Joe Van Deuren | - Part 128

January 11, 2011

Excellence in Leadership: Vision without procrastination

In the world that we live, our day to day lives are busy beyond belief. The question that we want to ask ourselves is, “Are we achieving, are we being productive and reaching our goals and vision?” Recently in teaching the class, Excellence in Leadership, we talked about habits that we have that we would like to change. One that came up for everyone of the students was – procrastination. How do we achieve a productive life without becoming overwhelmed to a point of paralysis?

First we must recognize that activity is not accomplishment. For many of us we have to do list that is a mile long, and for some of us we get to the end of the day and feel like we did not get anything done on our list. Here is the suggestion that came out of our discussion that I felt is worth sharing with our community. Continue reading “Excellence in Leadership: Vision without procrastination”

January 7, 2011

Project Leadership: Influencing others to follow

There are so many promises made by individuals and groups saying that they will make your son or daughter a leader. In fact one school in Pennsylvania claims to be the best school in the country for creating leaders out of any female student that comes to their school. While leadership skills can be learned about from a classroom – true leadership comes from doing and can only be measured by the amount of influence you may have earned.

Your circle of influence will grow over time, but only if you are able to demonstrate certain things in your own life. First you must have good character that is recognized by others. Second you must build relationships with others. Third you must know your subject that you are trying to have an effect on. Fourth, having good intuition for the next right thing to do. Fifth a certain amount of experience. Sixth, what have you done in the past. Seventh, what are your abilities?

Now anyone can start their role as leaders, but should start with small projects and then use the knowledge, experience, intuition and success they have to go on to larger projects. That is the reason we encourage our young students to do small projects like doing acts of kindness and then getting others to join with them in doing acts of kindness. Some of our students have on their own and then with others played musical instruments at senior homes, or set up hot chocolate stands and used the money for the Lighthouse Shelter.

These are the beginning steps to larger projects in the future where they will be able to use their good character, relationships and experience to influence others to join them in accomplishing good for their community.

January 6, 2011

Vision: See, Believe, Achieve

What is your goal for this year, this month or week? A goal is something that you want to achieve and one of the best ways of making that happen is to first be able to visualize it. We must be able to see ourselves reaching our goal, know what it is going to feel, smell, taste whatever the senses can bring to the visualization – if we are going to achieve.

As a child I may want to be able to take a test at school and not get overly anxious about it. To do so I would need to be able to see myself taking the test and getting the answers to the questions. I may even visualize not knowing the answer and just taking some deep breaths and moving on to the next problem, coming back to it when other parts are complete. Then I may see the paper coming back to me graded by the teacher with an A on it and a note that say “Great Job” . I would be smiling and very proud of my efforts and cannot wait to get home to show mom and dad.

Visualization works for everyone, from athletes to business persons and school children. It allows us to live the moment in a safe environment and to see the outcome. “When we can see it, we can believe it. When we can believe it, we can achieve it!”

January 4, 2011

Martial arts helps us be the change you want to see!

As we get into the New Year we wonder what will it be like? What awaits us in the year ahead? Will there be problems or will it be full of blessings? Ghandi in a very famous quote said, ” Be the change that you want to see in the world.” Many times we are what we see.

There is a story that goes something like this. One traveler getting close to a city stopped and asked an old man by the road what the people were like in the city ahead. He was asked what were they like in the city you just came from?, and he was told they were untrustworthy. The old man said, “You will find them to be the same in the city ahead.”

A second traveler came by the same old man and asked the same question. Yet he found the people in the previous city to be warm and generous, and the old man said, “You will find them to be the same in the city ahead.”

The way we see others, the way we live our lives is what we will see in others. If I am a critical person, I will most likely see others as being critical. If I am a trusting person, I am more likely to view others as trustworthy. If you change yourself and become the person you desire to be, you will begin to view others in a whole new light and that will change how you interact in all of your relationships.

Practicing the martial arts opened me to better ways of looking at myself and others, being kinder and accepting of where we are at this very moment and growing from there. It does this by leading us in incremental improvements that lead to quite impressive results. But you must experience it to understand it.

January 4, 2011

Vision: Bully Prevention in our schools

Here we are at the beginning of the new year and like many individuals we shall reflect on the year and what sort of goals we would like to reach this year. For many it will be dealing with health, family, vacations, or business. I have talked before about one of my own goals in the community and that is, dealing with the subject of bullying for students in school.

Our word of the month in January is VISION and having a vision of what you want to accomplish and what it will look like when it is done is a major step in reaching your goal. So what does this vision look like?

I see students learning specifically what is a bully, how to use their words to deflect bullying, and I see students teaching younger students about the same. I also see our website as a wealth of information for teachers and parents and what they can do to intervene when these situations come up. I will be sharing resources that will educate and encourage all of us to meet this head on.

Can you picture in your mind our students having the courage to stand up to those that would pick on others or those that exclude others. It is a mindset that we can set the example for and help our students see the value in practicing. Our students can be heroes in their own school by stepping up to this challenge.

Our success in this goal, in our vision, is tied to our community working together. We know WHY we want to do this, it is for the safe education of our children and now we must work on the HOW by developing specific actions and deadlines. If you are interested in helping with defining this in our community please feel free to talk to me about this goal. If your child has ever been bullied you understand the importance of this goal.

January 3, 2011

5050 pushups on Saturday

On Saturday January 1, 2011 a group of 18 students from the 9-12 year old and adult classes came to the studio for a New Years Day workout and great start to the new year. Every 10 minutes all of us dropped down and did a set of push ups. We had a total of 5050 push ups at the end of the day. In addition we also practiced our forms, and got some sparring in too. It was a great time, so thanks to Mark, Jeff, Kevin, Claire, Jake R., Wills, Connor, Ryan, Niklas, Caitlin, Katie, Jake V., Kelly, Michael, and Scott for coming out early that morning and getting your year off to a great start.