With Pre-Matriculation quickly approaching, I’ve had the chance to re-read over my favorite Acton notes. One of them, “An Introduction to the Journey of Personal Transformation,” is assigned during the first week.
Acton provides a curriculum that is designed to help students find their “calling.” This process includes the difficult, but rewarding, journey of personal transformation.
You need to look deeply and honestly – and enlist the help of others – to find your extraordinary innate gifts. We believe that in these gifts, given in service to others, you will find your true personality, a dependable source of inspiration and a long-term vision for your life. If you want to find a calling, you’ve got to be willing to look deep inside yourself – to face questions about what matters most to you and what’s kept you from getting it, questions you may have neglected or avoided. We find that many students have a good idea what they’d really like to do; they are simply afraid they can’t do it and, therefore, are afraid to try.
To overcome these obstacles, you’ll have to confront limiting beliefs and face fears you may have carried for as long as you can remember. This introspection takes brutal honesty and extraordinary hard work on your part. If you’re not inspired, if you haven’t set a goal and reckoned the cost and decided it’s worth it, you won’t do it. Unless you commit to the task, you can’t expect to achieve the freedom to which you aspire.
So here is the big question: what is your calling? And here is the even bigger question: do you have the courage to pursue it?
Posted in Books & Notes, Life of Meaning
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