Finding Purpose
At the beginning of the semester, I asked my students a simple question. See, I teach an unusual class, a core requirement that fulfills not just a social science or humanity requirement but also fulfills my university’s diversity requirement. In practical terms, that means that students working on satisfying their general education requirement can take just my class instead of having to take two classes to satisfy the same requirement.
So I already know why my classes are packed every semester. I know why they’re there. And it’s pretty damn boring. So this semester I handed out cards and asked them to answer a question for me: what do you hope you learn in this class? I explained to them, you’re here for 16 weeks. 16 weeks that can be like a prison sentence, each of you just waiting for the warden to open the doors, give you your two requirement credits, and let you free – or we can find some way to make those 16 weeks worth your while, some way for each of you to leave this classroom with something of value to you.
When I went through the cards at the end of the day, there were a few people who’d taken up the challenge, but well over ¾ of them gave the same answer: I’m just here for the requirement. They chose prison over learning, jail over purpose.
Wow. I mean, just – wow.
Most people find themselves doing things for no real purpose at all. It’s just “what’s done”.
Think about that. How many things do you do that you “need” to do or “simply must” – without having any greater purpose of your own?
Many things we think of as ends in themselves really aren’t ends at all – they’re means to an end, means to our own ends. Passing a class, keeping a job, cleaning your house – these are things we do (hopefully!) for a greater purpose – not just towards a goal, but tin pursuit of our own personal growth.
But it’s easy – too easy – to lose track of that purpose and start treadmilling through our days as if getting through yet another day were the whole of life.
That path leads to despair!
The remedy is simple enough – - a few calm minutes with yourself every week or so to reflect on what you do any why you do it. Maybe a chart or mindmap listing your major activities and your purpose in doing them.
In the end, the key isn’t having the “best” or the “right” purpose (which only you could say, anyway) – the key is to lead a considered life, to find the threads that hold it all together and to be aware when the skein of your life slips out of your grasp.
How many things do you do every day that, if asked, you’d be hard pressed to explain why you’re doing them? How many tasks have no meaning at all for you, no real “fit” in the Big Picture of your life? Isn’t it time to start thinking about that — getting rid of the stuff that has no purpose, and learning anew to appreciate the important stuff whose purpose you’d forgotten along the way?
WRITER'S BIOGRAPHY
Dustin Wax
Dustin M. Wax is a freelance writer and project manager at Stepcase Lifehack. He is also the creator of The Writer's Technology Companion, a site devoted to the tools of the writing trade. When he's not writing, he teaches anthropology and gender studies in Las Vegas, NV. He is the author of Don't Be Stupid: A Guide to Learning, Studying, and Succeeding at College.
Follow him on Twitter: @dwax.
Tags: 
Get your own Avatars at 
Loading ...
Comments
Lynn M says on March 17th, 2009 at 10:24 am
Great post. It is sad that students take classes without thinking what the purpose in taking it is and what they might get out of it. I recently contributed this post to MyUSearch.com (“Dude, What’s Your Major”) and while I don’t think it is necessary to KNOW exactly what you want to do in life from the moment you start sending out college applications, I do think students should take more time to think about what they like, why they like it, what their talents and skills are and how those can be applied in their future. Everyone wants those credits that will eventually lead to the piece of paper that hopefully gets them that job….but let’s hope it all means more than that and that when you’re spending so much money and so much time doing it, you’re expecting to get some meaning out of it. Thanks for the good words, Dustin.
Kristen Beck says on March 17th, 2009 at 11:02 am
Wow, that’s exactly what I needed to hear (read) right now.
I was just going through my to-do list, wishing a bunch of tasks awaiting attention would magically disappear without consequences. (Overwhelm is the word.) And you just gave me that boost to look at those tasks with a new perspective, to enjoy them, to get the most out of them rather than grumbling through them. Thanks.
Catherine Cantieri, Sorted says on March 17th, 2009 at 11:10 am
I really needed to read this post today. I’ve been doing a lot of “have to do”s lately, and it’s taking a bit of a toll on me. Thank you for writing this.
Lee Thompson says on March 17th, 2009 at 5:36 pm
This article brings up an interesting question regarding higher education: Why do universities require these sort of classes for “general education” when most students aren’t getting anything out of them? I’m a student at a large university, and it seems like the first 3 semesters of classes I took were just chaff that everyone was supposed to endure before you can get to the real learning.
I think that a big reason students have the attitude of just accepting these classes as a sort of “prison sentence” is a result of the university itself treated those classes like chaff. Maybe if the university took those classes more seriously, and put more resources into making them better and showing students what they can really learn from them, then it would be less of a monumental effort on the part of the student to find purpose in the class and more of them could reap the benefits of an active education.
Dave Willison says on March 17th, 2009 at 8:38 pm
I notice that many people including myself lose sight of purpose due to the amount of tasks they are trying to fit into a day, by multitasking we often lose focus on our goals.
Loss of focus can result in unhappiness (prison sentence), so the solution is to slow down and visualise what end result you want. Probably a hard thing to do while at uni.
Anelly says on March 18th, 2009 at 3:14 am
Sometimes finding our purpose might be more difficult than implementing.
Vincent says on March 18th, 2009 at 3:15 am
Hi Dustin,
It is easy to lose ourselves in work and as time goes by we lost our purpose in our work too. It may help when time and again we keep checking whether our work and purpose are aligned to our value so that we will have a sense of satisfaction in our work.
Cheers
Vincent
Personal Development Blogger
Lee Ann / Living Introverted says on March 18th, 2009 at 8:08 am
Wow! Thanks for this great reminder. Living with purpose isn’t always easy – it seems much easier to slip into plodding along in survival mode. We’ve all been guilty of doing things because we “had to” or because as you mentioned, it’s just “what’s done”, without questioning why we’re doing those things or giving those things a purpose that at least makes them worthwhile, rather than a “prison sentence”.
