Last year of High School - complete focus on school or riskily on my Life Purpose?

[LoveandPurpose]

Hello everyone!

I'm currently in my last year of school here in Germany (equal to high school) and I got 6 months left. 

I thought about studying Psychology, but I'm more interested in other areas of Psychology that aren't taught in university, e.g. transpersonal psychology and positive psychology, so I'm probably not going to university. That means I probably won't need that degree which I'm working towards right now.

After this school year I'm going to take a year off to find my Life Purpose, travel, work and educate myself. I have the idea in my mind of being a therapeut, helping people in a transpersonal/spiritual way.

 

My question is:

How much time and energy should I put into those last 6 months? Should I carry through and strive for the best grades to have a safety net, because maybe I will need it, although it is very unlikely, even if I'm going to university because grades don't matter to be accepted. 

Or should I already search for my Life Purpose and save time. Time also to educate myself in different ways than school. This would mean that my grades will be good or in the worst case okay, but not great.

 

Safety or risk? Or maybe both, a balance? What do you think? Thank you in advance!

[Sahil Pandit]

@LoveandPurpose Stay focused, keep your priorities straight, don't let distractions creep in and pull you off your path. You're in a great spot, and it seems you have great self awareness.

[exhale]

@LoveandPurpose Great question.  You are young, and you have 6 months left.  Focus on the last 6 months, and get good grades.  Then figure out what the next step it.  Be patient.

Don't let this cohort on actualized.org completely dissuade you to following an academic/traditional training path.  Not saying it is, or isn't the right thing to do.  I would likely agree that most "typical" psychology programs may not resonate with you.  Consider researching some individuals in academia that share some of your professional interests, and consider studying under them. 

This is my opinion: 

- If I were seeking out an individual to help me with positive/transpersonal psychology,  I would be much more likely to pay an individual with some sort of professional accreditation (bachelor, masters, ph.d in psychology) that created a niche for themselves in positive/transpersonal psychology than someone that pursued self-study.  Of course, this is not a rule, and there would be numerous exceptions to this.  It will offer credibility to those you want to help.  

Here is a metaphor: 

- I would love my kid's teacher to be one that "thinks outside of the box", and challenges their kids with creative, innovative, and counterintuitive methods.  Nevertheless, I still want them to hand a fundamental training background in education.  

Best of luck L&P

[Cocolove]

I'm in a similar situation and working on finding my life purpose on the weekends, while spending the week on academics. I recommend balance, don't give up your safety net unless you have a plan or know your life purpose

[universe]

Why not both?

How is your relationship with your parents. What are your living conditions?

If you plan to live at home first after school would it be better to have finished "abitur" so that your parents dont make your life difficult and give you some space?

If you are really serious about your life purpose you can easily finish school while also starting to experiment with some stuff or read psychology books in your free time. See it like this: If you manage to pull that off, how great will it be when you actually can allocate more time into your life purpose?

[Equanimitize]

6 hours ago, LoveandPurpose said:

How much time and energy should I put into those last 6 months? Should I carry through and strive for the best grades to have a safety net, because maybe I will need it, although it is very unlikely, even if I'm going to university because grades don't matter to be accepted. 

100% all your time and energy into it, self actualization is not a part time job. Do good work for good works sake, learn to harness your discipline, presence, develop relationship skills, grow, and learn. Self actualization doesn't care where you are at in life-work needs to get done. To encapsulate what I am saying is that Life Purpose/Self Actualization is not a part-time job it's something that you do in life, it's the constant turning the wrench on oneself in order to evolve. This is not an either/or thing-life in of itself is a journey to be experienced and to be learned through direct experience. 

 

6 hours ago, LoveandPurpose said:

Or should I already search for my Life Purpose and save time. Time also to educate myself in different ways than school. This would mean that my grades will be good or in the worst case okay, but not great.

Why can't you get good grades and also educate yourself? Why so much dichotomy? The Janitor in your school can probably teach you about a specific subject from his own experience and give you a doctoral dissertation on how, what, why something works. Why not go Meta and use school as a mechanism on how to learn how to learn. Life will give you opportunities it's just about realizing that everything is already right in front of you to be learned. Take the Life Purpose Course and learn and experience and develop and evolve-everything is intertwined anyway.

[LoveandPurpose]

@Leo Gura I'm still stuck at this question and because I highly value your viewpoint, an answer from you, Leo, would help me so much.

Thank you in advance!

[Nathan99]

I took a year off from high school when I graduated school in 2017, and I learned so much in that time. You are very lucky to have found actualized.org and the truths that are pointed to in his videos while still in high school. In my opinion you could probably do either, go to college or take a year off, either would greatly benefit you. Just remember your true purpose and structure your life around it. If college would help you do that, many find that going to college right after high school keeps you in the academic mindset required to do well. However the experience of taking a year off would much better prepare you for the real world, as college is practically a bubble and nothing can prepare you for life other than life itself.

[LoveandPurpose]

@Shiva So full focus on school and then in my gap year finding my Life Purpose?

[Manjushri]

I had the same dilemma, one year older than you.  I enrolled in Psychology, despite "fuck academia". It's not mutually exclusive! Yes you'll have less time but still as a student you have shittons if you organize your time right. I think everybody should experience the beauty of student life. No need for gap years... The vacation between HS and Uni is big enough.

[LoveandPurpose]

@Gligorije What do you want to do after college?