purpose ~ stretch ~ challenge

I am cut to the Cory core!

An awesome teacher at our local high school has been offered a second year teaching at SYAItaly in Viterbo, fifty miles north of Rome.  

 

Fabulous for him & Pauline, but stinks for those of us back home.  In particular - ME! 

Cory was key in nurturing a marvelous senior project that includes students composing a personal mission statement.  It's beyond description, walking through DeCharms Hall, reading the statements that line the walls.  My heart seems to come right out of my body.

 

Which got me thinking a couple years ago - how about developing a similar program for those other seniors, folks who have tipped their way past 65?  

 

The most frequent wail I hear when first working with older friends is, "What good am I doing?  Who am I serving?"  

While it's easy to brush that woe-is-me comment aside, it deserves serious attention.  And a lot of empathy.  

Which leads me back to mission statements...

Today's culture is awash with mission statements, from students to corporations.  I worked on quite a few during my years at Prudential.  Truth be told, I came away from the process deeply skeptical of its value to behemoths like Prudential or BISYS.  

 

However, I'm convinced of their high value to individuals.  To feel the power, all you need is one walk through DeCharms Hall when the seniors' mission statements line the walls.  

Inspired by the seniors & Cory, I was pawing the earth, awaiting his return to the good ol' USA, before starting to develop my own Senior Mission Statement Project - and now he's staying a second year!!

Yeah, yeah, yeah - it's wonderful for him, for the rest of the faculty & staff, and especially for SYAItaly students who get to have another year with him.  

Guess I have to recognize what it is - a big kick in the butt!  No more dillydallying waiting for Cory's return.  No more delays - get moving!

It's a sorry reality that too many older people seem to feel rudderless, without a sense of purpose.  Too many feel unanchored from lives where they feel needed, useful.  Because all of us - young & old - have a purpose in life.  And it's NOT "being as little a problem for my children as possible"!!!  

My vision is to develop a program that can be duplicated by groups or families, friends or care givers working with my kinda seniors.  Simple, unfussy, with ways to help older friends or relatives reconnect with what matters, with how they make a difference.  

A life without purpose might be existence, but it's not living.

It was back in 1998 that I first worked with an oldster on crafting her personal mission statement.  Mom was introduced to Stephen Covey back when the two of us drove down to DisneyWorld, in autumn 1997.  On the long trek down & back, we listened first to 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, then  7 Habits of Highly Effective Families.  A few months later, Mom made putting together her own mission statement a new year project.  

Her first attempt basically said, "Make as little fuss for others as possible.  Be there as much as I can for family & friends."  

As much as it shook me, reading that, it served as a great jumping off point for discussion.  Was that really her full purpose in life?  

The key turned out to be NOT telling her what I thought, but creating a safe place time way for her to discover her own deepest beliefs about her here & now purpose in life.  

Although I don't remember what she wrote, will never forget experiencing the process with her.

Cory won't be back for at least another year.  And the person who initiated the project, the one he took over for, lives in Costa Rica!  I'd love to justify booking a flight on Alitalia or down to Costa Rica, but makes more sense to consider myself butt-kicked & get working on a version of my own!

It meant a lot to Mom, getting a better sense of who she was where she was, realizing that we are never without a priceless, only-I-can-do-it purpose in life.  

Time to stop thinking small, stop thinking "I'll wait until ..."  

The course into which Nita & Cory poured so much time, energy & love has purpose, stretch & challenge as central themes.  Cory's delayed return gives me the opportunity to embody experience extol those three themes, to step out & step up to making my version of the senior project more than a "wouldn't it be nice..." mental hum, to make it come true.  To no longer wait, to DO.