Sense of Purpose
Hello, Reader!
Love, Agnes xo
I can’t believe that my two weeks of Angloville have finished already... I'm glad it's over because I'm so tired but I was sad to say goodbye to people I have bonded with so much over this time. I'll really cherish those memories for a long time and I'm hoping to maybe do it again soon!
I’ve mentioned on my Instagram in the past that I met a confidence and business coach a couple of months back: I found a free Eventbrite event, it sounded interesting - so I went! I figured that it would be interesting to ask her what, in her opinion, is the biggest obstacle young people face in achieving academic success. She didn’t even have to think about it: “No sense of purpose”.
I thought about it and I think I agree. Often, young people don’t know what they’re working towards and therefore struggle to maintain motivation - I can imagine how frustrating it must be to feel like your work is pointless. A lack of purpose often creates a lack of care for yourself and your future which, obviously, has a knock-on effect on your academic performance. (Bear in mind that I’m focusing on academic success, but this can be applied to success in other areas of your life as well!) The fact that you’re reading this is an indication, at least in part, that you are looking for that purpose, or that you’ve found it and you don’t know where to go next.
What exactly is this purpose I keep talking about? It’s the drive inside you that motivates you to reach your goals and live your best life. We all have things we want to achieve, but without that reason (or purpose) for doing it, we aren’t likely to even get close to them. That purpose can be very difficult to discover because it’s something so unique and individual to each person and often it isn’t a surface reason, but rather something deep within you that drives and motivates you. I mean, it would be wonderful if I could just write out a list of purposes that you could choose yours from - but it’s not that simple.
Start by asking yourself two questions: “What do I love to do?” and “What comes to me easily?”. You could probably come up with a couple of things for the first one, but the second one is a bit more tricky. Of course, everything needs hard work and practice, but is there something that feels natural when you do it? How do you want to express this to the world?
I feel like this should give you a good start on finding your purpose, but if you have no idea what to make of it; Google is your best friend! There are hundreds of articles about how to find your purpose. I only picked a couple of points which, in my opinion, were the most helpful, but you may find that something else is more helpful for you!
I think that it’s only fair that I share my journey of finding my purpose. For most of my academic career, my reason for working hard was to prove people wrong. I moved to the UK at 11 years old, speaking barely any English and with little social skills. Beginnings of high school were tough for me, and I remember being treated differently, by both teachers and my peers, because I wasn’t able to communicate effectively. None of this was malicious, of course, people simply assumed that I didn’t understand anything because I wasn’t able to tell them that I did. This became my motivation to change others’ perception of me: I worked hard to improve my language skills, study a lot and get good grades.
This worked all the way up until I did change others’ perception of me and the quality of “smart” was assigned to me; I wasn’t proving anyone wrong anymore, it was just the way Agnes was. This made me realise that I couldn’t base my drive or motivation on any outside sources, I had to find it in myself.
I realised that I love learning during Sixth Form. Not studying - actually learning. Then, I realised that I love teaching when I tutored a boy for a while in GCSE Maths. It was so rewarding to see him grow to love the subject, to hear his mum say that she regularly finds him studying out of his own initiative, to find out that his grades were climbing to the top of the class. All of this made me realise that I absolutely loved helping others find their motivation and their path to academic success. So this is what I began pursuing! You’re seeing the effects of it, as you’re reading this. This is my purpose - to share my experience and my journey to academic success in hopes of inspiring or helping others.
Next week, I’ll already be in Madrid! I cannot wait to start my next adventure and tell you all about it!
I’ve mentioned on my Instagram in the past that I met a confidence and business coach a couple of months back: I found a free Eventbrite event, it sounded interesting - so I went! I figured that it would be interesting to ask her what, in her opinion, is the biggest obstacle young people face in achieving academic success. She didn’t even have to think about it: “No sense of purpose”.
I thought about it and I think I agree. Often, young people don’t know what they’re working towards and therefore struggle to maintain motivation - I can imagine how frustrating it must be to feel like your work is pointless. A lack of purpose often creates a lack of care for yourself and your future which, obviously, has a knock-on effect on your academic performance. (Bear in mind that I’m focusing on academic success, but this can be applied to success in other areas of your life as well!) The fact that you’re reading this is an indication, at least in part, that you are looking for that purpose, or that you’ve found it and you don’t know where to go next.
What exactly is this purpose I keep talking about? It’s the drive inside you that motivates you to reach your goals and live your best life. We all have things we want to achieve, but without that reason (or purpose) for doing it, we aren’t likely to even get close to them. That purpose can be very difficult to discover because it’s something so unique and individual to each person and often it isn’t a surface reason, but rather something deep within you that drives and motivates you. I mean, it would be wonderful if I could just write out a list of purposes that you could choose yours from - but it’s not that simple.
Start by asking yourself two questions: “What do I love to do?” and “What comes to me easily?”. You could probably come up with a couple of things for the first one, but the second one is a bit more tricky. Of course, everything needs hard work and practice, but is there something that feels natural when you do it? How do you want to express this to the world?
I feel like this should give you a good start on finding your purpose, but if you have no idea what to make of it; Google is your best friend! There are hundreds of articles about how to find your purpose. I only picked a couple of points which, in my opinion, were the most helpful, but you may find that something else is more helpful for you!
I think that it’s only fair that I share my journey of finding my purpose. For most of my academic career, my reason for working hard was to prove people wrong. I moved to the UK at 11 years old, speaking barely any English and with little social skills. Beginnings of high school were tough for me, and I remember being treated differently, by both teachers and my peers, because I wasn’t able to communicate effectively. None of this was malicious, of course, people simply assumed that I didn’t understand anything because I wasn’t able to tell them that I did. This became my motivation to change others’ perception of me: I worked hard to improve my language skills, study a lot and get good grades.
This worked all the way up until I did change others’ perception of me and the quality of “smart” was assigned to me; I wasn’t proving anyone wrong anymore, it was just the way Agnes was. This made me realise that I couldn’t base my drive or motivation on any outside sources, I had to find it in myself.
I realised that I love learning during Sixth Form. Not studying - actually learning. Then, I realised that I love teaching when I tutored a boy for a while in GCSE Maths. It was so rewarding to see him grow to love the subject, to hear his mum say that she regularly finds him studying out of his own initiative, to find out that his grades were climbing to the top of the class. All of this made me realise that I absolutely loved helping others find their motivation and their path to academic success. So this is what I began pursuing! You’re seeing the effects of it, as you’re reading this. This is my purpose - to share my experience and my journey to academic success in hopes of inspiring or helping others.
Next week, I’ll already be in Madrid! I cannot wait to start my next adventure and tell you all about it!
Love, Agnes xo
Comments
Post a Comment