#Day7: Tough Questions

December 7, 2015

The final #Day7 of 2015.

With one year coming to an end and another fast approaching, we may find ourselves pondering how the past year went and questioning what the New Year will hold.

“How did the year treat you?”

“Did you accomplish what you wanted in 2015?”

“What do you have planned for 2016?”

In our one-day Catalyst program we talk about the importance of asking ourselves meaningful and important questions. We challenge the participants to consider what questions they should be asking themselves that they currently are not. As we come to the last #Day7 of 2015, we want you to do the same.

It’s not always easy to challenge ourselves in this manner…to look within and consider what we are avoiding. But there are some pretty great things about digging into “the tough questions.”

We learn.

We learn from the question itself and from the answers we discover. We learn what we are afraid of, what is holding us back, what troubles our hearts and our minds. We learn how to be vulnerable.

We learn how to face our fears. We learn how to move forward despite obstacles. We learn how to solve problems. We learn what we care most about.

We learn where to direct our attention, resources, and efforts.

So let’s try it. Ask yourself, “What question am I avoiding that I should be asking myself right now.”

You aren’t alone in this practice. Here is what we at LeaderShape think we need to be asking ourselves right now…

Is this choice or decision getting me closer to the person I aspire to be?

Abby

Have I made someone smile today?

Kim

What do I need to let go of so that I can truly focus on what is most important to me?

Why is it so hard to show myself grace?

Kristen H.

What do I need to be doing to refresh my soul and encourage my heart?

How do I show compassion to my parents on a more regular basis?

Kristen Y.

What are the lessons I want to teach my children before they leave home?

Paul

How can I be more patient with myself and others?

How do I allow for voices different from my own to be heard?

How can I contribute to a sense of hope in our world?

Vernon

What is your question?

We’d love to know and hope you’ll share it in the comments section.

Generosity and Community Beyond the Season

Last week many of us celebrated Thanksgiving. Then there was Giving Tuesday. With these two occasions and with all of the holidays still to come*, I can’t help but find my mind turning to thinking about others more often.

I don’t consider myself a particularly selfish or self-centered person, thinking only of myself. Those that I love and care about are never far from my mind. But this time of year always affects my head and my heart in a little bit of a different way. I have the privilege of spending time with family during this time of year. I have a couple of fun gatherings to attend with the wonderful friends and colleagues in my life. I have a little one and get to see the season anew through her eyes. I imagine I am not alone in this enhanced feeling of sentiment and generosity.

The thing is this: I don’t want these deep feelings of generosity and, when it comes down to it, community - because my family, my friends, and my colleagues are my community – to be elevated only during a particular season. So then, how can this mindset be cultivated beyond this time of year?

Reflection

Some traditions around the holiday season ask us to contemplate what and for whom we are grateful, reflect on the year we are leaving behind, and consider what we want for the upcoming year. This practice connects us deeply to ourselves, one another, and to our wishes and goals. Making this a habit in our lives by practicing active reflection with more intention – on a daily, monthly, or even quarterly basis – can extend something that is the focus of a season to the entire year.

Time Together

For many of us, seasonal festivities give us the opportunity to celebrate and spend time with one another. I admit that it isn’t practical to have huge celebrations and parties every month of the year, but it is possible to spend meaningful time with those we care about and to do so on a regular basis. Dates with friends and loved ones don’t have to be expensive or elaborate.  Coffee dates, running errands together, birthday dinners, shared lunch breaks, video calls, and online chats are all chances to be generous with our time, our heart, our ideas, and to connect with those we are in community with.

Reminders

As life returns to a more “regular” day-to-day schedule after the holidays, we can easily get caught up in, well, the day-to-day. We schedule so many things in our life, why not extend that routine and create reminders right into our calendar that prompt us spend time in reflection and to connect with those we care about? It is important and deserves dedicated time.

We are curious - what ways do you extend the traditions of generosity and community beyond the season? Tell us in the comments!

*I recently saw a post on Facebook that shared that between November 1 and January 15 there are about 29 holidays observed by 7 major religions!

This post was contributed by staff member Kristen H. 

Reflections: Time Spent With Program Partners

PC Training 2015

In early October, we spent a few days with many of our Program Coordinators for some training and good conversations around our partnerships. Program Coordinators, or PCs as we like to call them, are our primary contacts at the colleges and organizations we partner with. They are the work-force behind the campus-based sessions of the Institute. In my role at LeaderShape, I get to talk with many of them daily. Since those conversations happen over email and phone, it was nice to see these folks face-to-face in October!

