For Purpose And Focus, Turn To The ‘Greater’ Good

By Dr. Heather Bozant Witcher, Young Adults

Burnout is real. And it doesn’t just happen at the end of a semester or during senior year.

“But didn’t you just start the semester?” Yes, and you might think that students and teachers return reinvigorated.

As a teacher, I hope my students come back recharged and ready to go, but that isn’t always the case.

And in my case – it certainly isn’t. This year’s “break” was hardly a break at all. Certainly, there was time away from the daily routine of the classroom – the lesson prep, the back and forth of classroom dialogue, the grading. But, as I’ve learned, there’s no “break” with twin infants.

So when I entered the classroom this semester, I was doubly aware of the contradiction inherent in the idea of a break.

Just because one aspect of our lives takes a hiatus, it doesn’t mean that other aspects have gotten the memo: life goes on and sometimes it simply isn’t possible to take a true break.

As I listened to my students chatter among themselves, I realized – in this new public university environment with a large pool of students with full-time jobs – that they, too, had had a similar experience. They, too, were starting the semester burned out. And the risk was a loss not only of interest but of passion.

In that first week, I spent a lot of time thinking about this problem.

It’s difficult enough to garner interest in a subject that students are required to take – and it seemed like a Herculean effort to get them invested in something when they were already starting without a sense of passion. There was no fire: not for my class, or – at least from my outside perspective – anything academically minded.

What was I to do?

I returned to my roots: my undergraduate and graduate studies were both undertaken at Jesuit institutions.

I returned to magis, to “the greater.” In Ignatian spirituality, it means to do more, to be greater, for God. It’s a willingness to be open to change, and willingness to dig deeper into something.

It’s having plans and dreams – and living those dreams with a concrete focus, directed toward a deeper relationship with God.

In a public institution, I can’t be certain of the spiritual mindset of my students. But I can take that focus on reflection and discernment and ask not only my students but myself to be more generous in response to our sense of purpose.

To take charge of our own sense of discernment: to seek the magis, to seek a willingness to do more and be something greater.

By espousing Ignatian spirituality and seeking magis, we can overcome burnout. We can reignite our passion by redefining and refocusing our lives toward a larger sense of purpose rather than self-fulfillment or success.

For me, in particular, I’ve realized the centrality of embracing change: of redirecting my focus from individual success to motherhood. I’ve learned to accept that our magis is meant to change, to adapt to where we are at each stage of our life.

In living our lives with a greater sense of meaning and devoting ourselves to the fulfillment of the individual that God created us to be, we are given the passion and energy to succeed.

Dr. Heather Bozant Witcher can be reached at [email protected].