This Ignatian Life

I was recently proctoring the ACT college entrance exam to New York City public school  juniors and seniors in a small, white-walled room with no windows (thanks to construction going on around the building’s perimeter that meant all four windows were encased in a bubble-wrap-like material.) The desks were in single file roles exactly 5’ apart from one another in all directions and students sat quiet, stiff and seemingly dead to the world     listening to me drone on with the nittiest of the griddiest directions.

While 19 students were supposed to be lined up at the door at 7:30 am on a Saturday to show admissions offices just what they are made of, only 4 not-so-eager troopers actually pulled through and were sitting in front of me. Hour one rolled into hour two and two into three, four—calculators, sharpened pencils, 5 minute warnings, tissue distribution, and a whole lot of silence, unspoken tiredness and staring at the wall. And on the wall…

The only decoration in the entire testing room was a series of 7 posters entitled “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens.” Each poster detailed in words and in illustrations what a teen must do in order to be successful, exceptional, presumably thriving and triumphant. Not allowed to do anything but stand and stare at the environment around me, I spent a lot of time thinking about these 7 keys to success and how they might relate to not just college-bound teenagers, but Catholics as well who are trying to be “highly effective.”

Sean Covey and his dad, Stephen Covey, coined the phrase “7 Habits of Highly Effective (insert age level here)” and the posters that surrounded me and the 4 test-takers included:

1) Be Proactive
2) Start with the End in Mind
3) Put First Things First
4) Think Win-Win
5) Seek First to Understand then to be Understood
6) Synergize
7) Sharpen the Saw

The habits are not mandates, or rules, or Commandments, but instead recommendations for attitudinal and behavioral modifications that will lead to success. I’ll admit, at first, I thought the list was overwhelmingly uncomplicated. “Be Proactive” by showing up to your ACT test on time, “Start with the End in Mind” by realizing that you need a good score on the test in order to get into college and you should therefore, put “First Things First” and pick your sleepy head off your desk and actively engage in the test in front of you. However, when I began making the analogy to “Highly Effective Catholics” this seemingly uncomplicated list got a little more convoluted and complex.

Q. As a successful Catholic, how do we ensure that we are being “Proactive?” A. Daily prayer, weekly mass, creating opportunities to engage in our faith—doing service, talking with others. And another question…Q. What is “The End in Mind” that we, as Catholics, are starting with? A. The Kingdom! As I started going down the list, with the analogy in my head, I developed more sympathy for the 15 no-shows. How often do I, as a Catholic, lack in my “Proactiveness” or in my ability to “Seek First to Understand Then to be Understood?” Let’s just say that too often, I find myself demanding things of God rather than patiently listening for his words or not showing up for that daily moment of prayer like the students missing from my ACT room. Perhaps we have more in common than my original highly judgmental impression of their absence suggested.

As the final minutes ticked by on the official ACT clock, I realized just how hard it was going to be to “eat my words” and my “judgments,” leaving the room with the intention of becoming a “More Highly Effective Catholic.” First things first—now I’ve written down my analogy and am off to discover in what other ways I can be more effective, as a person of faith.

Photo: “Proactive” by “Jonathan Assink” from Flickr (Used under Creative Commons license)

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