In our conversations at PC Training about partnerships, we talked about how knowing more about each other helps us to strengthen those partnerships; how identifying overlaps in our organizational values can help us also identify our common goals; and how strengthening connections with folks on campus can help broaden and deepen a sense of community. We worked through some exercises and discussed some ways to do each of those things.

We also talked about LeaderShape’s new branding and the language we use when we talk about our organization and our programs. You can refer back to this blog post for more information about the branding. With planning under-way for many sessions of the Institute, this new language and the use of our new logos are being put into practice! We love seeing the flyers, t-shirt designs, Instagram posts, and tweets with the new logos! 

Since our time with PCs this October, we have been continuing the work around strengthening our partnerships with campuses and learning more about what they value for students on their campus. We look forward to continuing the meaningful conversations about how LeaderShape programs can enhance leadership on each campus and for each participant. 


Post from Abby Prince, LeaderShape's Director of Program Quality & Management.

You can learn more about the Institute by visiting our website or emailing Vernon Wall at lead@leadershape.org.

A Nerd's Reflection on LeaderShape

Each summer we ask participants of The LeaderShape Institute to write a letter to a donor sharing their experience and their thanks for providing financial support. In our most recent class of LeaderShape graduates, we received this reflection along with their letter. And we loved getting a deeper look into Jessie's experience at the Institute.  We hope that you enjoy reading this reflection as much as we did.

A Nerd's Reflection on Vision After LeaderShape

We have all had those experiences, the hours, days, weeks, that change us forever. This past week, I spent my time in the middle of Illinois at LeaderShape, a conference focused on building leaders of integrity. When I received an email from the director of the Student Leadership Center at UW-Madison concerning a full-ride scholarship to a leadership camp, I filled out the application with little idea of what I was applying for. However, upon being awarded the scholarship, I was excited to discover what a leadership camp for leaders was really all about. Never have I been pushed so hard to realize, reflect, and dream that my brain hurt. The really amazing thing is that upon coming home, I still have not come down from my castle in the clouds. And this castle is too big for one, so it is time I share. 

"Nerd. One whose unbridles passion for something, or things, defines who they are as a person, without fear of other people's judgment." -Zachary Levi

I am a nerd. No shame - I do enjoy writing essays and studying calculus. So what? If I do nothing with my "nerdiness," can I still identify as nerd? We only call Albert Einstein a genius because he exercised his thoughts and used his brain power for the betterment of humanity. He could have sat at home merely pondering energy and the universe. Maybe he even would have gotten a haircut. But he didn't. Einstein lived to his full potential, and LeaderShape has helped me realize that I not only have amazing potential, but that I also need to live into it - not on Mondays and Fridays, but every single day. 

"How you handle the uphill battle determines everything."

I am sure many have heard the saying, "Life's a journey." But why is it that we live as though it's a destination? We become so caught up in arriving that we forget to enjoy the travel time. Sometimes life feels like a road trip in a Mini Cooper, and other times like a flight on the Concord. LeaderShape has helped me reflect upon all the things I have accomplished and see them not as the peak of Mount Everest, but as the foothills. I scaled, stood at each peak, and, with my fist in the air, declared, "I did it! Now, onward." One has to climb the foothills to reach the mountain. If I am not content with my life during the process, I will never be satisfied, for there will always be another mountain. Whether the next mountain is big or small is up to me.

"Don't bury your failures. Let them inspire you." -Robert Kiyosaki

Failure - it hurts. One can get so caught up in the fear of failure that their dreams become smaller. As my advisor Kozhi Makai said, "The world has no more room for small dreams." At LeaderShape, we wrote dreams down on giant post-it notes, our visions too big for three-by-threes. It is scary, seeing your vision stare you in the face, just asking you to try it. All week, we are encouraged to have a "healthy disregard for the impossible." Striving for visions and goals that seem larger than attainable many sound crazy, but to people with vision, it looks like a challenge. I may not quite reach my goal, but through the process, I will have scaled more mountains than I even would have had Everest not been in my sights. LeaderShape has changed my outlook, now it is up to me to let it change my life. 

Jessie Thomas, 2014 LeaderShape Graduate