Running Head: MISSION PAPER

My Personal Mission Paper

Andrew Daywalt
The Adult Learner LAS301-04
February 18, 2014

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My Personal Mission Paper

Every so often someone poses the question to me what is your goal in life? and
honestly it's something I've always avoided. I don't like to think too far down the line and I really
have a hard time seeing much further than my career goals. One of my biggest passions growing
up as been video games. I know I want to work in that industry and just a couple of years ago, I
decided that I want to work in video game public relations (PR). The bigger question of my life
goal, or my personal mission, is a lot harder for me, mainly because it isn't something that I think
of often. I know that I want a family when I'm older and I know that I want to own a house, but
those are just plans, and plans change. As a person though, I want to be the best that I can at
being a good and honest person. During my late high school and early college years, I started to
look deeper at the kind of person I am and what I can do to better myself. Throughout this
course, much of the material has helped me to further my progress, whether it's something that
I've already read, like Tuesdays with Morrie, or something entirely new, like Tony Robbins. I
want to be the best person that I can, now and in 50 years from now. Regardless of where I live
and what I'm doing for a living, I want to be trustworthy, understanding, kind and a good listener
and fail or succeed; I'll always aim for that as my goal.
One piece of class material that really made me question what doing the right thing is,
was the Sandel lectures. There are so many rules of society and general morals that we just come
to accept, but we never question their worth or effectiveness until we are faced with what we
might consider to be an impossible situation. One philosopher that really interested me in the
lecture was Jeremy Bentham, who founded the concept of utilitarianism. The idea seems sound
and can be applied to a number of situations, but pure utilitarianism seems very in-human.
Sandel mentioned that the philosopher John Stuart Mill attempted to humanize utilitarianism by

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assigning different worth to different pleasures, but I actually think that creating objective
concepts for high art is counter to his goal. I personally think that utilitarianism is a good basis
for morality, but it isn't perfect. I find flaws in some extreme cases because, by default, personal
need and personal rights become obsolete on an individual scale when compared to the larger
picture. For example, if I divided my life savings among four strangers, it would be providing
pleasure to a greater number of people and, by pure utilitarianism, would be the morally best
thing to do. Moving forward in life, I want to keep two things in mind, looking out for others and
looking out for myself. Even looking back on the Tony Robbins video, I've learned that we need
to take care of our own emotional and spiritual needs before we can fulfill the final need of
extending beyond ourselves and onto others (WGBH Boston, 2009).
One of our earliest assignments in this class was the marshmallow eater or saver question.
Regardless of what I said in my original response to the marshmallow question, I find that I'm a
marshmallow saver. I believe it's a good test of discipline and really shows the ability to
prioritize wants over needs and the rewards that can come of it. I also like taking the situation to
the next level though. I like to imagine that there is an opportunity to continue to wait and for
every hour, I get another marshmallow and that process never ends until you eat one. The
question is, when do you stop? I like the idea of saving, but I also have a problem with extracting
more out of something than I feel right about, especially if it's something free coming from
someone else. Plus, on top of that, I don't think the reward is worth much if you can't do anything
with it! (Igniter Media, 2009).
The Tony Robbins video really helped me put my ideas into perspective. One thing I
really liked about the video is that most of the information he covers are things that most of us
already know about. Our motivations, our targets, how our emotions change and affect us, but he

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combines and presents these ideas in ways that I don't think many people view the world in. I've
always understood that emotion is a huge personal factor for us humans. I learned that our
emotions not only have long-term effect, but that the emotional influences on our decisions is
outward reaching in such an unpredictable way. This leads to his talk about certainty and
uncertainty. I always viewed certainty as a quality of confidence, but now I almost see the two as
unrelated. Our uncertainty gives us the openness to the variety and surprises that the world
throws at us, whether they are good or bad. I know that you can't let uncertainty control your life,
but if you embrace it, you can ride it out instead of letting it take the wheel. This has been a huge
part of my struggle in my life goal. Emotions are important to being genuine about one's actions
and intentions, but letting them rule action is harmful to showing understanding and kindness
(TED, 2006).
As someone who is only in their early 20s, I can't really directly relate to something like
the article Middle-aged? Believe it or not, you've never been brainier, however the information in
the article is something that will affect me as I get older. Interestingly enough, I haven't every
really been concerned with how my age might change how I think, neither in a negative nor a
positive way. The information in this article actually makes a lot of sense, considering how
neural paths are formed in the human brain and how they develop. Over time, the activities that
you become stronger in, or perform more often, develop stronger neural connections in the brain,
making common tasks easier, faster and less work for your brain. As you age, these connections
become stronger, making your personal essential functions more prominent than others (Strauch,
2011).
Earlier in the semester, I wrote a paper about adult education in which I talked about how
we learn through the connections we make with past experiences, and how this affects how we

