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Dear self:

In this last reflection blog for MSLD 641, each of us needed to develop an action plan that will reflect our steps towards reaching our personal vision. With this action plan in place, I can now turn my desires from awareness into action steps to reach the ultimate goal in 5 to 10 years. While developing the personal vision statement, I noticed that what I thought was my dream and ideal self, turned out to be my parents’ dreams for me. I have believed it for so long to be my own dream that I was completely unaware how much my parents played a role in the dream and even how the dream came to be. Therefore, it is very important that as time passes by, every year or so, I need to tweak, change, and/or make corrections to the existing personal vision statement. This will ensure that as I gain work experience and grow as a person, I learn about what my true dream, calling, purpose, and aspirations are. Always think about who do you want your ideal self to be, what do you want to reach in life, and develop the necessary steps needed to reach these visions.

For the purpose of practicing and learning about what my personal vision statement is and how to develop the steps needed to reach my ideal self, I decided to keep my parents’ dreams for me as part of my dream until I learn more about who I want to be and what I want to reach. My personal vision is that within five to 10 years, I will be part of a senior management team position that will provide me with the financial security needed to pay off my student loans and have spare income for traveling expenses. Because I am only 24 years old, having a family is not a top priority at this moment. But, as time goes on and things change, I will be incorporating this into my personal vision statement. After completing the exercise on Chapter 6 of Becoming a Resonant Leader, I have a bit more of an understanding what my learning goals should be in order to reach my personal vision within 5 to 10 years.

The first learning goal is to become or be close to a managerial position within five years. The milestones for this learning goal is: go up the organizational latter every two to three years, apply everything I have learned in my leadership courses, and get an organizational coach or mentor that will help me develop a plan to reach the desired position. These milestones should be completed within six to 12 months, so don’t become discouraged about the timeline but use your action oriented planning style to reach these milestones. In reality it may take a bit longer than 12 months to reach some of these milestones, but with self-awareness, mindfulness, hope, compassion, strengths, positive energy and thoughts you will reach these milestones. You are an action-oriented planner, meaning you live in the moment without worrying about the future, you tend to avoid long-term planning, you make decisions according to the logic of the moment, and you make decisions that are based on the recent outcomes of past actions. You also operate within the human philosophy, meaning you determine the worthiness of an activity in terms of its affect on specific other people and its impact on the quality of the relationship he or she has with specific others (McKee, Boyatzis & Johnston, 2008). It’s ok to be this way. Just try your best to keep in mind your dreams and how you are going to reach them. Even though this is part of the reason of why you have a hard time figuring out what your dreams are and how you want to be, do not become discouraged. Believe in yourself and the education you have received thus far.

With all this information in mind, your first action step is to start your career. Again, it’s ok to switch careers every few years or so. So, don’t worry about how it may look in your resume or what others may think, it is simply part of the process. The second action plan is to learn as much as you can about the business in which you are working in. This will help you gain work experience and learn more about yourself and your leadership style. The last action step is to finish the MSLD program. The graduation date is set for May 2015 so you can do this! Remember, some of the people who may be able to help you and keep you in renewal are: organizational coaches, mentors, coworkers, Dr. Pittenger, Dr. Knab, Dr. Barta, and the rest of your college teachers are there if you need them.

The second learning goal is financial stability. Due to my current financial situation and struggle to pay off loans, I would like to be financial stable so I can have the freedom of traveling and still be able to pay off student debt. Don’t plan on buying more than the essentials so you can have that extra income to travel around the world (more on this below). The first milestone for achieving financial stability is to take advantage of working overtime. Whenever possible pick up an extra shift here and there, or pick up small side jobs that will at least pay for the amount of gas spent going to and from work weekly. The second milestone would be to pay off any credit card debt left to pay so you can make a bigger payment to your student loans. The third milestone for financial stability is save up at least $1,500 each year in the case of an emergency. As years pass, increase this amount to reflect the new obligations in life.

The first action step that can be achieved from now to six months would be to get a job/start my career. I can’t be financially secured until I start working and saving up money. The second action step is to get rid of the credit cards. Leave the credit cards at home and try carrying cash more often so it obligates you to only spend what you have on the necessities needed and not on the wants of life. The third action step is to save at least $30 each week on a separate account for in case of an emergency. Remember, bankers, parents, financial aid advisors, and counselors can help you come up with a specific plan to help you save money. There is no excuse!