But to live an examined life, one that makes each of us responsible for discovering the reasons for doing what we’re doing – that changes everything – for the better.
Is it easy to do this? No. It’s another habit to be learned – like exercising consistently or keeping a budget. But it’s a worthwhile habit.
Albert says on March 18th, 2009 at 5:03 pm
I was just curious as to what subject you were teaching. But I guess if you wanted us to know you would have told us.
Dustin Wax says on March 18th, 2009 at 6:02 pm
Albert: It’s no secret — it says in my bio next to the post what I teach. I teach anthropology and gender studies.
Prometheus says on March 19th, 2009 at 5:29 am
So how exactly do we find purpose?
I hoped to get some insights there through your post, because that _is_ my problem: What can be this greater mission or vision to live and die for? If I had it, things would be much easier as they would make sense…
Thanks for your help and your great posts!
Imran Akram says on March 19th, 2009 at 8:03 am
Wow! that is exactly what I’ve been thinking about life lately and just couldn’t find the words perhaps to explain it. Really appreciate the article. I can say a few things about how I found my purpose. I was just left alone by the circumstances over the last few months. At times, it felt I was gonna break apart completely but I just thought I should keep breathing and keep going. I kept my firm belief that if God’s keeping me alive, there has to be a sound reason behind it and then I read an article here about thinking what makes you happy. And I thought about it long and hard that night and I guess I just managed to somehow reflect that much upon myself that finally I got my purpose. Now everything else looks absurd except for what contributes positively towards my purpose/goal. Even things like going to Cinema look stupid to me at times but I try doing those kind of activities sparingly too in order to keep a balance in my life.
I think now, my life is starting to show its meanings.
Thanks that was a great post.
Patrick Chuan says on March 28th, 2009 at 3:09 am
I roll my eyes every time a lecturer asked why students are taking that lecturer’s class. It seems like that lecturer had decided to sideline the fact that the lecturer’s role is a small part of a large education institution that is responsible for churning out subservient employees.
I was a student once and my purpose was to get the degree of my chosen field with the highest possible grade within my abilities. Every subject that I took is a mean to this end. I repeat: a mean to the end! No more, no less.
Sure, there are some subjects that I like more and there are subjects that I have no affinity towards. Still, under no circumstances does studying become part of my happiness. Never let your mean becomes your end.
Dustin Wax says on March 28th, 2009 at 9:01 pm
Patrick: A point of clarification: I explicitly did *not* ask why students were taking the class, I asked what they hoped to get out of it. I know why students take my class — it’s a mean to an end, like you say.
But it’s a stupid end. Getting a BA is about the dumbest goal ever, and it’s a sad, sad shame that our society has made that a necessity for so many jobs — particularly meaningless, worthless, and entirely purposeless jobs.
And what it does to the psyche is unforgivable — it makes people feel like they have to spend 4 years in “means” mode. Frankly, if a class is a “means to an end”, it should be dropped. The point here is to find the “end-ness” in everything you do, even if you’re doing it for reasons that are not entirely your own.
Sooner or later administrators are going to find their backbones and attack the issue of grade inflation, and the students who wander into college hoping for the BA that will be their ticket to “real life” will be failed out — and maybe we as a society can get on without requiring 4 years of BS education for jobs a 15-year old could do, and 6 years for jobs an 18-year old could do. Then people can start going to university out of love of learning, and out of the way that knowledge about the world improves your relationship with it.
In the meantime, I am absolutely, definitely, and always going to work to help my students overcome the “mean-ness” of their classes, at least the ones they take with me. We as a society are committed to ideals of justice and punishments that fit crimes — students who have committed no crimes shouldn’t find themselves *choosing* imprisonment, even in required courses. (Yes, of course there should be required courses — only someone with a decent education could reasonably decide which courses he or she needed or didn’t need; of course, there are non-degree programs for people who choose to follow non-degree paths).
Hope that was a strong enough response. Becuase I’m not talking about some hippy-dippy feel-good “why did you take this class” thing here, I’m talking about educating students, which should go WAY beyond the intricacies of the immediate subject matter. In the end, I’m talkingabout teaching students to live lives worth living. It’s too bad that universities as a whole aren’t set up to do anything like that…
Dustin Wax says on March 28th, 2009 at 9:05 pm
Prometheus: I don’t know how to tell you how to find the purpose of your life — that’s a question well beyond the scope of this site and a few hundred words of post. What I’m talking about here is finding purpose in the things we do — call it “purposes” with a small p and plural -s vs. Purpose.
That said, I would think that when you start thinking about that, larger goals start to come into focus, then life visions, and maybe then a Purpose does, in fact, resolve itself. Certainly there is a back and forth between our “Purpose” in the abstract and the things we do from moment to moment, and maybe “purposes” mediate that exchange…
mattsos says on July 14th, 2009 at 12:37 am
It’s a good tip. I find that I will get stressed out about little meaningless things I feel like I have to do.
Dani says on September 8th, 2009 at 4:49 pm
This is really interesting. At the begining of the year I had this class that was “Introduction to Architecture” and I thought it would be boring, just a teacher talking about architects and some cosntructions. But to my surprise it really wasnt. He talked to us things he learned from his own experience as architect, things we will never learn in a book. He also taught us about architects and their constructions, but in a diferent way. We studied why each architect has like an style and things of that sort.
I enjoyed that class a lot and I think it will be one of the best classes I will ever have in my career.
He made it interesting, he showed us his pasion for his profesion and he taught us things that he would have liked to been told when he was younger (things you learn in life and not in a classroom).