Monthly Archives: November 2013

Goal Setting Review

Leadership class, I have found some good visuals that help to visually explain what we talked about in class regarding Goal Setting.

“If you have made mistakes, there is always another chance for you. You may have a fresh start any moment you choose, for this thing we call’failure’ is the falling down, but the staying up.” – Mary Pickford

When setting goals, please remember the following;

  1. Figure out what you want to achieve in life.
  2. Now you know where to concentrate and what to improve.
  3. Create well defined goals that can be measured and take pride once they are achieved.
  4. Long term goals need to be established first before the short term goals can be set.
  5. Make the goals attainable. Give yourself a chance to be successful!

Types of Goals

goal_setting

SMART – This helps to create those goals

Purpose of Goal Setting

  • Goals guide and direct behaviour
  • Goals provide clarity
  • Goals provide challenges and standards
  • Goals reflect what the goal setters considers important
  • Goals help improve performance
  • Goals increase the motivation to achieve
  • Goals help increase pride and satisfaction in your achievements
  • Goals improve self-confidence
  • Goals help decrease negative attitudes

Reports suggest goal setters tend to suffer less stress, have better concentration, show more self-confidence and seem to feel happier. Will that be you?

Good luck in setting those Goals!

 

10 Graduation Speeches That Will Inspire You (courtesy of Buzzfeed)

On the theme of Goal Setting, I found a get post about inspirational grad speeches from some famous people.

Please take a look at the post on Buzzfeed. It provides excerpts and links to the full speech. Here are a couple of my favorite quotes.

Steve Jobs – “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.”

“Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything – all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important.”

Stephen Colbert – “Thankfully dreams can change. If we’d all stuck with our first dream, the world would be overrun with cowboys and princesses. So whatever your dream is right now, if you don’t achieve it, you haven’t failed and you’re not some loser – but just as importantly – if you do get your dream, you’re not a winner.”

Jon Stewart – “College is something you complete, life is something you experience. Don’t worry about your grade, or the results, or success. Success is defined in myriad ways and you will find it and people will no longer be grading you. It will come from your own internal sense of decency.”

Michael Jordan on Goal Setting

The famous basketball player Michael Jordan wrote the following about goal setting in his book, I Can’t Accept Not Trying:  Michael Jordan on the Pursuit of Excellence:

I approach everything step by step….I had always set short-term goals.  As I look back, each one of the steps or successes led to the next one.  When I got cut from the varsity team as a sophomore in high school, I learned something.  I knew I never wanted to feel that bad again….So I set a goal of becoming a starter on the varsity.  That’s what I focused on all summer.  When I worked on my game, that’s what I thought about.  When it happened, I set another goal, a reasonable, manageable goal that I could realistically achieve if I worked hard enough….I guess I approached it with the end in mind.  I knew exactly where I wanted to go, and I focused on getting there.  As I reached those goals, they built on one another.  I gained a little confidence every time I came through.

…If [your goal is to become a doctor]…and you’re getting Cs in biology then the first thing you have to do is get Bs in biology and then As.  You have to perfect the first step and then move on to chemistry or physics.

Take those small steps.  Otherwise you’re opening yourself up to all kinds of frustration.  Where would your confidence come from if the only measure of success was becoming a doctor?  If you tried as hard as you could and didn’t become a doctor, would that mean your whole life was a failure?   Of course not. 

All those steps are like pieces of a puzzle.  They all come together to form a picture….Not everyone is going to be the greatest….But you can still be considered a success….Step by step, I cant see any other way of accomplishing anything. 
 

I Can’t Accept Not Trying:  Michael Jordan on the Pursuit of Excellence  is published by HarperSanFrancisco, a division of HarperCollinsPublishers (ISBN 0-06-25119) 


Arsene Wenger Motivational Speech

Leadership. As you may know, I am a huge Arsenal fan (soccer team in London) and there manager is Arsene Wenger.

One of his motivational speeches leaked online and I thought that it was quite well written.

I think that there are some points that apply to our class as we work our way through the year.

Please have a read.

Confidential
Team meeting 19th September 2008-09-23

The team:

A team is as strong as the relationships within it.

The driving force of a team is its member’s (sic) ability to create and maintain excellent relationships within the team that can add an extra dimension and robustness to the team dynamic.

This attitude can be used by our team to focus on the gratitude and the vitally important benefits that the team brings to our own lives. It can be used to strengthen and deepen the relationships with it and maximise the opportunities that await a strong and united team.

Our team becomes stronger by:

Displaying a positive attitude on and off the pitch

Everyone making the right decisions for the team

Have an unshakeable belief that we can achieve our target

Believe in the strength of the team

Always want more – always give more

Focus on our communication

Be demanding with yourself

Be fresh and prepared to win

Focus on being mentally stronger and always keep going until the end

When we play away from home, believe in our identity and play the football we love to play at home

Stick together

Stay grounded and humble as a player and as a person

Show the desire to win in all that you do

Enjoy and contribute to all that is special about being in a team – don’t take it for granted

text courtesy of the guardian

Ho Hey Counting

Guitar Club, I was glad to see that everyone had practiced. They song sounded much better this week. Here is the counting again.

Remember that the down strum is the number and that is when you play the chord. Tapping your foot and counting out loud will also help you play the song.

Verse

1 2 3 4       1 2 3 4       1 2 3 4      1 2 3 4
C       F       C       F       C       F      Am G

Chorus

1 2 3 4        1 2 3 4      1 2 3 4
Am G          Am G        C       F

Bridge

1 2 3 4       1 2 3 4       1 2 3 4       1 2 3 4
F                G                F                G

Play along with the song. Sometimes I find it easier to play with a live version. This video is from their performance on the Ellen show.

Ms. Lee also introduced me to Songsterr and it is another tab resource but I also noticed that it has strumming patterns. You may want to take a look here.

Congrats to the Grade 8 Rugby Team

Coach Dave and I just wanted to say thank you very much to all the players on the Grade 8 Rugby Team and Managers, Sarah and Amelia. We appreciate the dedication showed by most of you!

Although we lost to Tupper in the semi-final yesterday, you played hard right till the end. Congrats on a good season and we hope to see you next year for the grade 9 season.