Welcome back to Installment Numero Dos ✌🏼 of Pursuing Progress.
Tomorrow is my last “first day” of college! It’s surreal to know that this is my final semester at university. While excited, I can’t help but think of all that’s changed in the last 6 months that will make this semester unlike any other. Taking classes 100% online, having athletic facilities closed, and with little social life, the scenes around WashU are bound to change drastically. What won’t change, unfortunately, is doing a whole lot of this again…
This week, I was reminded of the power of community. I had an essay I wanted to have reviewed, so I went to my friends at Writer’s Bloc to get some help. I was met with an abundance of questions and comments about my writing, forcing me to think critically about my message. While I love getting feedback, it’s sometimes rough to get a TON because you feel like you’re not good enough — that your work gets criticized while others seem to get praise. That’s okay! I’m loving the feedback because I’m not a great writer…yet. In the long run, the constructive criticism I receive will stack into bite-sized pieces of knowledge that’ll apply to my next piece. The feedback I get from that piece will apply to my next one. Never be afraid to ask for help. Seek it!
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Now to Pursuing Progress 👇🏼
1. Find the Keys to Their Hearts
In early April, my coach sent six members of our team a book titled, “The Maxwell Daily Reader” by John C. Maxwell. Using this book as a guide, we’d Zoom every week to discuss aspects of team building, leadership, responsibility, and perspective. While I’m no longer part of the group, I’ve kept up with the daily insights from Maxwell.
September 10th struck a chord with me: To get the keys to a person’s heart, ask good questions. Ask people what they dream about, what they cry about, what they sing about. What are their values? What are their strengths? Knowing these things about your players is imperative to team success. If you’re a leader in your space, take the time to get to know your key players. You’ll know how to maximize their potential and they will feel valued beyond measure.
Favorite Nuggets:
“What do you dream about?” You can learn about people’s minds by looking at what they have already achieved, but to understand their hearts, look at what they dream of becoming.
“What do you cry about?” When you understand people’s pain, you can’t help but understand their hearts.
Curious Crumbs:
What will you do today to get to know one of your key players?
What type of environment do you thrive in as a player? As a leader, what kind of culture do you want to cultivate?
2. This clip from Tommy Caldwell
The Dawn Wall is one of the best documentaries I’ve seen in a long time. If anyone’s life could be described as a roller coaster, it would be Tommy Caldwell’s. He was kidnapped in Kyrgystan, fled from his captors, lost his index finger, lost his wife, and STILL managed to demolish the most difficult climb in the world.
In this clip, Tommy is scaling the El Capitan in Yosemite National Park. If you’ve watched the film, you’ll know how grueling this pitch was — while Tommy cleared it in a matter of days, it took his partner, Kevin Jorgeson, 6 days to clear it. The power, precision and elegance in this clip is the ultimate performance of a master who’s honed his craft over decades. If anyone has embodied grit in their lives, it’s Tommy Caldwell.
3. This visual from Craig Burgess’ ProduceMore
“Once you carry your own water, you will learn the value of every drop" —African Proverb”
Lesson here: Take full responsibility for everything.
This goes in line with one of my favorite quotes from John C. Maxwell:
“The greatest day in your life and mine is when we take total responsibility for our attitudes. That's the day we truly grow up.”
Be intentional with ownership. Be proud of what you do. Own up to your mistakes. Doing so through authenticity and honesty will yield far better results than scamming your way to ‘success’. Through the good and the bad, own it all.
In case you missed it:
[Freestyle Friday] I’m doing footy tricks every Friday! Challenge me with any moves you’d like me to try 👊🏼
Woah! Crazy you made it this far - thank you.
Any and all feedback is appreciated. Please do so by replying directly to this newsletter or sliding in my DM’s on Twitter.
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In seven days again 👋🏼