What gives me joy?
After taking a moment to deeply assess which things bring me the most joy, I have reached a conclusion that three things have stood out more prominently amongst the different contributing factors. The first of the three things that I have found to bring me the most joy lately is spending time in my home with my family. I feel the most naturally content when I am spending time in the home that I grew up in with my parents, siblings, and family pets. It is the place where I feel most relaxed and content. The home is the place where information and communication flow with more freedom than any other place. The spaces between those walls are the places where I experienced the most freedom, the least stress, and some of the happiest moments of my life. I find joy in this setting because it reminds me of the time of my life when I was happiest, and life was the simplest it has ever been.
When I say that something I experienced brought me Joy, I mean that I have felt calm, content, relaxed, untroubled, and delighted by a particular moment or setting. Lately, I have found joy in helping others at work. I have been spending the last year trying to exert a more focused effort into translating leadership skills from the classroom into my real experiences. I have found it to be quite challenging, but satisfying when I am able to do it successfully. Not every experience ends in me solving a problem, but If I am able to help someone by being a resource or providing direction to a direct resource, it certainly brings me a joy. There have been many times where I have been uncertain or unsure in my past roles, but now that I have had time to settle into my role and have a better understanding of how most things work. Now I can help others feel more comfortable in their own roles and that brings me joy because I get to do that by using tools that I have learned in both the classroom and at work. The final thing that has brought me the most joy lately is a breath of fresh air on a busy day at work. At times it can be so easy for us to become emotionally consumed by the rush of the morning when you have so many things to do, and it feels like you have no time to do them. It seems like that happens to me all too often. It is important to take the time to appreciate the flow of life around you and take a breath to center yourself throughout your day. We must take care of ourselves and our wellbeing if we wish to give our all to our desires such as reaching professional goals. I appreciate and find joy in the moments where I get to take a breath and take in my surroundings because they help me find my center.
When I say that something I experienced brought me Joy, I mean that I have felt calm, content, relaxed, untroubled, and delighted by a particular moment or setting. Lately, I have found joy in helping others at work. I have been spending the last year trying to exert a more focused effort into translating leadership skills from the classroom into my real experiences. I have found it to be quite challenging, but satisfying when I am able to do it successfully. Not every experience ends in me solving a problem, but If I am able to help someone by being a resource or providing direction to a direct resource, it certainly brings me a joy. There have been many times where I have been uncertain or unsure in my past roles, but now that I have had time to settle into my role and have a better understanding of how most things work. Now I can help others feel more comfortable in their own roles and that brings me joy because I get to do that by using tools that I have learned in both the classroom and at work. The final thing that has brought me the most joy lately is a breath of fresh air on a busy day at work. At times it can be so easy for us to become emotionally consumed by the rush of the morning when you have so many things to do, and it feels like you have no time to do them. It seems like that happens to me all too often. It is important to take the time to appreciate the flow of life around you and take a breath to center yourself throughout your day. We must take care of ourselves and our wellbeing if we wish to give our all to our desires such as reaching professional goals. I appreciate and find joy in the moments where I get to take a breath and take in my surroundings because they help me find my center.
What am I good at?
Something that I have certainly had to learn throughout my development as a leader is that my strengths are not defined entirely by my own perspective of them. It is important to actively listen to feedback from your peers and the other people around you when you have the chance to hear their perspectives of your strengths and things you do well. I work with my manager very frequently and we have been spending a lot of time focusing on developing my skills as a leader. A big part of that was spending time identifying what my skills are and which ones I am most successful with. It will always be important for me to frequently evaluate my own skills, but it has been even more important and beneficial to my development for my own leader to identify and evaluate my skills and give me direct feedback on them. Building a foundation of skills, or a skillset if you will, is very important during the early stages of your development. If you can identify enough of your skills and find a way to build on them then you will be better off than most. Finding a way to fit my skills into a leadership style is important to me and receiving feedback has been very beneficial to me in that process.
The first skill that my leader helped me identify is that I am an open communicator. A big part of my role is providing direction and communicating responsibilities with my peers. I don’t like role ambiguity and I do my best to provide as much clarity as possible. Without an outside perspective, it would be much more difficult to identify this skill along with many others. Another skill that I have received feedback on is providing support. When people around me are struggling or feel like they need additional support to feel comfortable with their responsibilities, I act quickly to provide them with support. Sometimes that means my own assistance and sometimes that means directing another resource to the issue. Either way I must find a way to aid the people around me.
The first skill that my leader helped me identify is that I am an open communicator. A big part of my role is providing direction and communicating responsibilities with my peers. I don’t like role ambiguity and I do my best to provide as much clarity as possible. Without an outside perspective, it would be much more difficult to identify this skill along with many others. Another skill that I have received feedback on is providing support. When people around me are struggling or feel like they need additional support to feel comfortable with their responsibilities, I act quickly to provide them with support. Sometimes that means my own assistance and sometimes that means directing another resource to the issue. Either way I must find a way to aid the people around me.
What does the world need me to do?
This is a hard question for me to answer. I feel like the world needs me to do a multitude of things. I feel commanded by society to find a way to contribute, but also my own motivation to find purpose and satisfaction in life. There is a pressure to find a professional role that allows me to contribute to a purpose that I believe in, but I also feel my own personal desire to reach that role because I want to fulfill my own goals. Father Himes speaks about finding a way to identify what the people around you need what you can give them. I want to be the kind of leader and person that can notice and identify what other people need and when they need it. That way I can give my best response and aid even when my response is not appreciated by the recipient.
Something that I believe the world needs me to contribute is a leadership presence. Not just in the workplace, but in everyday life. I want to be someone that people can generally look to for assistance. A helping hand. Someone who is happy to help people with any problem regardless of its size. I also want to be someone who makes a difference. I want whatever role society needs from to make a real difference in the wellbeing of the people around me and in my communities.
Something that I believe the world needs me to contribute is a leadership presence. Not just in the workplace, but in everyday life. I want to be someone that people can generally look to for assistance. A helping hand. Someone who is happy to help people with any problem regardless of its size. I also want to be someone who makes a difference. I want whatever role society needs from to make a real difference in the wellbeing of the people around me and in my communities.
Reflection of The Three Questions:
I believe that taking the time to reflect on these questions was a an essential step to being successful in this course and moving forward in our lives. Over the course of this eight week term, we have spent dozens of hours trying to figure out what kind of organization fits us best. Answering these three questions in the beginning of the term helped us develop a foundation to build upon and put us in a mindset that is geared toward finding what is best for ourselves. Personally, prior to this course, I didn't have my eyes set on any particular kind of organization. I didn't really understand the importance of finding an organization that has values that are similar to mine, let alone how to find that kind of organization in such an enormous job market. After answering these questions, I felt like I knew more about myself as an employee and as a person and I was ready to build upon that. Overall, I had a better grasp on the objective of this course after answering these three questions.