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learn as we get older. As an adult, people learn best through direct application to what they
already know, or what they have already experienced in life. Moving forward in my life, I want
to keep this concept in mind when learning new things, as well as when I want to teach others
what I know because this information can be just as important when teaching both adults and
children. I also feel that this applies to learning about emotions. My life goal requires a strong
grasp on emotions in order for it to be truly successful, and when it comes to learning about
human emotions, its best done through time and experience (Stein, 1998).
The procrastination article that we read earlier in the class is something I can really relate
to. In fact, I've even procrastinated a little bit with this paper! It's something that I really want to
work on and I think I've come a very long way in the last few years and my grades show it. In
high school, I put off doing my homework often, usually resulting in just making it by in each of
my classes. Unfortunately that wasn't much of a wakeup call, as my grades continued to decline
in my first year of college. It wasn't until I received an academic warning that I realized how big
of a mistake I was making and no matter how tempting it might be to put off my priorities, they
are necessary. I plan to improve this as I move forward in life. So far it's earned me some of the
best grades I've ever achieved, including my first two 4.0 semesters last year (Overcoming
Procrastination, 2011).
If there's piece of material I learned anything from in this course, it would have to be
Tuesday's with Morrie. The first time I read this book, I was probably about 12 years old or so
and it was assigned to me as a reading project in one of my English classes at the time. When we
discussed the book after reading it, my teacher told the class read this book in a few years, and
then a few years after that. This book has meaning for every stage of your life. At the time, I
didn't really get what she was saying. I had read the book and understood what it was about, so I

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couldn't possibly learn more from a book that I've already read. Now, 10 years later, I understand
what my teacher was telling us. The life lessons I've learned from this book speak differently to
everyone, and so they speak differently to me today than they did all those years ago. Hopefully
recognizing this now will help me not to forget later in life. I don't want to get wrapped up in my
life without actually living it, or as Morrie said So many people walk around with a
meaningless life...This is because they are chasing the wrong things...devote yourself to creating
something that gives you purpose and meaning (page 43, Albom, 2007).
In another 10 years, I hope to remember these lessons and I will make certain to read
Tuesdays with Morrie again. The two lessons that I've loved the most were that of trust and of
letting things go. Sometimes you cannot believe what you see, you have to believe what you
feel (page 61, Albom, 2007) is a powerful quote for me. I have a hard time with trust for some
reason, so this subject really speaks to me. Trust isn't always about what you can see; sometimes
you have to go with your feelings an take a leap of faith. If you hold back on the emotions-if
you don't allow yourself to go all the way through them-you can never get to being detached
(page 104, Albom, 2007). Letting go is also something I struggle with. I personally find that I am
quite strong when it comes to forgiveness, but when it comes to loss, or mistakes that I make, I
struggle quite a lot. Morrie's lesson for detachment has allowed me to more easily forgive myself
and to fully see all of my problems through. Finally, my favorite lesson in the book is that of age
and accepting it, the issue is to accept who you are and to revel in that (page 120, Albom,
2007). This is one of the few lessons that I've carried with me since first reading this book. Age
is one thing that so many people like to worry about, whether you wish you were older, wish you
were younger or wish that you would stay your current age forever. Death has such a big
influence over our culture. As humans, we are all going to die and we all know that, but so few

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people actually accept that fact. I'm still young, so I might not be in the right position to talk
about this, but I do feel that it's important to revel in your current position in life because if you
don't, and you're too busy thinking about another time, you'll miss it.
Overall, I must say that this course has brought me a lot closer to reaching my own
personal mission in life, no matter how simple or generic mine might be. When I started thinking
about my personal goal, its simplicity actually started to worry me, making me wonder if it was
enough, or if it was too simple. Now, after completing this course, I have to say it is the
completely opposite. Being the right kind of person, regardless of how naturally it might come to
some people, is not a simple task. It requires a lot of personal discipline, insight on the goals and
intentions of other people, as well as a broad and far reaching outlook on everything around you.
I am pretty young right now, and who knows, maybe I'll look back on this in 30 years and
wonder what the heck I was thinking when I wrote this, but I believe my goal will always be the
same, regardless of how I look at it, or how I think I will ultimately reach it.

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Reference:

WGBH Boston. (2009). Episode 1: The Moral Side of Murder. Whats the Right Thing to do?
Retrieved from http://www.justiceharvard.org/2011/03/episode-01/#watch
WGBH Boston. (2009). Episode 2: Putting a Price Tag on Life. Whats the Right Thing to do?
Retrieved from http://www.justiceharvard.org/2011/02/episode-two/#watch
Igniter Media. (2009). The Marshmallow Test. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=QX_oy9614HQ
TED Ideas Worth Spreading. (2006). Tony Robbins: Why we do what we do. Retrieved from
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/tony_robbins_asks_why_we_do_what_we_do.html
Strauch, B. (2011, March 22). Middle Aged? Believe it or not, youve never been brainier. Daily
Mail. Retrieved from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1368579/Middle-agedBelieve-youve-brainier.html
Stein, D. (1998). Situated learning in adult education. ERIC Digest, No. 195. Retrieved from
http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED418250.pdf
Overcoming Procrastination. (2011). Retrieved from
http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newHTE_96.htm
Albom, M. 2007 Tuesdays With Morrie, New York, NY, Broadway Books