Last week in class we did an exercise to help us figure out what our core values were as people. We started out with a list of 18 values with room to write in 2 more if we wanted, and were told to select the ones that were important to us.
What started out as a list including peace, happiness, friendship, authenticity, integrity, joy, love, family, truth, and wisdom, was soon whittled down through a series of cuts to simply family and integrity.
Family and Integrity are my 2 core values. The values I whittled away at are no less important, but these are the two that I simply could not live without. My family is my world. Always has been, always will be. They are the ones who have guided me, shaped me and let me grow into who I am today. They were there when others were not and I consider them my biggest support system. As I grow older, they will always remain a very large part of who I am, and my future family will hopefully be just as close as we are.
When it came to integrity, this was something that was important to me as well, because I've always lived my life by doing the moral and ethical thing. It hasn't always been popular, but I was able to live with that knowing that I was doing the right thing. I've always fought/stood up for the underdog, the unspoken or the underrepresented. I strongly feel that if you live your life with integrity, you will have lived a very full life. It may not be an easy one, but it will be full.
And so when I finally got down to these two values, I realized that in fact these are the two most important things in my life, and they have greatly influenced the way I've lived my life, and I'm sure they will continue to do so.
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
My Foundational “Nuggets” - Reflection on Wk. 1
I’ve had an opportunity to take away a lot of ideas from my first week in the IAL program. I’m going to call them my foundational nuggets; the ideas and concepts that I want to take away from this week that I hope will continue to help me grow over the next year in this program.
The first nugget comes from the quote, “While no single conversation is guaranteed to change the trajectory of a career, a company, a relationship or a life – any single conversation can.” For me this was a very strong reminder that you never know which of the conversations you’re having is going to be the one that greatly impacts your life or the lives of those you’re speaking with. The key to remember about it is that it doesn’t have to be the most demanding topic of discussion to have an impact. It could be an impressive, formal conversation about the research you completed last year, or it could be discovering a shared affinity for hiking the Green Mountains in Vermont. The fact that you don’t know which of these conversations is going to be the one that might get you in the door reinforces the concept of being present in each conversation you have so that you can make an impression in either situation that will enrich your relationship with your conversation partner and potentially change your life. I plan to take this concept with me into every conversation I have while I complete this program. By entering each conversation with the idea that it could be the one that changes my life, I will remember to stay engaged in each one and make the most of the relationships they form.
My second nugget is based in the concept of “Smart + Heart.” You could be the most intelligent person in your organization, but if you don’t have the interpersonal skills to form relationships with the people you work with you will not go very far. It links back to the golden rule we were all taught when we were younger: “Treat others the way you want to be treated.” In this instance it gets changed just slightly to the concept of interacting with people the way you want to be interacted with. For me this was another great reminder that regardless of how good you are at what you do or how smart you are, without other people there to help you, you will not be nearly as successful as you could be if you had them there to stand beside you. I’ve heard many employers say they would rather hire someone with a 3.5 who’s got a great personality, than a jerk with a 4.0. I plan to take this with me into every interaction I have because if you interact with people in a way that gains trust and challenges them in a good way, you also gain loyalty which is always a great thing to have in an industry as small as the one we’ve chosen to work in.
These two concepts are great guiding principles for the way you act and react not only in the business world, but also in life in general and I plan to use them frequently as I progress through this program.
The first nugget comes from the quote, “While no single conversation is guaranteed to change the trajectory of a career, a company, a relationship or a life – any single conversation can.” For me this was a very strong reminder that you never know which of the conversations you’re having is going to be the one that greatly impacts your life or the lives of those you’re speaking with. The key to remember about it is that it doesn’t have to be the most demanding topic of discussion to have an impact. It could be an impressive, formal conversation about the research you completed last year, or it could be discovering a shared affinity for hiking the Green Mountains in Vermont. The fact that you don’t know which of these conversations is going to be the one that might get you in the door reinforces the concept of being present in each conversation you have so that you can make an impression in either situation that will enrich your relationship with your conversation partner and potentially change your life. I plan to take this concept with me into every conversation I have while I complete this program. By entering each conversation with the idea that it could be the one that changes my life, I will remember to stay engaged in each one and make the most of the relationships they form.
My second nugget is based in the concept of “Smart + Heart.” You could be the most intelligent person in your organization, but if you don’t have the interpersonal skills to form relationships with the people you work with you will not go very far. It links back to the golden rule we were all taught when we were younger: “Treat others the way you want to be treated.” In this instance it gets changed just slightly to the concept of interacting with people the way you want to be interacted with. For me this was another great reminder that regardless of how good you are at what you do or how smart you are, without other people there to help you, you will not be nearly as successful as you could be if you had them there to stand beside you. I’ve heard many employers say they would rather hire someone with a 3.5 who’s got a great personality, than a jerk with a 4.0. I plan to take this with me into every interaction I have because if you interact with people in a way that gains trust and challenges them in a good way, you also gain loyalty which is always a great thing to have in an industry as small as the one we’ve chosen to work in.
These two concepts are great guiding principles for the way you act and react not only in the business world, but also in life in general and I plan to use them frequently as I progress through this program.
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
And so it begins...
I've been a sports junkie my whole life. Some of my first memories are sitting with my dad watching football on the weekend and having him test me on my ability to match the teams with their cities. Sometimes I would even know about trades and team moves before he did and I'd surprise him. When I travel my hotel TV is always turned to ESPN. I've played soccer, softball, basketball, and I've rowed. I've competed at the recreational, AAU, travel, interscholastic and intercollegiate levels. Sports are my life blood...
And now I get the opportunity to combine sports with my other passion in life - learning. I have been blessed enough to be accepted into the 2011 Cohort for Intercollegiate Athletic Leadership at the University of Washington. This blog for the most part will contain my thoughts, ideas, reflections, and musings as I go through this amazing journey over the next year. My posts will come fast and furious at first because I'm playing catch up with everything I need to get up here, but I'll try to space them out as I go.
Let the adventure begin.
And now I get the opportunity to combine sports with my other passion in life - learning. I have been blessed enough to be accepted into the 2011 Cohort for Intercollegiate Athletic Leadership at the University of Washington. This blog for the most part will contain my thoughts, ideas, reflections, and musings as I go through this amazing journey over the next year. My posts will come fast and furious at first because I'm playing catch up with everything I need to get up here, but I'll try to space them out as I go.
Let the adventure begin.
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