Youth without a sense of purpose, will not have the proper attitude to assess academic opportunities, will lack resiliency skills needed to overcome personal setbacks, and will lack motivation needed to develop a roadmap for personal success.
According to Stanford University researcher William Damon, “only about one in five young people in the 12-22-year age range express a clear vision of where they want to go, what they want to accomplish in life, and why.” One young person in Dannon’s research sums up the attitude for many young people today, “apathy seems to have worked out well for me… if you don’t care, things don’t bother you. So far, just being lazy and letting the chips fall where they may has been all right.” Dannon concludes that without a sense of purpose, young people report “an inner life of anxiety and a sense of feeling trapped in a life that is not under their own control. They feel disappointed in themselves and discouraged by what life has offered them thus far. They despair at the emptiness and meaninglessness of daily activities.” Another underlying issue is the disconnect between inability to filter negative stimuli such as family problems, scholastic difficulties, economic challenges, etc. and pursuit of any type of long-term goals. Without tools to process negative stimuli, or a “lens” to filter out the negative, young people, by and large, will lack the resiliency skills needed to persevere despite the negative stimuli. Their ability to learn, internalize, and develop pro-social skills is hampered, despite the best efforts of well-meaning, valuable, and earnest social programs. While there have been a multitude of programs and initiatives, over the last 40 years,