Courage
is a very frightening word; it makes you think that it should be reserved for the
hero’s on the nightly news but courage comes from small things. Doing small
things can make a huge difference. The example of this that the book focuses on
is Rosa Parks. She did such a small act that made an enormous difference.
Courage is something that scares many people, but its important to realize that
courage isn’t about being fearless it’s about controlling your fears. After all the things that scare us are the things that make us feel the most alive. You cant plan on a date and time to be courageous
but when the time comes you choose courage because it is courage that will make
the lasting difference and it is courage that creates the legacy you leave
behind. It takes courage to admit you are wrong, it takes courage to admit
things are out of your control and it takes courage to let yourself go. Some
people forget that you are only one person, but one person is all it takes to
change the world. Everyday is a new opportunity to change someone’s life,
everyday is a new opportunity to better yourself, everyday is a gift and every
day is a great day to be a bear!!!
This
section focuses on YOU and how being a great leader means leading from the
inside out. Through our developments as a leader we are developing our self,
and in order to do this we have to venture through our closed doors which in the
end will lead us to the truth. It mentions setting yourself free, listening to
your heart and using your inner compass to follow the road you’re on towards
making a difference…. So who are you?
I am futuristic person, the future is something
that excites me. When I was in the 6th grade I told my best friend I
was going to go to Bridgewater State University, I was going to study
Elementary Education and I was going to teach the second grade. She approached
me at my graduation party and told me that she was amazed that I not only knew
what I wanted to do in the 6th grade but that I was actually pursuing
it. I have always looked to the future but being a double major in history I
know how important the past is. I know that in order to look to the future you
have to look at the past as well and learn from it. It is our past that shapes our
future and who we are. But with that being said people today are so consumed in
the present they can’t look past the next few hours. Being a student I
absolutely understand what this means. I have struggled to simply read this
book because as soon as I pick it up I begin to think about the four other
books I’m suppose to be reading for history and find myself sacrificing this
book for the fascinating Civil War novels I’m currently attempting to read. But
what people need to remember is that if you are so totally consumed in the
future you miss what’s going on around you. The book mentions to simply stop.
You have to stop, stop being in motion, turn the cell phone off and look at the
possibilities around you and explore them! YOUR NOT LOST YOUR ON AN ADVENTURE!!
Leadership
is personal; being a leader comes from everything you are. What you stand for,
your quirks, your habits, and things that make you smile. Your leadership comes
from you and all you have been through, that awkward moment you’ll never
forget, the time you felt you truly made a difference, the things that shaped
your life are the things that make you a leader. Although leadership is about
working with others the only person you can depend on is yourself. You have to
strive to trust the people you work with but there will always be people who
you don’t get along with. With that being said everyone wants to be liked and
trusted and these go hand in hand, you are more likely to trust someone you like.
No one would ever go to the ends of the earth for someone they didn’t like. So this
chapter focused a lot on building trust with the people you are working with
but it also brought up a point that I really liked it mentioned that history
shows us that people want to be free and they want to choose their own destiny.
So overall what I took from this chapter is you can’t make someone like you,
but as a leader you can only hope that through freedom people come to trust
you.
"What will be your
legacy?" What will I leave behind after the certain amount of years I
spend here at Bridgewater trying to become a leader and more importantly trying
to stitch together a future to look forward to? But while I’m looking towards the
future I’m creating here at BSU I’m not thinking about what I will
leave behind. The first chapter is all about your legacy and sacrificing as a
leader. As a person so consumed and caught up in the future I don’t find myself
looking for what I leave behind. I want to make an impact and a difference and
I understand when the book mentions that passionate leaders are willing to
suffer. As scary as this fact sounds its true. If you are truly passionate
about something you will do anything to see that it is successful, you’ll stay
up all night, skip an outing with friends, what ever it takes, you suffer
because what ever it is, its bigger than you. It’s bigger than you because as a
leader you put your passions and your duties before yourself.
The section on significance focused on the fact that you are important,
you matter and what you do matters. Far too often people feel over worked and
overlooked. This section mentions that nothing we achieve as leaders is
achieved alone. Behind every big achievement is a team of people who deserve to
feel appreciated.
