Project 52: Week 52 - PURPOSE
Gerald Doyle
Human Centered Design and Innovation: "You know, I believe it's sometimes even good to be ridiculous. Yes, much better. People forgive each other more readily and become more humble, ..." Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Idiot
Our reflection, meditation, and a few moments to quiet ourselves ...
PURPOSE.
"When we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better."
We are travelers on a cosmic journey, stardust, swirling and dancing in the eddies and whirlpools of infinity. Life is eternal. We have stopped for a moment to encounter each other, to meet, to love, to share. This is a precious moment. It is a little parenthesis in eternity.
~ Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist
"Classically, colleges and universities have understood themselves as helping students discover a sense of purpose deeper than questions about skills and job prospects. Such descriptions often have been linked to language around vocation, calling, and character."
"Higher education ought to be leading the way in helping students connect their work with questions of purpose by asking deep questions about a well-lived life and through internships and extracurricular activities that put those thoughts into action."
By framing questions of purpose, character, and entrepreneurial mindset more clearly in terms of what it means for human beings, individually and collectively to flourish, we as higher education leaders may see far greater impact on creating and sustaining the flourishing world at the heart of our own sense of purpose."
~ L Gregory Jones has been president of Belmont University (as quoted from "Formation for Flourishing in Higher Education: Reimagining Purpose," Virtues & Vocation, Higher Education for Human Flourishing, Spring 2024
We are delighted to continue with a year-long offering as part of our Career Services initiatives and outreach. ~ Gerald Doyle.
Project 52: Week 52 - PURPOSE
WELCOME TO Reaching agreement on a career trajectory (at least for now).
At some point, we hope -- and trust -- you find yourself at the end of reaching an agreement to start a new career experience. As part of an integrated approach to the career journey, we want you to know that there are powerful and dependable ways to make those threshold moments successful in a spirit of faith. As you think of concrete opportunities, you may find these practices helpful sooner than expected.
Among other resources, we like to steer our participants toward Steve Dalton’s second book, The Job Closer, for these approaches. We interpret and sometimes transform this guidance through the lens of faith. We will describe the elements of Dalton’s approach in greater detail in individual articles in this series, but here, we point out a few main themes of this stage of the work.
As ever, I am at your service to accompany you and help you, through a lens of quieting, stillness, prayer, discernment, and accompaniment, to navigate your interwoven journeys of career, formation, inspiration, and learning to explore these themes -- from Week 1 through 52 with you ...
and keen to accompany you on this journey, either in anticipation and preparation for the longer-term future or with a more immediate opportunity in mind.
Peace, blessings, friendship, hope -- and Thanksgiving.
Monday, 25 November 2024
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Gerald Doyle, Career Services
Additional Resources:
Center for Social Concerns About the Institute, learn more.
"Welcome to the Institute for Social Concerns, an interdisciplinary institute dedicated to justice education and research for the common good with communities near and far."
Virtues & Vocations
"In this issue, ten essays and an interview with scholar Bill Damon center a robust engagement with purpose. While deeply personal, they illustrate how important self-transcendence is for the pursuit of purpose. And yet, their humor and reflection also remind us that not everything in life needs to be purposeful. As Jesse Summers, Director of University Initiatives with the Purpose Project at Duke, writes, “We see that more clearly if we ask not what a life is for, but, instead, how to love the worthiness of what we do.”
~ Suzanne Shanahan, Editor
Recommended viewing and listening:
"Purpose, an active commitment to accomplish aims that are meaningful to the self and of consequence to the world beyond the self, is future-oriented. Purposeful people look ahead to goals they seek to accomplish over the long haul. The psychological benefit of purpose lies in the strengths that forward-looking commitments bring: motivation, energy, achievement, hope, and resilience. Purpose is a prime example of how a person’s future aspirations can shape their self-development. In every age Professor William Damon has studied, purpose stands out as a key to positive living. However, memories of the past can play a crucial role in shaping the future, if those memories are treated in a positive and forward-looking manner. Professor Damon will describe his own experience that illustrates this and shows how this can be done both early and late in life."
William Damon, professor of education and senior fellow, by courtesy, at the Hoover Institution Traitel Building (D-4), Hauck Auditorium
Residing in Chicago, Gerald Doyle provides ministry placement research and consulting for Career Services at the Catholic Theological Union and career services and coaching to students, families, and community members at Wolcott College Preparatory High School. He advises several edtech companies, including Upkey and GetSet Learning, and serves as the Interim Chief Administrative Officer at the US-China Catholic Association and as president of the board at Syrian Community Network
Scott Downs, a former investment banker, management consultant, and entrepreneur, now works as an Agile coach, seeking to call forward great leaders and organizations based on great cultures. He is a consultant with Expleo Group and is an associate of the TrustTemenos Leadership Academy.
Scott and Gerald are co-founders of Tri Cosain, a practice that weaves inspiration, learning, and career for leadership in life and work. Gerald and Scott co-authored 9 Questions for Leadership in Life and Work, Conversations of Inquiry, and several other volumes in the Tri Cosain series. Their work embraces equity, inclusion, diversity, and well-being as foundations for personal leadership.
Copyright Scott Downs and Gerald Doyle 2023-25
Human Centered Design and Innovation: "You know, I believe it's sometimes even good to be ridiculous. Yes, much better. People forgive each other more readily and become more humble, ..." Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Idiot
1wDavid Meek Student First "The Future-Ready SIS" Greetings from Chicago. I wanted to share this closing chapter of Project 52: Week 52 -- a year-long series detailing a Career Services Roadmap for students. Again, I look forward to exploring how this "checklist of sorts" for Career and Leadership weaves into the fullness of the arc of a student's journey, i.e., student engagement, enrichment, success, retention, and career/life launch," and how this curriculum might be introduced within the context of your services to your client partners -- and, perhaps, integrated within your SIS platform -- and support the resources, products, and platform available through Upkey. I'm looking forward to catching up with you.
Human Centered Design and Innovation: "You know, I believe it's sometimes even good to be ridiculous. Yes, much better. People forgive each other more readily and become more humble, ..." Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Idiot
1moAaron Kuecker Trinity Christian College Here's the completion of Project 52; a year of weekly reflections, frameworks, exercises, instructions, and suggestions around the career search process inclusive of the themes of: ~ discernment ~ accompaniment ~ purpose/inspiration (and what we feel called to in our lives, and for others) ~ learning (formal and informal -- and being present for the lessons that unfold and are available to us) ~ conversations of inquiry, network, and community building ~ tactical and strategic frameworks for the job search You will find at least two of the books you've shared with me featured across the 52 installments of this series. P.S. I've recently started reading Virtues & Vocations from the Center for Social Concerns at Notre Dame. Are you familiar with this work? Looking forward to catching up.
Human Centered Design and Innovation: "You know, I believe it's sometimes even good to be ridiculous. Yes, much better. People forgive each other more readily and become more humble, ..." Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Idiot
1moKeya Loding University of Chicago St. Paul's School Glad to catch up briefly. I would welcome and value your thoughts and reflections on this series, particularly Week 52. All the best for the end of the Fall semester; good luck with your finals.