studentlinc

War of the Worlds

Spielberg's War of the Worlds opened today and I had a chance to go see it. I can't remember the last time I saw a movie on opening day. It's kind of cool to be one of the first ones to see a movie. That way you can walk around and tell people you saw it. Then they ask you how it was and you begin to tell them, but they stop you short and blurt out, "Don't give anything away!!" I like being on this end of things. One thing that I will share that doesn't give away the plot or any key points (but if you're worried, then just skip this paragraph) is that when the war with the aliens begins, their ships are already here...buried underground. They've been lying dormant here for a million years. It reminded me of certain student leaders that I've worked with (well not really, but I am trying to tie my real life experience to a teachable moment in my leadership blog). There were times when I didn't think someone was capable of handling a situation, but then a catalyst was added. There was a challenge, a crisis, a true need that sparked something within that student. Something awoke within them, something that had been buried underneath and I hadn't seen it (and maybe they hadn't either). It is interesting to think about the power of the catalyst. Something can lie dormant or appear useless until one final ingredient is added. That one ingredient changes everything. Great leaders can recognize and incorporate catalysts into their organization that bring out the best in those that they work with. Things like incentive, motivation, positive feedback, rewards, purpose, and passion can move a person to revive strengths that they may have lying dormant inside of them. Sometimes it's just a good ol' crisis that causes the best in us to rise to the top. Sometimes we just need our world rocked a little in order to see what we're really made of. Might make for a good movie...

Home And Back Again

Just a quick update.  I'm in the Boise Airport (they now have free wireless!) and getting ready to hop a plane to Indianapolis.

The Oregon Pacific Sr High Camp went great.  It was a super group of teenagers and staff.  Plus, the quality time with my daughter was worth every moment.

Now I'm off to do some youth ministry training at the General Convention for the Church of the Nazarene.  Should be a fun time.  I will be better connected to the web and hopefully will add a few posts while I'm away.

One cool part of camp was having a young lady who was on staff come up to me and tell me that she read my blog.  I don't know how she found it, but she is a consistent reader!  Wow...the power of blogging crosses state lines.

Sweet.

Headed Back To Oregon

I leave bright and early in the morning for Sisters, Oregon.  I'll be speaking at the Oregon Pacific Senior High Camp at Camp Davidson.  It should be a great week.

One of the things that I'm looking forward to the most is taking my oldest daughter, Victoria, with me.  This will give us a great chance to hang out together for a WHOLE five days....just the two of us.

I'm also looking forward to trying out one of the cool golf courses in or near Sisters.  I promised Victoria that she could drive the cart!

The trip may mean that I can't stay close to the blogosphere.  Hopefully, I can find a way to connect throughout the week.

Burning Barns

Just down the street from my house a barn caught fire.  This probably happened as a result of them stockpiling wet hay.  When you pile hay or alfalfa when it's wet, it can build up heat in the center, then burst into flames.

Sad.  I hope there were no animals in there.  Or anything that couldn't be replaced. 

What kinds of things do you have in your life that can't be replaced? 

What would hurt the most if you lost it...or them?

Beware The Formulas

I love bullet points.  Short precise factoids that I can easily wrap my small brain around.

I am wary of formulas.  Three step processes that guarantee success if you follow them like a Betty Crocker recipe.  But that's what a lot of self-help material seems to offer...formulas.  That's not to say there isn't a wealth of valuable information contained in many of these offerings.  There are definitely principles that we can learn and apply that will move us in some right directions.  But it's dangerous to think that some day, life will work out just fine if I can find and follow the right formula.

Life is not three steps to success.  Life is messy.  Life is uncertain.  Life happens differently to different people.  So when you're tempted to take someone else's formula and apply it to your own life...be careful.  Here's why (see...bullet points!!):

• Success-based formulas aren't true in every situation.
  There is always an exception, always a scenario where the conditions won't allow the formula to succeed.  One thing I like to ask is: If this is a great formula for success, then why aren't more people buying in?