The third learning goal is to travel the world. Between one to five years from now I would like to have visited Costa Rica or Hawaii. These are very expensive trips, so as life goes on continue saving for the next couple of trips to China, Japan, Europe, and Australia. The first milestone to being able to travel the world is to save up money for these trips. I believe that saving around $3,000 or so for each trip will give me the chance to explore different outdoor activities in these trips and remain comfortable staying in a 3 star hotel at night. Don’t be afraid of looking for coupons. The second milestone is to lose 30lbs in a year. This will bring me down to my ideal height to weight mark, as it will help keep my energy level up during outdoor activities. The third milestone is to become comfortable with my own self. Right now, there are things that I don’t like about myself that end up bringing down my confidence level. In order to gain back my confidence, my first action plan is to join the gym, eat healthy, and stay active. This will help me lose the 30lbs needed for me to stay energetic during outdoor activities. The next action plan is to seek ways to bring up my confidence level, such as reading a book about confidence, thinking positive, putting make up on, and keeping relationships that only help/support me. Get rid of dissonant relationships a.s.a.p. Lastly, in order to pay for any of the trips I want to take, I need a job. So the third action plan is to start my career so I can save up the money for traveling abroad. The people who can help me reach my learning goal to travel abroad are: travel agencies, coupons, nutritionists, gym trainers, and bankers.

Reference:

McKee, A., Boyatzis, R. E., & Johnston, F. (2008). Becoming a resonant leader: develop your emotional intelligence, renew your relationships, sustain your effectiveness. Boston, Mass.: Harvard Business School Publication.

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In this week’s reflection blog, the theory of hope is discussed as being elliptical. Meaning, hope is something that we can create within ourselves that will allow us to modify our current reality far enough to the reality we desire. According to Boyatzis and McKee, hope is an emotional state accompanied by clear thoughts about what the future can be and how to get there (Boyatzis & McKee, 2005). In other words, hope is the belief that circumstances in the future will be better (Edmonds, n.d.). Hopefulness can lead to positive emotions, thoughts, and feelings that in turn, allows us to gain superior coping abilities to overcome stress, sadness, and even depression.

In the video “Theory of Hope” by Oana Branzei, Branzei describes hope as something fragile but resilient and transformative, and as moral but material and beautiful (Branzei, 2013). In other words, hope is something that is both delicate and strong. It can be transformative in the form of helping the now hopeful person transform his or her current behaviors and thoughts to ones that align with the person’s desired reality. Hope is also something honorable and ethical but that can be materialized in the form of actions to help create something beautiful. In the process of hope, Branzei describes hope as connective, contagious, additive, multiplicative, exponential, and elliptical. Hope is connective in the sense that it helps bridge people from different backgrounds together. It’s contagious in the form of how positive emotions become infectious to the people around the hopeful person. Hope is additive in the sense that it can create a sense of friendship and bond over a cause or situation that may eventually transform into a franchise. Hope is multiplicative in the form that one person, who is experiencing hopefulness, may give hope to those around him or her. Hope is exponential as it allows you to build a community of friends and gives you the courage to continue forward and help others along the way. Lastly, hope is elliptical, something that you can create within yourself (Branzei, 2013).

Reflecting on the information above, hope gives us the energy and positive emotions needed to continue moving forward. I believe hope is very powerful and will give me the energy and positive emotions needed for me to continue moving forward to reach my dream and ideal self. Unfortunately, as I continue through this week’s assignments, I continue to realize that my current dream is a dream influenced by my parents. I feel as if I have no true dream or aspiration of who I want to be as time continues. In part, I believe this feeling comes from being young and not having as much experience as the rest of my classmates in this course. Although I currently feel this way, hope does give me the aspiration, energy, and positivity that I need to find out what I’m here to do, who I am as a person, what matters most to me, what my true calling is, to try new different things, and to give myself the chance to find that true dream and go for it. I can use hope to modify my current reality by using this positive energy and emotions that I’m currently feeling to figure out who my ideal self is and what my dreams are. Hope enables people to modify their current reality and see with it far enough into the reality they desire so they can keep moving forward (Branzei, 2013). Therefore, once I know what my true dream is, hope can invoke the mental images of a better future and it will help keep me going when the going gets tough.

References:

Boyatzis, R., & McKee, A. (2005). Resonant leadership: Renewing yourself and connecting with others through mindfulness, hope, and compassion. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press.

