One Life
Realize Your Potential
Be a Catalyst for Positive Change
What do you hope to do with the one life you have to live? This is a difficult question for many of us, and a question that many of us explore throughout our lifetime – a question about our purpose. According to Bill Damon, purpose is “a stable and generalized intention to accomplish something that is at the same time meaningful to the self and consequential for the world beyond the self.”
In order to explore their purpose, through a series of activities in the G10 Leading Self course, students have been developing their awareness for what they love to do and are curious about, as well as the unique skills that they have. It is important that each of us can pursue what we love to do using our unique set of skills, but what we emphasize is that we are applying our passion and our skills for a need bigger than ourselves. As Bill Damon’s definition of purpose states, what we commit to cannot simply be meaningful to us, but it also has to be “consequential for the world beyond the self.” Students are exploring to identify the part where the three areas: love/curiosity, skills and need in the world meet.
One of the unique opportunities we have at UWC ISAK to deepen our understanding of personal purpose is Project Week, which happens twice per year. During Spring Project Week (March 18th – 22nd), each student will design a 3-day trip to explore one or more of the personal purpose areas in depth. These experiences could include joining a workshop to develop a skill of choice, interviewing a professional to find out about their passion, or interviewing a member of an organization to find out about a need in Japan in depth.
In the past, while many students forged new relationships from scratch, one of our most valuable resources has been access to an incredible network of professionals doing meaningful and interesting work. If you wish to personally share your stories about your professions, or know people who you believe our students will benefit connecting with, it would be wonderful if you could help fill out this survey. It will take about 5 minutes of your time.
Thank you all for helping to make students’ learning and growth richer! I cannot wait to see what unique purpose exploration plans they come up with this year.