• Success-based formulas are based on other people's successful experience.
  That's usually the flow of every self-help formula.  The person states the crisis, tells what they did to overcome the crisis, and narrows it down to steps that you can take to overcome the same or similar crisis in your own life.  While there may be helpful information (you realize you're not alone, you're inspired by other's accomplishments, you find some principles that work for you), you must view their prescription through the lenses of your own experience.  Even if you follow their same process, there is no guarantee that things will turn out the same.


• Success-based formulas usually don't consider the intangibles.
  When something becomes a formula, then it has the tendency to leave little room for the unmeasurable.  Things like love, mystery, spirituality, passion, even pain.  The truth is, nobody can put life in a box.  One book, one formula will not change your life.  There are so many factors that play a role in shaping us into the people that we are.

Do You Like People?

Nobody will listen to you unless they know that you like them.

Of course, you may hold some kind of position of authority and can demand that people listen to you.  But they will only listen and do what they have to.  Nothing more.

When people know that you like them, they will not only listen to you, they will help you.  When people know that you like them, they will see that you are trying to motivate them and not manipulate them.

Many in leadership positions are tempted to ask the question, Do people like me?  before they ask the question Do I like them?

The first question seeks to gauge one's popularity.  The second seeks to gauge one's motives.  It may be an oft-used slogan, but it still rings true: People don't care how much you know, until they know how much you care.

Just Do It

Terry Storch has a straight-to-the-point post about the key to implementation...just do it!  Terry writes:

I get sick and tired of talking to young leaders and hearing them talking about a certain strategy or plan to move up within their organization. Or, a certain group of young leaders that are waiting on something to change, or something to fall perfectly into place before they start acting or doing what needs to be done. Stop focusing on planning, strategies, manipulation, reorganization, or whatever and just do it.

Perhaps one of the most difficult tasks in life execution is to go from dreaming to doing.  Execute!  Execute!  Execute!

Developing Spiritual Student Leaders

Just because a student joins a student leadership program or fills a student leadership position...it doesn't automatically make them a leader.

You can't just take a student to a conference and put a polo on them that says "student leader" and think that you've done your part in developing a leader out of that person.  Those things may be part of the process but they don't define the extent of it.

That's why I wrote this short ebook, The Heart of Spiritual Student Leadership.  To discuss what kinds of things we need to be investing in our students if we want them to develop into effective leaders.  Especially spiritual ones.

It's FREE.  It's relevant.  It will make the world a better place.

100 Ways To Help Student Leaders Succeed [#6]

Make a Difference Mindset Todd was a student leader whose key role was to help develop a sense of community within his school.  One day, he saw a fellow student running down the road chasing after a person on a bike.  He called out to him and asked him what he was doing.

“Why are you chasing that guy?  What did he do, steal something from you?"

“Yeah, my bike!” his friend yelled back, in between breaths.

Todd found out later that there had been a few bikes stolen at their school.  Students were complaining because there was no safe place to lock up their bicycles.  So Todd went to work and got his student government to allocate some funding to purchase secure bike racks next to campus buildings.  He also worked with the campus security to inform students how to properly lock up their bikes and bring greater awareness of the issue to the whole campus.  As a result of all of his efforts, no bikes were stolen off of their school campus for the remainder of the school year.

PRESENT >> [ “space” ] << DESIRED FUTURE

The space between the present and the preferred future is where a difference maker fits.  A difference is what it takes to change people’s lives.  A difference is what turns an organization around.  A difference is what one person can make. 

Many times, it truly is just one person who is willing enough, strong enough, determined enough to step into that small space and make the difference needed.

Should I Stay Or Should I Go?

I'm very tempted to move from Blogger (whom I've very happy with!!) to TypePad.  If I do, I'll be moving from free to not free for my blog.  But there are some features that TypePad offers that I'm trying to decide if it's worth the jump.

• Trackback feature: I know that I can get a third party add-on to Blogger to enable trackbacks, but I don't know if I want to jump through all the steps necessary to do that everytime.  I'm discovering that trackbacks are a good way to let other people know that you're out there.

• Categories: This is one of the biggest temptations.  Since my blog contains information that is useful for training purposes, categories would allow me to appropriately file my material.

• Greater Text Capability: With TypePad, I can add color and other features to my text.

Hmmm.  I'm starting to lean toward TYPEPAD.  Any suggestions?