Some subjects seem to haunt us like Sherlock Holmes’ Baskerville hound. These subjects lurk in our thoughts when we try to sleep, wake us too early too often, and capture our thoughts during droning committee meetings. This little book is about such a subject, one that I wrestled with across this globe: “What’s my life’s real purpose?” Or more pointedly, “What’s yours?” Given the book’s title, let me make it a bit more personal, “Why do I teach?” and “Why do you teach?” If teaching really is our life’s purpose, how did we come to this conclusion? And as important, “Shouldn’t it motivate us if we know the answer?”
How do we manage such a discussion? How do we help others to do the same, regardless of their giftedness and interests? And as professors and teachers, how do we help our students to answer these questions curiously avoided far too long in classrooms?
There is indeed a way to visualize these questions about life purpose and their implications in one’s life—to think of our giftedness and goals in terms of a “life wedge.” Whether it’s a formation of geese flying, a football wedge, or one used to chop wood, this image helps us to diagram and process many of our life’s priorities. And it’s a way to help our students to do the same. To envision where they’re headed, how sharp is their wedge’s focus, what’s filling their wedge, and what changes could help?
With simplicity come key steps that need a bit of unpacking, and we’ll do this in the pages ahead. And with clarity comes a confidence that empowers intrinsically for some remarkable gains—for all involved.
The following pages come after countless presentations and many longevity studies. They flow out of years of describing, analyzing, assessing, reflecting, and all the typical things we tend to do in our profession. But they also come after realizing that it wasn’t enough to identify the problem, to isolate the key questions linked to intrinsic motivation, but to show a way to resolve such things. I’m entering my fifties and students from my twenties still comment on their “life wedge.” And since first sharing the following concepts with faculty, staff, and business leaders a decade ago, my Inbox receives constant reflections on the same.
Perhaps it’s also helpful to know that this little book was first intended as a piece for conferences to begin a dialogue that is fully developed for students in my other text, The Purpose-Guided Student. However, the wave of requests prompted McGraw-Hill immediately to turn this officially into the text in front of you. I’m humbled at this response and at the privilege of being able to reflect openly on such a topic. I’m also pleased to share what is as much your story as mine. As much your question as the one I wrestled with. I’ve learned from so many of you through years of intimate and corporate discussions. These have helped not only to refine my thoughts, but to keep the text’s application true to our common and noble journey. We teach, and for us there is no higher calling.
2010