What is Your Purpose?

As a part of the tenure and promotion process in academics, we are required to write a narrative that serves as a self-appraisal of our professional career. We have three main areas to self-reflect and sell to the committee on why we deserve to be promoted and have job security for life: teaching effectiveness, scholarly work, and service. If you’re not aware, not all higher education institutions value each of the three the same: big schools will typically value the scholarly/research work the most, while smaller schools, like Linfield, emphasize teaching effectiveness.

As I plan my narrative, my department chair’s recommendation is to “tell a story” and to weave themes into the paper. As a scientist, my professional writing has always been very structured and in scientifically-reported, so being told to write creatively and artistically is like asking a rapper to write a country song…..oh wait……#oldtownroad. How do I organize this?

Yesterday morning, I had the opportunity to chat with an untraditional undergraduate student from Portland State about his journey and his career goals. When I say “untraditional” I mean that he’s in his late 20’s and didn’t go to college right out of high school. So hearing his story on how he got to Portland from California and why he has an interest in strength and conditioning was inspiring and genuine. We talked about purposes in life, how things happen for a reason (which I’m a believer in), and why our Filipino stubbornness and self-pride have and can be detrimental.

Gary Schofield is a professional in the strength and conditioning world that I look up to. I have been fortunate enough to hear him present at National Conferences for the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA) and listen to him talk well beyond the X’s and O’s of S&C. His talks have been inspirational and innovative on how he served hundreds of kids at a private high school in Atlanta, Georgia for many years. His talks about using the weight room as a means to teach life lessons to high school kids was a foundational concept for RISE. Back in 2015, he was a guest on one of my go-to podcasts during my commute. He talked about this Japanese term called “ikigai.” It’s a term that refers to a person’s “reason for being.” Basically, it is usually used to identify what one values and what make one's life worthwhile. That absolutely struck a chord with me.

“Ikigai” blends four aspects of what we strive for in life: passion, mission, vocation, and profession. Those that are lucky have all four overlap, which the Japanese refer to as “ikigai.” It’s the perfect combination of enjoying what you do, naturally being good at it, positively serving those around you, and getting paid for it.

At the 2018 NSCA National Conference in Indianapolis, Coach Schofield walked into the hotel elevator I was standing in and you can imagine the nerves that went through my body. While most people get giddy seeing a celebrity in public, I get star-struck when I see legends, top researchers, and leaders in strength and conditioning in the flesh. That was my opportunity to finally tell him in-person how much I admired him and how much his “ikigai” reference meant to me. He couldn’t have been more humble and courteous during our interaction.

In 2016, my last semester at Concordia University, I taught a Career and Life Lessons seminar. It was one of the most enjoyable classes I’ve taught, not only because I worked with a great group of upperclassmen, but the concepts I covered were beyond my usual scientific principles of exercise science. The required book for the course was Simon Sinek’s Start With Why. I chose it because the theme behind the class was for kids to self-reflect and begin to line-up their passions with purpose to change the world after graduation. In the book, he talks about the Golden Circle and how successful businesses create their business strategy based on their purpose, while the businesses that struggle seem to start with their How (methods) and their What (eventual outcome = product/$$$$$) BEFORE they establish their why. I felt that the kids left the class feeling empowered to be a transformational leader and even created their own mission statement in 5-7 words. Go take on the world!

So as I ponder how to go about writing this narrative, a narrative that will be a crucial artifact in my continuation and validation as a professional, it would only make sense to make “ikigai” the backbone. I am blessed to be able combine passion, with a profession, with a vocation for what my students, collegiate athletes’, and youth athletes’ need, and a specific mission for elevating and empowering people through strength training. It’s just too bad that my “ikigai” didn’t lead to a career that paid well (if you didn’t know: professors don’t make a lot of money; we’re definitely not in it for the money).

So a primary mission of RISE is to help kids, at a young age, find a path that creates a sense of passion and purpose. Having them in the RISE Lab experiencing success after a failure, overcoming fears, and reaching levels of success they didn’t think they had in them can indirectly make them understand that they can achieve anything if they put their mind to it, and with that mental strength and empowerment, they will acheive their “ikigai.”