If you are a human being (which means all alien beings can stop reading now) then you are going to experience fear. Fear is emotion – raw, unfiltered anxiety that has evolved over time to protect us from the painful and maybe fatal situations we encounter. Rational fear is good fear. It protects us. It is a healthy fear that …
Making Setbacks Work For You
This is a guest post by Robert L. Dilenschneider, author of The Critical First Years of Your Professional Life. How can you tap into the power of a setback — and make it work for you? I have nine recommendations. 1. If you’re shocked by the setback, ask yourself why. In Ambition: How We Manage Success and Failure Throughout Our Lives, …
Three Ways To Capture Your Vision
I recently returned from a leadership conference with my newly elected student leaders. We bonded and created fun memories. We even made up a few new words that will stick with us throughout the next year. The conference and journey together gave us all increased momentum as we anticipated what we wanted to accomplish in the near future. Each new …
Four Reasons You Need Vision To See Where You’re Going
It’s that time of year when we get to hear the campaign speeches from our candidates for student leadership positions. Beyond their ability to give a good speech, they each share their hopes and dreams for next year. They lay out their plan to make it “the best year ever.” They are sharing their vision for the future. A distinguished …
Five Ways To Find Fulfillment In Your Day
When you lay your head on your pillow at night, you drift off to sleep with a sense of fatigue. But that fatigue can be caused by a couple of different things. 1. You’re tired and frustrated from spinning your wheels all day but not having much to show for it. 2. You’re tired and fulfilled from putting your energy …
Fail Forward Fast
The following is an excerpt from the book, The Way of the Seal: Think Like an Elite Warrior to Lead and Succeed, by Mark Divine with Allyson Edelhertz Machate. Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm. -Winston Churchill, British Prime Minister (1874-1965) I believe the world is chaotic and destiny favors the prepared. Unfortunately, sometimes chaos …
Developing A Philosophy Of Failure (Part 2)
In Part One of this article I explained why it was important to develop a philosophy around the ways we approach, handle, and learn from failure. In this second part, I will offer six questions to aid in the process of developing our own philosophy of failure. I wish we talked about failure more than we do in student leadership …
Developing A Philosophy Of Failure (Part 1)
The most effective leadership development processes give people the opportunity to learn to lead by leading. Even if you spend an enormous amount of time preparing students for leadership, you’ll never know what kind of leader they will be until they start leading. And like most things, they won’t get it perfect on their first try (or their second…or third…). …