Autonomy, Mastery, and Purpose

 

The new principal at my internship played this video during staff development. He is really a visionary, exciting others and putting idea into action. More on that in another blog. I love the message. I am enthralled by the performance of this artist. I am constantly finding connections in my life. There were parallels between the three motivating factors and my past experiences with 4-H Youth Development. 4-H's youth development research identified 4 essential elements of positive development. We call it BIG- M. Belonging, Independence, Generosity, and Mastery. While watching this video, Dan Pink's Autonomy, Mastery, and Purpose began to sound very similar. I find myself wondering why other research did not include belonging. While 4-H's BIG-M is directed towards youth development it still applies to adults and motivation. Many people are motivated by the need for belonging and a connectedness, more so than autonomy. In fact, many maladaptive behaviors are mainly driven for the need to be belong. For example, some people might exhibit behaviors such as clingliness (is that a word?) or helplessness sacrificing autonomy for a relationship with a lover, parent, or friend.

There is no question that 4-H's BIG-M and Dan Pink's philosophy on motivation are connected to school counseling or education in general. How can you incorporate these ideas into your school  counseling practice?

Wright, Right, or Rite?

My blog topics are backing up because each day at my internship site brings something new and exciting. The first day I started, my supervisor had me read through the book On Writing the College Admissions Essay by Harry Bauld. It was witty, full of good information, and an entertaining read. In a past post I wrote about things coming full circle. I have found this to be especially true the past few weeks. Bauld talks about how to reflect and translate your ideas and personality succinctly, with detail, and in an engaging way for the reader. His tips reminded me of the Integrative Knowledge E-Portfolio pilot I participated in. It really helped me consider how I can continue to finesse my writing both on my portfolio and in my blog. Which brings me back to the question, "Do I want this blog to have a more professional tone, or more of a rambling tone? I think more professional or polished, yet still in my unique voice.

Speaking of polishing my writing, today I was in a conference room and there were posters of the 7 Deadly Sins of Writing, one of which is wordiness! Haha! I don't think I am too wordy in my school papers, but I definitely am on this blog. I really want to develop my writing skills and brush up on grammar and punctuation. The question is, do I have time?! My professors new blog, SCOPE, highlights the impact a short but concise piece of writing. I am trying to come up with a contribution for it so make sure you start following SCOPE. It seemed like in undergrad you are always trying to stretch the page number on papers and sound as smart as possible. I find the opposite is true in graduate school, rather they are looking for clearly communicated ideas.

Lately, the blog feels more like a dumping grounds for my thoughts. Now I need to marry the brain dump with writing.

Professional Identity?

I have so many things I want to blog about. My personal life, my internship experiences, and how they overlap. My first real boss told me everything I learned in undergrad would come full circle in grad school, everything would begin to make sense.  If I am really introspective I find this is true, and it kinda creeps me out. I hate having really long blog posts but I feel like I could type for hours about things I've noticed, am excited about, wonder about, or find upsetting. So for starters...

Where does your professional persona end and your personal identity begin? Are they one in the same? On a continuum? Totally separate? I have no problem giving advice to my friends, but I wouldn't give direct advice to my students. Can I remain neutral during family conflict? How do I use these new professional skills I've paid so much for when the stakes are high in my personal life, or the life of a loved one? I feel so young at heart and fear people take my excitement and seemingly carefree attitude as careless, immature, or incompetent. I look young too, and as much as people say first impressions don't matter, they really do. Should I cut my hair?

I act a fool around my friends, especially those I've known the longest. I have crazy opinions and have no qualms about sharing them. Now I am on the brink of becoming professional counselor. Will they be judging me "the counselor" when I act this way? Should I be typing like I think and talk in my authentic Rachel voice when this blog has been shared with my graduate student colleagues?

Many of these questions I am just beginning to consider and reflect upon. I wish more people would comment and let me know what they think! Are these ideas the type of thing we will discuss in practicum? Is this part of my quarter-life crisis? Is it a crisis at all or just the natural development of a person? Help!

I was very excited one of my professors is reading my blog, which gets back to the question above. I have thought about this quite a bit and considered starting a strictly school counseling blog, using a more professional voice. I decided to continue as I have been because this voice is authentically me. My personal life directly impacts who I am as a professional and vice versa. I started the blog to help reflect, set goals, save memories, and share with others. As I look back at the posts I am amazed by its evolution. From a carefree blog, to processing grief, and now reflecting and developing a professional identity. Hopefully it will have a little bit of everything!

I wish I could talk to my mom about this stuff, but we're not even going to go there today.