Culture, Story

Acton Academy’s Mission: Find a Calling, Change the World

Acton Academy’s Mission:

Each person who enters our doors will find a calling that will change the world.

What does it exactly mean? Why every person; not just the Eagles? What is a calling? Why change the world? Isn’t that too grandiose? Are there not callings that do not change the world?

I wanted to dive into all the questions. I had let it ferment. After two years of watching cartoons pondering, reflection & meditation while serving my calling in Acton Academy, here are my thoughts.

First, Perspective from the Founders

Laura & Jeff Sandefer started Acton Academy ten years ago (in 2009).  I always wondered why they chose this mission. Here’s Excerpt from Laura’s book Courage to Grow

…We knew the character traits we valued in each other—courage, curiosity, kindness, responsibility, and good humor. We knew our mission—that each person would find a calling and change the world…

There’s not much explanation. Except that it comes from a clear voice of confidence. It calls me to ponder further and find the courage to write this. So, let’s start.

Each person who

I found this surprising. It is not the Eagles (our young heroes). It is not our parent and Eagle. It is EACH PERSON*. This implies the owners, the Guides, the parents and all the supporting members of the learning community.

The staff of Acton Academy and the parents serve the Eagles (learning and growth). How does that happen? Honestly, I can only imagine one way—Leadership by example.

  • An Owner who started an Acton Academy for other purposes besides a deep calling will struggle to stay through the model. During the worse of times, the external influences will overcome his faith in Acton Academy’s vision.
  • A Guide who led Eagles not out of a deep love & calling will struggle to pay full attention to the studio’s energy. During the most chaotic times, the desire to keep order will overcome his faith of the Eagles and the studio systems.
  • A Parent who is not pursuing his calling will struggle to let their child listen to her inner voice. During troubled times, the anxiety of results will overcome his trust in Acton Academy’s process and philosophy.

Ultimately, these words are Acton Academy’s Quality Control :))

*Note that if you browse all the Acton Academy sites, there are different versions, such as each parent and child. But I love the original more.

Enters our doors (will)

There are many ways of entering our doors.

I invite you to enter our doors with fresh eyes, with an open mind, and with a trusting heart. Then, you can listen to the inspirations from your heart. That inspiration is the calling.

Find a Calling (that will)

What exactly is a Calling?

Here’s a version from Moana.

See the line where the sky meets the sea? It calls me
And no one knows, how far it goes
If the wind in my sail on the sea stays behind me
One day I’ll know
How far I’ll go

A Calling is a feeling that draws you…

It calls me.
It calls for my attention.
It calls for my sacrifice.

Listening to the call is the start of the Hero’s Journey—the Call to adventure.

Answering the Call is met with resistance. Hence, the next stage in the Hero’s Journey is the Refusal of the Call. It requires courage to take the next step, to enter into the unknown world.

Moana did just that. Her call (by the ocean) is to return the heart to Te Fiti. She voyaged out to the unknown world of open ocean.

There were dangers. There were doubts. There was fear. She persisted. She repeated the words: “I am Moana of Motunui. You will board my boat and restore the heart to Te Fiti.” more than a hundred times.

Callings evolve. For Moana, her call started from the spirit of the ocean. It did not stop there.

Listen to this song, carefully.

A calling is not an object.
A calling is not an ambition.
A calling is not a dream.
A calling is an inner voice. An inner voice that will show you the way, to be who you are meant to be.

Finding

Moana initially started with finding objects that call her. Is finding searching?

Finding is not searching.
Finding is not pursuing.
Finding is not creating.
Finding is listening to your inner voice, acting on it with faith.

Perhaps, you might not believe in all these Disney dramas and Pixar magic. So, I will present a more serious analysis.

Man Search for Meaning

I will start with Nietzche’s quote.

He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.

Now, hold this quote in your mind while I elaborate further.

In Viktor Frankl’s Man Search for Meaning, he found deep meaning through his experience in the Nazi camps and Auschwitz. It is crazy that despite the harsh conditions of death, cruel acts and the deep human tragedy, he could be at peace and make meaning with it. It is not unique to Viktor’s case, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn did and shared his accounts in The Gulag Archipelago.

In the second part of the book, Viktor investigated the idea of meaning in life. He put it that one could find life’s meaning in three objective ways:

  1. Action
  2. Relationships
  3. Suffering

The first two ways are common. Actions can be meaningful work, serving a cause or any other act of service. Relationships are straightforward too. They are both expressions of love.

The third way, suffering—that is a hard to imagine.

Viktor mentioned that there were saints even in the face of death and other major setbacks. There were, oddly, saints among the Nazis. They held their faith, held their conscious and ultimately, held their morals. They did not let the greed or fear in them get hold of their being. They made the very best out of the worse circumstances given. They were Invictus. They were one with Lord.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate,
I am the captain of my soul.

We still celebrate this deep tradition today, through religion and spirituality.

It is this capacity for courage that Optimus Prime most admired in the closing line of Transformers.

The Calling is Nietzche’s Why.

Finding a Calling is listening to your inner voice and knowing the why. It is the capacity for courage.

Change the World

When my team first started Acton Academy Kuala Lumpur, we found this phrase too grandiose, too bombastic or even too idealistic. Now, I see this is as the most trivial point in the quote.

What do you exactly mean by Changing the world?

One can make an argument that being a loving and responsible father is changing the world (or not), being a cleaner on the streets is changing the world (or not) or even stretch that argument that being a person who makes his bed is changing the world (or not).

Let me clarify an understanding of a changed world.

It is not a wish.
It is not a historical event.
It is not anything special.

It is just simply, a natural consequence.

A natural consequence for a soul who went on a Hero’s Journey of finding a calling, transforming himself, in which he lives to serve that calling. He becomes who he is meant to be. And that changes the world (whether he likes it or want it, or not).

It is figuring out the answer to Who Am I?

In Hollywood style, it is Po becoming the Dragon Warrior.

Kai: Who are you?
Po: I’ve been asking myself that question. Am I the son of a panda? The son of a goose? A student? A teacher? I’m all of those things. [Po’s chi forms the shape of a dragon around him]. Po: I am the Dragon Warrior! Get it?

A Call to Action

Silence. Ask yourself: Who Am I?
What did you hear from that silent voice inside? Just be.

On a lighter note, you can do four things here:

  1. Discover Acton Academy globally.
  2. If you are a parent or child based in KL, explore with us.
  3. Write to us.
  4. Or watch any of the three cartoons :))

 

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