Omid Karimi
The Significant Role of a Master
One day, as I was looking at some pictures in Hojat’s apartment in Tehran, an attractive black and white drawing caught my attention. I asked him some questions about the work, and he talked about a famous master behind the work. He also told me that his name is Mohammad Ibrahim Jafari and gave this work to me as a gift .Later that day, I asked him how a wise and competent master can assist you to be a creative and a successful artist:
“A wise and competent master can assist you to be a creative and successful artist and an incompetent master can deliberately or inattentively mislead you and stifle your creativity. The same is true for a friend, so I have always tried to have good friends, those who are more competent or cultivated than me.
At the same time, there is another significant point in this reciprocal relation between the person and his master, friend or the environment, and that is the readiness of the individual to learn, to change and to make use of the opportunities at hand. For example, in calligraphy, I was practicing a piece of calligraphy by Mir Emad, and I asked myself why it is so difficult for me.
Although I was practicing it with painstaking attention to details, it did not work. After a time, I met a master in calligraphy in Isfahan named Karimi who was known as the living encyclopedia of calligraphy. I told him the story and he looked at me and my works and said” the problem is with your reed pen and he cut a new one for me. This is only one example of how a good master can have a lasting effect on the quality of your work. An exact and timely advice by an experienced and knowledgeable master can save you a lot of time and energy.
The Danger of Complacency
During a summer day in Azna, I visited Hojat in his studio. He was working as usual and I asked him whether he has experienced a feeling of complacency and how important it is to remain energetic, curious and creative:
Some people have more aspirations; they are not satisfied with the present situation. As Nietzsche says “I like people who are not complacent with themselves” they do their best to achieve more and ordinary things like having a job, a house or money cannot please them. As for me, there is no end in searching and seeking new goals. Great people are travelers in rowboat moving through water facing new challenges along the way, and they rarely use the word “finish”. Sometimes the obstacles along the way give them clues to change their way and pursue a different or more important purpose, and sometimes they consciously go against the flow to try new ways of doing things.
The Right to Choose
As it was mentioned earlier, Hojat’s family, at first, wavered between letting him go to the University of Art and making him choose a different path. However, finally, they allowed him to follow his own dream. During our discussion on the right to choose, Hojat stressed this with the following words:
Considering the arts and education, it is important to know that, we can’t expect students to be mimics and parents and teachers should give students the right to choose and encourage them to break the mold and even go further and be an iconoclast.
There is a side benefit in this and that is, when you let people choose something, they themselves have to accept the consequences of their choice. In contrast, when you force them to do something, you have to accept the consequences, and if they do not succeed, people will always blame you.
Furthermore, you cannot give people choices as a teacher, a coach or a guide unless you know the choices, the alternative ways and you consider things and situation from different perspectives. A biased person who believes only in one thing and looks at world from one perspective cannot be a good guide.
Discussion
This study sought to consider purpose from the point of view of a purpose- seeker himself. The findings of this study are important because they are based on ideas of a resourceful person who was resolute to study Visual Arts at a university. In spite of lack resources in the environment he lives and family reluctance to let him study the visual arts, he was brave enough to follow his dream.
The present research differs from some of the studies on purpose. These studies (Kashdan & McKnight, 2009) in general, have focused on global self-report questionnaires and definitions of purpose. Whereas, in this study, the ideas and attitudes of a purposeful artist have been discussed through an interview to learn more about such a ‘philosophical issue’.
Research findings confirm the significance of the issues discussed in this study. The interviewee stressed the importance of self–reflection and discovering one’s true self. Reflection and thinking are important stepping stones for achieving one’s purpose and this has been emphasized in other studies. The ability to think critically is an important trait of all members of society. That is, learning begins with metacognition, knowing one’s own thoughts and reflection, which allows the individual to identify the factors that influence one’s own thinking (Colley, Bilics, &Lerch, 2012). Similarly, Killon&Todnew (1991) believe that we undertake reflection, not so much to revisit the past but to guide future action.”