Branzei, O. (2013). Oana Branzei on the Theory of Hope. YouTube. Retrieved May 16, 2014, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kH_pw4v7xXo

Edmonds, M. (n.d.). HowStuffWorks "What is hope?". HowStuffWorks. Retrieved May 16, 2014, from http://people.howstuffworks.com/what-is-hope.htm

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Chapter 5 of “Becoming a Resonant Leader” is more about learning, discovering, and appreciating your real self. In the first exercise of the chapter, I needed to find pictures that would describe who I really am and what I’m really all about. In other words, I needed to find pictures that would describe me. Going through the photo library, the main themes I found on pictures where family oriented, educated, caring, and friendly. In the next exercise of my lifeline, I needed to develop a detailed lifeline that would highlight the major points in my life thus far. Starting from the moment I was born, the next important date of my life was starting school for the first time as developed a deep and solid friendship for the first time. The next few moments afterwards were winning 1^st in the storytelling contest while I was in the 6^th grade and moving to the US in June 2001 to start the 7^th grade. After this period the next biggest and most important moment for me at the time was graduating from high school and getting a summer internship in MassMutual. Unfortunately, because I was leaving for college at the end of the summer I had to turn down the opportunity I had gained of working for the organization full-time.

In September of 2007, I started at studying Aviation Business Administration in ERAU in Daytona Beach, FL. During the summer of the 2008, I started working part time for Sodexo – Starbucks and started my first relationship with Matthew, which ended in 2010. In December 2011, I earned my bachelors degree with a minor in Air Traffic Control. In May 2012, I enrolled in the MSLD program, which has been a very rewarding and learning experience thus far, and also became for the very first time a shift leader in the same store. As the company began to change certain things, I was unhappy at work, apartments got more expensive, and I was beginning to struggle keeping up with everything I was involved in at the time I left FL in December 2013. At the end of that year, I moved to MA and somehow a few months later I am now still unemployed but in Texas. Reflecting on the information from above, there isn’t much in terms of concepts or information in which to make a reflection on. So far, I haven’t specifically accomplished anything major in my life, as I am still young. I would say this though, I have accomplished to graduate from high school then from undergraduate, and soon in May of 2015 I will be graduating with a masters degree.

Reflecting on the next exercise of the rhythms of my career, again there isn’t much information, rhythm, interest, or experience that I have formally gained as I have only had two jobs so far. These two jobs have been very rewarding to me, as they have helped me gain the experience and have given me the opportunity to continue educating myself and find other possible paths that I can one day take. In the aspect of transitioning in life and at work, the major transitions I have really made so far was graduating from high school and then leaving for college, and the other transition was graduating from college, entering the MSLD program, and then moving back home to my parents because of financial reasons. With all honesty, the main emotional patterns emerging from these two transitions were nervousness, anxiety but happiness at the same time. I emerged more knowledgeable because of these experiences that in a way as part of life it has helped me grow up, be responsible, be an adult, and be the person I am today.

Reflecting on the exercise of social identities and roles, I have to say I don’t have much of a social life. I mean I’m not even on Facebook. The only few social roles that I have been involved in are the daughter, sister, oldest child, friend, student, and graduate student roles. Out of these roles, the most important ones are the ones I was born into which are family related, being a daughter and a sister. The one role I will love to explore more is the role of a professional. Meaning, I want to start my career and as soon as I do I will be able to further explore this role. In the last exercise of this assignment are the current strengths and gaps I have. Overall, the strengths that I have developed thus far are: responsibility, reliable, educated, caring, considerate, flexible, friendly, patient, respectful, and trustworthiness. Reflecting on the emotions, sensations, and feelings of my strengths, I am currently happy, proud, secured, satisfied, comfortable, confident, and even encouraged continuing the usage of my strengths. In part, what did surprised me is that these strengths are also my values, beliefs, and desirable personal characteristics. I, myself, see that I am reliable, respectful, educated and trustworthy. At work and as a leader others have seen my strengths as patient, trustworthy, considerate, reliable, responsible, and respectful. At home I am reliable, respectful, and responsible, while in a relationship I’m actually very caring, considerate, friendly, and patient.

Overall, reflecting on all of the information from above, I can’t make much of a self-assessment of who I really am because I haven’t had much situations, problems, or experiences that have impacted my life in major ways. I do, however, hope that as I continue on in the next few exercises of the book, I’ll be able to find out more clearly my real self.