Recently in Hope Category

How many times have you asked yourself about the goals you want to accomplish before you die? If not, why haven't you? Have you ever heard the quote "Carpe Diem" which means to seize the day. Or even enjoy being a kid while you can, because it goes by too fast. Well the Buried Life guys have, and according to them life moves fast, so we should slow down and enjoy it.

 

You might have met the Buried Life guys if you're a fan of any shows on MTV. It is likely that you have seen a trailer/shows for the TV show called The Buried Life. Meet Ben, Dave, Jonnie, Duncan, four guys who share the same ideas about life and the world around them.

These four guys were originally from the same town, and knew of each other; however it wasn't until 2006 when they discovered that they had the same goals and aspirations about their life, focusing on the question "What do you want to do before you die?" This question led to these four guys making a list of things they wanted to do before they died, starting out at 50 items. After making this first list, they set out on a journey to complete these tasks, and making a documentary of it. Along the way, they wanted to help others cross of things on their lists as well. On their first trip they were able to cross off 26 items on their list, and help 24 people. This led to the development of the list with 100 items on it, and the guys decided they did not want to put a quantity for the number of people they wanted to help, they just want to help as many people as they can. The Buried life eventually are going to making a film of their documentary of all of the 100 items they accomplish.

 

When talking about these guys, we have to go back to the basics of motivation which of course is goals. Their 100 item list is of course their goals. These goals come in a variety of skill level, some more difficult to achieve than others. Along with that, Ben, Dave, Jonnie, and Duncan all have high levels of the need for achievement. You can see this just by looking at how far they have come in achieving all of their goals. These guys first started out just talking about this journey in 2006, and its now 2010, and they have crossed off yet another item on their list "Making a badass TV show" with their show The Buried Life on MTV. Their ultimate goal consists of every item being checked off, and a documentary film to show it all. Along with their goals, they try to help others achieve a goal of theirs. With this, the Buried Life guys are gaining feedback from the people that they help. This feedback is obviously positive, and provides feelings of happiness, joy, and even feeling accomplished.

 

Although it appears that the Buried Life guys are just trying to complete a list just to be able to say they did those things, I think it is something a little more than that. Reeve (2009) talks about the six dimensions of psychological well-being, including self-acceptance, positive relations with others, autonomy, environmental mastery, purpose in life, and personal growth. By pursuing these six dimensions, individuals are ultimately defining your concept of self. The Buried Life Guys are continuously working on many of these dimensions. While helping others along their journey to complete their lists of things to do before they die, the Buried Life Guys are establishing positive relations with other people. Not only that, they are networking, and establishing connections which benefit not only themselves, but also the people that they would like to help. It is evident that these four guys also have high levels of autonomy because they have chosen to take on these goals, and to go to great lengths to achieve them despite if others don't believe that they can. Overall, through everything the Buried Life guys are accomplishing, or going to accomplish, they are building and figuring their purpose in life, and have high levels of personal growth.  I'm not sure if the Buried Life Guys would agree, but I would say it seems like their purpose in life is to help others. It seems like they received a lot of joy and happiness out of it, and it helps them grow as a person as well.

Ben, Dave, Jonnie, and Duncan have motivated other people to make their own lists of goals to do before they die. The Buried Life has even influenced a networking site called The Buried Life Network. If you're interested in watching their show on MTV or just learning more about the Buried Life visit these two websites. http://www.theburiedlife.com or http://www.mtv.com/shows/buried_life/episodes.jhtml.

 

As Ben, Dave, Jonnie and Duncan state, if they ever come to your town, you better be ready to answer the question "What do you want to do before you die?"

Hope

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I was curious about the last part of our assignment: how self-efficacy, mastery beliefs, and hope relate.

I just did a quick google search for "hope", 497 million search results later . . .

It kind of goes without saying that hope is an important thing to us.  We almost need it to survive.  There were links to definitions, support groups, poems, quotes, and lyrics.  But why is it so important to us?  It's because hope is a huge motivator for us.

According to Oscar Wilde, "What seems to us as bitter trials are often blessings in disguise."

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe thinks "In all things it is better to hope than to despair."

And George Weinberg said "Hope never abandons you; you abandon it."

Throughout history, people have been plagued with low self-efficacy.  At some point in time, we're all plagued with insecurities, doubts, and fear.  Hope is what pulls us through it.

In my personal experience, hope is used as a constant.  Something to trust and believe in.  When I need it, it's there. And though it, I'm able to find the reassurance and beliefe that I can perceiver and that I am in control.

Hope helps me change my efficacy and mastery beliefs and allows me to overcome "impossible" odds.



Is this how you use hope?  Can you find a place in your life that you constantly rely upon hope because you are not able to fully over come your doubts?

http://blogs.desmoinesregister.com/dmr/index.php/2010/03/11/hundreds-of-students-rally-lawmakers-save-our-schools/

This article is from the Des Moines Register and covers the rally of Des Moines area students at the state capitol on March 11th. The article states that roughly 500 students used their day off from school to hold a rally in support of funding education for the arts at the capitol. The students played as loud as they could in the middle of the building and to get the attention of state lawmakers. They demanded that they would not be overlooked, and they weren't. The goal was to persuade lawmakers to give arts education the same amount of money that it has used to grow over the past couple of years. Since the budget cuts are so large and affecting nearly every area of the state budget students, teachers, and parents are banning together to make sure they are not on the chopping block. If funding gets cut the cost for schools to continue educating the arts skyrockets to $70 million dollars annually. No school in the Des Moines area, or the state for that matter, can afford to keep the arts alive at that cost.

I thought the rally was actually really cool. Especially that the students would take their free day to protest, it really shows how important it is to them. What do you think?

Roger Ebert and his battle with cancer

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I recently watched a  clip of Roger Ebert on Oprah. If you are unaware, Roger Ebert lost his jaw to thyroid cancer four years ago. His appearance is quite shocking. He is unable to speak, eat, or drink anything because he is pretty much missing half his face. The interview is quite moving and the fact that Roger is still an influential film critic and giving interviews is pretty incredible. He speaks through a computerized voice simulator, much like Stephen Hawking. By his side through the whole ordeal was his wife Chaz. A very touching moment in the interview was when Oprah asked him what his last spoken words were, and he said he can't remember but he hopes that they were telling his wife he loved her. Chaz obviously loves him very much and she gets very emotional when, because of a new computer program Ebert is working on to have the computerized voice sound like his own, she starts crying and says how incredible it is to hear his voice. I think many people in Roger Ebert's position would feel very hopeless and probably depressed. To have no control over getting cancer and having your jaw removed would probably make many people have the tendency to think that everything else in their lives will go wrong, or at least never be the same. I think it was important that Roger have the love and support of his family to help him recover and be cancer-free, but I think it was also important to him that he could keep his autonomy and continue to live and work as normally as he could.
Check out the interview, it's pretty amazing!
http://www.mahalo.com/roger-ebert-oprah