that surgeons do. I would venture to guess that surgeons have other interests, other passions. Perhaps we all exist somewhere on the spectrum from single passion focused to multi passion focused.
If you are still not convinced that it is okay to be a Mulitpotentialite, Wapnik points out that we have three "super powers." We are able to synthesize our ideas from different subjects to create something new. Secondly, we are rapid learners, who tend to dive into and immerse ourselves in new areas of learning. We are used to being beginners, because we are often beginners, who are not afraid to try new things. Thirdly, we are adaptable, and can easily morph into being one thing to another.
"Fast Company Magazine," reports Wapnik, "identified adaptability as the most important skill to develop in order to thrive in the 21st century.' This is because these are times of great change.
Wapnik concluces with telling listeners to "embrace your inner wiring whatever that may be."
In this Tedx talk, Eunice Hii describes how she was leading others to follow their passions, when she read an article in the Harvard Business Review, whichled her to seriously question what she was doing.
Hii, who is part of generation Y (born between 1983 - 2000), was shocked to read that she was part of "worst generation ever." Why? Well, according to the author of the article, Generation Y is lazy, pampered and entitled. Yes, entitled because this generation has been repeatedly told to follow their passions.
I will interject here. As an educator, I have worked closely with generation Y. Students who want to get ahead seem to intuitively know that they will have to work hard. In my experience, this is true no matter what generation one was born into. I know people my age (boomers) who have entitlement issues.
When Hii read this article, she had already committed years to a project called the Passion Project, which she designed with another university student. The philosophy behind the Passion Project was getting people to follow what they are passionate about, while making a difference in the community.
As she reflected seriously upon this article, Hii came to a logical conclusion: Following one's passion and entitlement are two different things. They are "mutually exclusive." She believes that Generation Y "can follow their passions and become a better generation."
Furthermore, Hii believes that Generation Y can follow their passions, while working hard, and at the same time, they must understand that their passions may not be their jobs.
Hii exerts, "We can follow our passions even if we do not necessarily know what they are."
While this statement seems nonsensical, I actually agree, because I think we have a rough idea of what our passions are, and sometimes we "know" something in our hearts before we know it in our heads.
Hii speaks about Julia Child, the legendary chef, who brought French cuisine to America. Child did not learn to cook or recognize her passion for cooking until she was in her mid-forties, and is probably an example of someone who followed her passions without knowing exactly what they were.
"We can follow our passions but we have to remember that passion is a privilege," states Hii.
I could not agree more with the statement. We have a lot to be thankful for because we are not living in a developing country, trying just to survive. When our needs for food, clothing, shelter, and safety our met, we can step out into the world and make a difference if we choose.
Hii believes that "it doesn't mean anything to follow our passions if it isn't in the service of others."
While I immensely respect the notion of serving others, I am not sure that it is always necessary when following one's passions. When I think of people who are artists, writers or musicians, I think of them practising their craft while they alone, not knowing how the rest of the world receive it when they are ready to share it. Any work of art is a labour of love. Sometimes, artists need time to work on what they love before sharing their creations. I suppose this true for all types of studying.
Hii quotes theologian Frederick Buechner saying that, "Your vocation is where your passions meet. the world's greatest needs."
Maybe...The idea is rather lofty... something to hope for or the best possible outcome that one finds when considering their passions and their communities needs.
When all is said and done, I suppose we should always be mindful of how following our passions impact the communities that we live in. We should understand that there are different ways of "serving" and that we are all part of a great mosaic.
Take baby steps with big intentions. This is a challenge when most of us want to reach our goals instantaneously. We live in the days of instant gratification.
However, with particularly goals that are difficult to reach quickly, let' say learning a language, it probably is the best way to go.
One indication that taking this approach is necessary is feeling that we are overwhelmed, and that our goal is not obtainable. If we give up, we will never know whether we could have reached that goal or not. If we try and do not succeed, we have learned something important, and perhaps we will tune up our goal and change it into something more obtainable. As long as we learn, we do not fail, so let's stand up straight, and take baby steps with big intentions.
This is Terri Trespicio giving a Tedx Talk. She starts of strong by stating, "There is a dangerously limiting idea at the heart of everything we believe about success in general. And it is that you have a singular passion and your job is to find it and pursue it to the exclusion of all other ideas."
She speaks about the "cultural imperative" to choose your passion, pointing out that, "Passion is not a plan." One of the mistakes that we have made is to forget that passion is a feeling that will change again and again.
Trespicio goes on to say that this limiting idea is often present when we speak to teenagers, particularly those in Grade 12, about what they plan on doing with their lives. Many teenagers, if not most, cannot answer the question, "What is your passion?'
Let's be honest. Most people cannot answer the question. If the question is restated, and one is asked, what there passions are, more people can speak to the question. This is because most people have found they have more than one passion. I can answer the question, but I have considerable life experience, and have an opportunity to try many things. Trespicio believes that we come to know our passions by letting passion follow us.
"To live a life of value and meaning , you don't follow your passion, your passion follows you," Trespicio astutely asserts.
Wednesday, 13 July 2016
Welcome to Passions with Purpose. On this blog, I will explore the nature of "passion," and how to share your passion with others thereby giving it purpose.
