5x35 and frankena

a friend, heidi, just posted a blog entry on some goals she's hoping to achieve by 35--5x35, she's calling it. reading her post, i found myself thinking back on my own life goals, so to say. in general, i'm not a list person. lists stress me out. (basically anything that requires any work stresses me out.) i'm happiest when i have lots of open time and headspace.

i thought this was a perfectly nice way to live until i got to wheaton college for my masters. my first semester there, i was in two really incredible classes--history of the care of souls & interpersonal development. in both those classes, we talked a lot about developing a "frankena" for our lives. To give you some context, Frankena was an educator who believed that all education should flow out of purpose. Now this is not the purpose-driven life sort of purpose (thank heavens). Instead, it was more like vision casting--figuring out who you are and what you're made to do. (In an educational context, you figured out what you hoped a class could be and do, what students could become.) According to Frankena, out of your purpose should flow your goals/aims, out of your aims, your program (aka what things you actually do.)

In History of the Care of Souls, our professor--an Anglican priest named Lyle Dorsett--talked a lot about only spending your time on the things that count. Now this guy was busy (his wife ran an orphanage, he was a priest and professor and CS Lewis scholar, writer and so on) but Dorsett turned down tons of offers to do or join other things. Anything that didn't fit into the purpose for his life. It was really strange to hear (since I basically had spent most of my life floating along from one thing to the next.) I guess this goes with the "good is often the enemy of the best" logic.

Well, I made a Frankena and I tried to stick to it. I won't give you the whole thing, but I do remember a few of my goals on there:
1. To not join anything for the sake of resume building or because "i should" (strange I know--but I have an awful compulsion to join all sorts of things I actually have no desire to do.)
2. To always invite people in (some of my friends, darrell and annette, say and do this--they are always inviting people to do life with them. and they care more about people than getting stuff done.)
3. To get outside (this keeps me human)
4. To spend my time on things that matter (easier said than done.)

I was glad to read Heidi's blog because I'm reminded to look back at that Frankena, which I'd forgotten/set aside for too long. As I'm starting new at almost everything--school, city, friends, state, job--I think it's a good time to comb back over.