Insight

Thursday morning this week (yesterday), I got up EARLY to take a friend to the airport.  So by the time I got home it was 5am and I was awake, so rather than climbing back in bed and catching a few hours of additional sleep, I worked on school work.  I gathered up my computer and books and headed downstairs, so as to not disturb the rest of my family.

Once down there, I sat down and found myself marveling at the silence.  Funny how odd silence becomes in such a busy world.  I sat down and wrote my journal entry for my leadership class and actually was able to contemplate some of the theories that we were studying.  This is what I came up with:

We spend so much time talking about leadership and different theories of leadership and the names of all of these people that everyone recognizes, but we forget that leadership doesn't start ONCE someone is famous, it starts now, today.  Honest leadership begins with you and I.  The world is like a still lake and you and I, we are the tiniest of raindrops, but even though we are small, we will make ripples on that lake that will continue to ripple.  We may be small, but we make an impact on and act as a leader to those around us every day.

See what a little bit of silence at 5am does for me?  Honestly though, for the first time in quite some time, I worked in a state of "flow" for three hours that morning.  It was the most exhilirating experience.  I hated to end it to go to work...  Oh, well, maybe I will have to get up earlier more often!

Long time...

Okay, JDC, I will give you credit, it has been WAY TOO LONG since I posted.  Not because things have not been happening, but rather because so many things have been happening.  Over the last month, I have written a research paper on the psychologist that created the FLOW theory, traveled to ABQ to review all 120 of our training presentations, so they could be loaded into our new LMS AND managed to do my training run of 10 miles in preparation for a half marathon.  Oh, I failed to mention that I worked full time and attended school full time!  Whew!

Things seem to be slowing somewhat now and I actually have some time to reflect.  Some of what I have been reflecting on are that in order for me to truly gain the most out of the concepts and theories that I am learning about, I need to take the time away from the hustle and bustle to actually thing through how these things impact my life and the lives of those around me.  All of this is fine and good, but if I cannot apply what I am learning (or even remember it), then what is the use.  I have promised myself that I would carve several 30 minute quiet time sessions to allow me to review what I have taken in and really think it through, so I can use my knew knowledge.

Funny, I researched FLOW and learned about the 8 things that create an optimal condition to create a FLOW experience and realized that school many times creates a true flow experience.  I just loose myself in research or reading or typing or just learning and time flies, I have no sense of any bodily needs such as hunger or needing to visit the bathroom; everything just comes together and connects.  That, my friends, is the definition of FLOW.  Maybe I really did learn something important from that paper.

Now I am looking forward to another evening of class tomorrow.  I get so jazzed for the discussions that we have and the time FLIES!!!  Seriously for a 5.5 hour class, it is over in what seems like an hour, maybe two on a slow night.  It is really great!  Hasta luego!