Book Report and Public Speaking

I read a book this past week called 17 Essential Qualities of an Effective Teammate.

The book was great! I learned a bunch about these different qualities and learned more about being a good teammate/leader.

I was then asked to give a presentation on the book! Woohooo! That was great. I focused on three qualities I liked in the book; Commitment, Encouragement, and Relationality.

My head is killing me, sooo, I think I'm gonna end this blog early, but!

I really really had a good time learning about public speaking and giving my presentation.

From my book, I learned that it's important to have Commitment, be encouraging, and focus on relations to be a good team member, and in my leadership position, I plan on improving in all three qualities to help become a better team member.

Time and Stress Management

Time time time, wheres all the time gone?!

I love life, and I try hard to manage my time well, but sometimes things can get a little crazy! I'm sure everyone has had a time in their life when they wish they could just press a button and have things done for them. But thats not how it works I guess...

Time management is a skill that is probably sooo useful! I wish I could say I'm skilled in time management but that would be a huge lie! I'm horrible at time management... I'm so forgetful sometimes it's scary.

Luckily our lecture in Student Development was about Time Management!

What did I learn? Well, let me tell you.

Time Management and Stress often go hand in hand. If you have good time management, the less likely you are to be stressed out last minute about something. We call things that stress us out "stressors." Some of my stressors are exams, a dirty room, assignments, lack of sleep, etc... So, when unavoidable stress comes along with the hectic life of a freshmen college student, what should I do?! Well, we learned about some awesome stress coping skills from our lecturer.

In order to know how to cope with stress it's important to be aware of you're negative stress symptoms. For instance, when I get stressed out, I often slow down and act like whatever I'm stressing out about doesn't really matter. Hahaha, kind of weird, but I think I do that because I'm used to watching my siblings stress out and how it gets everyone up tight and I've never wanted to be like that so I do the extreme opposite til' I explode. So I know when I'm slowing down and pretending like things don't care, I'm pretty stinking stressed out.

After I realize how stressed out I am, it's important to apply stress reducing skills. One we learned about that I like was doing something constructive. Getting something accomplished. It makes sense because usually my stress comes from homework load, so if I just sit down and get some homework done, I won't be as stressed out. Ya dig!?

But! To avoid stress attacks altogether, it's important to have good time management.

Good time management starts with determining the value of things you have to do. For example, checking my facebook has a low value cause it's not important or urgent, whereas studying for an upcoming exam has a higher value because it's both important and urgent.

After determining the value of the things I'm doing I should try to evaluate my goals and objectives. In determining my goals and objectives, I will be able to fully organize and prioritize the things I have to do. The values they have will help me take prioritize them from most to least important.

Anyways, I kind of rambled, but basically I'm just working through this plan to master my time management and hopefully reduce my stress. My leadership role isn't very stressful, but life certainly is, and I feel like when I know I can take the time to go serve I am doing well as far as stress goes. Cause if I'm maxed out, then I wouldn't want to go serve at all. So, to apply this principle, I'm really going to try to reevaluate what I have going and prioritize those things that are important. Then I'll take action and keep my stress down so that when I go to volunteer in my leadership position, I'm not worrying about other things.

That way I can serve full heartedly!

Divine-Centered Leadership

Awe! Finally! The blog I've been itching to write!

The reason why this class is so great is because it focuses on emulating the leadership characteristics Jesus Christ possessed. I had an assigned reading for this week called Divine-Centered Leadership and it had these five main points that defined this type of leadership. The five points are:

1. Sharing an inspired vision

2. Challenging unrighteousness

3. Modeling the way, the truth, and the life

4. Knowing each heart

5. Serving others so they may act

Although I will be focusing on all of these five aspects of Divine-Centered Leadership, there was one that really stuck out to me.

I sincerely believe that a really good leader can understand and "know" each heart. Imagine, a leader in church or in public office who tried to know the hearts of those they serve. I want to believe that everyone in public office tries to know the hearts of their constituents. But time and time again I've seen selfish interests control the power struggles in politics. If ALL leaders took the time to understand and know and actively do that which would benefit those they serve, life would be better in many ways.

So, I'd like to unravel this part of Divine-Centered Leadership and try to learn and grow from it.

In my leadership role, I work with children who are incapable of most everyday activities. They are socially undeveloped for their age and have a hard time knowing right from wrong.

How do you know the heart of someone you can't really talk to?

Well, it's often been said that actions speak louder then words. I have this really great friend I've played with the past three weeks. His name is Phoenix. He's 6 years old and he loves to knock over bowling pins. We could play with those bowling pins for hours, hahaha. His laugh is contagious and he's ticklish all over. I have a great time hanging out with him!

Last week I had a near spiritual experience with Phoenix. We we're playing with the bowling pins as usual. He spotted a big medicine ball on the other side of the gym and took off running. I followed him and asked if he wanted to bounce! He didn't respond, but just rolled right onto it and fell off towards the side. I picked him up, rolled him on top of the ball and started bouncing him up and down off the ball. He instantly started laughing and smiling which made me laugh and smile and pretty much everyone around us smile and laugh. Phoenix was in his own perfect world, just smiling and laughing the cares of those around him away. I instantly felt a warmth inside me that just spread through my entire body. I wanted to fast forward 80 years to be able to talk to him in heaven. I got a glimpse of the kind of love Jesus has for all of us. I felt like I learned a bit about the little heart of my friend Phoenix.

Looking back on this experience I understand that it just takes time and interest to know the hearts of those you seek to serve. It requires you to slow down your life and put yourself in their shoes.

Jesus Christ always took the time to know the hearts of his disciples. He had a complete understanding of the heart of humanity and showed his love by atoning for the sins of the world.

I'll apply this part of Divine-Centered Leadership by slowing down my schedule and spending time and showing interest in the activities of my friends from school and at Gym Kids. I love the time I've spent with the Gym Kid friends so far. Like the time me and Phoenix played on the ball, I want to be able make the children laugh and smile. I want to brighten their days.

In doing that, I'm sure I'll be able to learn as much about life from them as anyone. Theres always a special feeling that comes from being spending time with disabled children. They have the ability to love in the purest way.

I just hope that one day I can love everyone like my special friends. I want to, like Christ, know the hearts of everyone I come in contact with.

And now I know, all it takes is time and interest.

Thanks Phoenix. You're the man.

Meyers-Briggs Type Indicator

Whats in a personality test?

Well you guys, take it or leave it, I think this Meyers-Briggs Type Indicator was pretty awesome!

It helped me understand the challenges I might have that go along with my personality, along with some strengths.

My favorite part about this whole test assignment is that I can use the information that the test gathered for the rest of my life. I have a firmer grasp on what I'm like and I have an idea of what kind of jobs I might be interested in pursuing.

But in my immediate life, I can use this information to help improve my ability to fulfill my role as a leader. For instance, I know that since I'm an extravert, I prefer to focus on the outer world of people and activities. With this understanding, in the Gym Kids/Adaptive Aquatics programs I can us my preference to try to help the kids I play with come out of their shells and help them enjoy their time with us.

This test was awesome, and I'm excited about the different things that I found out about myself. I hope that I can use the information I learned to improve my leadership and my character.