Part 1 Significance!

Part 1 Significance

"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.