Self-transcendence was very important for the interviewee and he believes that it is inherent in the arts. The artist creates something to share with an audience, to make people aware of something or to make them reflect on an important issue. Self-transcendence is part of the sources of meaning that makes life worth living (Wong, 1998). Similarly, Erikson (1963, Cited in Wong, 2012) suggested that it is necessary for young people to identify with values that have transcendence, that is, they go beyond the family and self. Hope and optimism were significant topics in this study and research findings have confirmed their impact on achieving one’s purpose. Snyder (2002) defines hope as the perceived capability to derive pathways to desired goals, and motivate oneself via agency thinking to use those pathways. In addition, he believes that high-hope people are flexible thinkers and they can find alternative routes more easily. Similarly, Wrosch and Scheier (2003) argue that, optimists in comparison with pessimists probably persist more in their pursuit of goals when confronted with challenging situations. Thus, great people make critical decisions and devote themselves to the cause they choose. In addition, Snyder (2002) believes that people with high hope often imagine multiple routes. These alternate routes become crucial when an individual encounters barriers to their goals.
That purpose is an endless journey was a central subject of this study. According to Gordon (2008), the pursuit is endless and you can’t cut corners. The purpose seeker’s journey is always evolving and unfolding into new chapters and directions. In a similar vein, Kashdan&McKnight (2009) state that as a life aim, purpose cannot be achieved. Instead, there are continual targets for efforts to be devoted.
Persistence was another major topic in this study which played a key role in the interviewee’s success. New research is revealing more on the importance of grit and persistence. For example, the results of a research conducted by Duckworth, Peterson, Matthews and Kelly (2007) showed that perseverance is at least as important as intelligence and in order to achieve difficult goals not only talent but also the sustained and focused application of talent over time is very critical.
The significant role of a good master was another major issue discussed with Hojat .The interviewee emphasized that it is very important to learn from a competent master:
Wong (2012) noted that the development of meaning and wisdom depends on a number of factors, among them the presence of mentors, tutors, and nurturing adults, who provide personal valuations and support for dealing with ontological anxiety.
Research, for example, Self-Determination Theory (SDT) Deci& Ryan (2000) confirms the importance of giving people choices to choose from. According to SDT, in order to understand human motivation three psychological needs including competence, relatedness and autonomy are imperative. Autonomy refers to the desire to self-organize experience and behavior and to be engaged in activities which are in agreement with one’s integrated sense of self. Also, autonomy concerns the experience of integration and freedom, and it is a necessary dimension of healthy human functioning (Deci & Ryan, 2000). Motivational strategies such as rewards or coercion are counterproductive and they undermine autonomy. In contrast, giving choice to individuals provides satisfaction of the need for autonomy leads to more positive outcomes (Deci & Ryan, 2000).
Limitations and implications for future research
First of all, any depiction of people’s lives is the result of our own autobiographical interpretation, the product of our vocabulary and our skill with words, the outcome of our concern to use the lives to support a particular argument or theorizing and so on(Ary, Cheser Jacobs, Sorensen&Walker, 2014). Secondly, although these findings are important with regard to purpose development, the data from one group or in one situation may have limited validity for other groups and other settings. Therefore, it is often necessary to conduct several studies in an area before attempting to formulate generalization. (Ary& et al, 2014). The same is true for this study. Further research is needed to learn more about the inner world of purposeful people before generalizing the results. Additionally, since the first language of participants was Persian, interviews were conducted in Persian and then translated into English.
The study has implications for individuals who are going to fulfill their purposes. The study shows that selecting a purpose is one thing and persisting to achieve that is another thing. Despite obstacles and lack of resources, an individual can still have a purpose and be determined enough to fulfill it. In addition, one learns that purpose is a multifaceted subject related to critical issues such as self-reflection and persistence.
This study also has implications for educational centers. This can be achieved, first, by introducing the concept of purpose to students, especially to adolescents, because adolescence is a very constructive period that is suitable for self-reflection and then by retelling the stories of purpose seekers themselves. Through analyzing the stories of such people, students can learn about the how and why of their purposes, steps they have taken and challenges they have faced during their journey of purpose development. It is believed that purposes like values do not have necessary terminal outcomes. For some people, success means striving and not necessarily achieving. Thus, one subject that remains to be explored is whether purpose should be considered as a result-oriented or endeavor-oriented subject.
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