STORY TIME!!! Working with kids is the only thing I have ever wanted to
do with my life other than take extremely long naps and eat bagels but
anyways.. I work at a summer camp with three and four year olds and I love
every second of it. We play games, do crafts, go swimming… we do it all. Half
way through the summer we have parents night. This is a time when the parents
come to check in and see how everything is going and a time to mention any
concerns. I am always amazed at the feedback I get from parents because I think
my campers have such little attention spans that they don’t even remember what
went into our 8 hour day. But last summer I had a very quiet camper who just
went along with whatever the activity was with out a problem and just kind of
kept to himself. On parents night his mother came right up to me and told me
how much fun he was having at camp, how he talks about me all the time and
sings her songs and teaches her the games we play, she asked if I was feeling
better because he told her I was out sick a week ago and told me what an impact
I was having on her son. I was amazed and the feeling is like no other. So its
surprising that people don’t make an effort to make people feel significant,
the book makes the most valuable point, that the leaders that have the most
influence on us are those who are the closest to us, so if you are spending
every day with someone why not strive to make a daily impact, make a four year
olds day one he can remember.
"Inside-out leadership means becoming the author of your own story and the maker of your own history."
This quote hit me because it emphasized the vast power each person possesses to achieve their own definition of success, to become what they aspire to be. Each person holds the pen to scribe their own story, the will power to fabricate their own world to make their own history, to be remembered as a hero or one who created heroes. Aspirations are a funny thing, they are sort of like wishes, yet do wishes come true? We hope and battle to achieve these aspirations we have set for ourselves; blood, sweat and tears poured out to reach this fathom of a dream, do we all achieve are greatest aspirations? no. However, do we all have the will power and capacity to fight for them? absolutely.
"The truth is that leadership is an observable set of skills and abilities that are useful whether one is in the executive suite or on the front line, on wall street or main street."
Leadership is crucial to growth and the potential to achieve goals and dreams; however the type of leader you are is all on you. Some are the suit and tie leaders who change lives, some are the dog tag and riffle wielding leaders who save them. We are in a world now where the capacity of leadership is defined by ones willingness to dig deep and muster up the determinism to achieve greatness in their own life or in others. The concept of leadership is an aspiration, one aspires to be a great leader, a motivator, a life changer; what does any of that mean? How do you do any of those things? Is it an un-popular thing to desire to be a follower, are you less of a person if you wish to be lead and motivate the leaders? There are so many questions that challenge the threshold of leadership and ones aspiration to become one. In my world, I do aspire to be a leader, to lead those willing into battle, wielding Excalibur high in the air as triumphant acoustics enthuse me for the battle, the battle of a lifetime, as I walk across main street. "Are leaders born or made?"
I got chills. The book acknowledges that leaders are born as such, that when they enter the world they have the innate qualities and potential to be leaders. Was I born to lead? Is that what I am supposed to do? I aspire every single day to be better than I was the day before, to have some essence of improvement as my life progresses. I am 20 years old now, do I believe that I was born a leader, do I gaze in the mirror, lost in its reflection, and witness a leader? I wanted to be, I aspired to be, a superhero when I was a kid, I wanted to grow up and have the cape, and the big muscles and the lasers that shot out of my eyes (completely impractical), I wanted to leap rooftop to rooftop and save lives. I aspired to fly above tall buildings and live the life behind the cape and the heroism. As I grew up I realized what a silly fantasy I had, being a superhero, laughable. Thus, I made a trade off, I want to teach people how to be their own idea of a superhero.
My favorite points from this section were things I actually didn't think of, such as that "the best leaders are teachers." They also talk about how leaders are more interested in others success than their own (the good ones anyhow!). I can relate to this in my life, as I am sure many other people can as well, because I learn better and feel more confident of my abilities when someone in leadership actually tries to help me and be a teacher instead of just "the boss" barking orders. In Significance the authors also mention the lesson they have passed down ever since they first learned about it and that is; 'the best way to learn something is to teach it to somebody else.'
I think that is a great lesson to learn and we should all practice that more often, I know I will be trying to implement this into the next opportunity I have to teach someone something I either know or want to know more about. I also know that throughout life we never stop learning, so we should never give up an opportunity for teaching others should it present itself.
