{"id":13724,"date":"2017-04-12T13:03:54","date_gmt":"2017-04-12T13:03:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sparkvisionnow.com\/?p=13724"},"modified":"2017-04-12T13:03:54","modified_gmt":"2017-04-12T13:03:54","slug":"seeking-my-primary-motivation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sunneez.com\/sparkvision\/seeking-my-primary-motivation\/","title":{"rendered":"Seeking My Primary Motivation"},"content":{"rendered":"

I recently had the opportunity to see my middle school son perform in a production of the musical play, <\/span>The<\/span><\/i> Wizard of Oz<\/span><\/i>. \u00a0<\/span><\/h1>\n

One of the classic scenes from the movie and the play was when the witch turned the hourglass and told Dorothy that she only had the time that it took the sand to move from one end to the other to remain alive. My image of the hourglass is much more positive. \u00a0The visual image makes me think of having a large number of options or opportunities at two ends of a process but a focal point at the middle of the process. \u00a0One type of focal point is a pivot. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

My career has been full of pivots. Adjusting from undergraduate institutions to which I aspired to where I actually went. Changing majors. \u00a0Changing focus in my graduate studies. \u00a0Changing focus in my research relative to what I was trained to do. Changing from a focus on research to a focus on teaching. \u00a0Changing schools at the university at which I am employed. \u00a0Changing from primarily faculty to primarily administration. \u00a0I have tried a lot of things. Having made lots of attempts to determine what I like to do best reminds me of the wide top of an hourglass.<\/span><\/p>\n

For the past 18 months, I have worked with an amazing coach<\/span>. <\/span>She <\/span>asked me time and again to explore what really motivates me. Some of the times my answers were too long. She wanted me to aim for something pithy\u2014short and with clarity. Some of the times my answers were just too complex. Other times, I was giving answers that represented my next professional goal given to me by my supervisor or the school\u2019s next goal. Time and time again, my coach pressed me to get at what was truly <\/span>my<\/span><\/i> primary underlying motivation. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In our last formal meeting, I realized what my primary motivation was. Much to my surprise, after almost 21 years in higher education as a professional and nine years studying in higher education before that, my primary motivation is not about higher education. My primary motivation was rooted in an experience I had with a supervisor in which I was clearly brought along as a \u201csecond fiddle.\u201d \u00a0There were questions I could have answered throughout the meeting; sometimes at least as well as my supervisor. But the conversation was clearly between my supervisor and his supervisor. \u00a0While I received a compliment, I felt that I clearly did not need to be there. \u00a0I thought to myself at that time, \u201cI do not ever want to leave someone out.\u201d I realized looking back in my life, since my \u00a0late elementary school years, I would \u00a0\u201cnever leave anyone out.\u201d That phrase is representative of <\/span>my primary motivation: to nurture connections. <\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The discovery process is the narrow part of the hourglass. From all the material I have to work within the wide top of the hourglass, I have found that only a single and clear idea fits through the narrow opening.<\/span><\/p>\n

So, what does the wider base represent? I realized that higher education is a great industry in which to help people make connections. There are great opportunities to connect:<\/span><\/p>\n