Engage with your seminar professor and colleagues on the topic of reading using the following prompt to begin the discussion:
Seeking the Sweet Spot
In chapter 8 of Younique, Will Mancini uses the analogy of target shooting to illustrate a key principle in hitting life’s target which is to “aim small, miss small” (Younique, 94). In the forum this week and next, you will work toward completing your Younique Sweet Spot Summary. You have received much information about yourself from the CliftonStrengths, Basden-Johnson, Myers-Briggs, and possibly other inventories which you have taken. You may be on information overload at this point. If you want to hit your sweet spot in life, you must first find and focus on it amidst a large and somewhat overwhelming sea of information. Mancini proposes, “So how do we take a lot of good things and transform them into your One Thing? . . . Technically, it’s the process of finding meaningful synthesis to achieve a profound simplicity. . . . we’re talking about taking all of the parts, perspectives, and pieces and building it into one thing, one idea. . . . Now, we must build them into a unified idea of your unique productive self” (Younique, 94-95).
Mancini describes his Sweet Spot Master Tool as a means of synthesizing the information about your identity into “. . . your One Thing—can be expressed in three different, complementary ways” (Younique, 98). This week, we will focus on two of the three ways that Mancini proposes to express your sweet spot in life.
We will take this week and next week to do the important work of sorting through and interpreting what you have learned in order to identify your sweet spot, your one thing. Once you have a clear interpretation of your identity, you will be ready to build the second pillar of the identity bridge, the pillar of Inscription (cf. Younique, 40-43). Once your identity bridge is firmly in place, you will be ready to cross it to the process of implementation and planning for your future. So, this week, let’s focus on just two of the three elements of your Younique Sweet Spot, your Signature Scripture and your Big Sentence. Using the information in your reading this week and the results of your inventories, follow the process outlined by Mancini to identify your Signature Scripture and to write your Big Sentence (Younique, 98-99).
First, identify your Signature Scripture as you “. . . ‘feel’ your way to the truth” about your one thing” (Younique, 98). As you feel comfortable, please share your Signature Scripture in the forum and give some supporting details and context that led you to this particular scripture. Why is it the one text that “. . . should be preached at your funeral to encapsulate all you are?” (Younique, 98)
Second, identify your Big Sentence as you “. . . ‘think’ your way . . .” to your one thing (Younique, 98). Your Big Sentence will contain a summary of your passion, ability, and context. Your reading in Younique this week plus the information that you have from your inventories will allow you to identity the items on the twelve-point list that describes “. . . the high-fidelity grooves God has etched into your life” (Younique, 99). As you feel comfortable, please share your Big Sentence in the forum and describe a time in your life when you felt the joy of living out your Big Sentence. When was a time when “. . . your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger” coincided? (Younique, 99; Mancini quoting the words of Frederick Buechner).
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