Ok, here’s the thing…

I like reaching goals.

I am an achievement junkie.

I am really into setting an objective, quantifying it, putting together a plan, and then going after it with everything that I have.

That is cool to me. It gives me energy and excitement. Provides purpose.

When I was in elementary school, I set a goal of being 6’3” tall. I am 6’2”. Not bad. Almost got there. Betcha didn’t know height is controlled by goal setting! Are you short? Raise the bar, set a higher goal!

Sometimes, though, it makes me do goofy things. Take for example, “Gonzo’s Great Gold Quest”. This was my attempt to achieve my goal of qualifying as a Gold Medallion member of Delta Airlines Sky Miles program.

Why was that important?

Because I had missed it by only a few thousand miles each of the past three years. So, earlier in the fall, I started plotting to see if I could make it to Gold without having to take any extraneous/unnecessary flights. [Delta requires you to actually fly the miles for MQM status except in cases of certain credit card holders] I was well positioned coming into the fall, as I was more than half-way to my goal. My first gig of the fall was in southern Texas. That’s a long way from Atlanta! Alas, Delta could not get me to my airport destination: Midland/Odessa. Welcome back, Continental, my old friend. Seeing Kirk Cameron (“Growing Pains”) on my flight from Houston to Midland/Odessa was a small consolation for not adding to my Delta total.

I added miles on subsequent trips, but then hit a few speed bumps. Georgia Southern University? Great school, had an awesome time. Three hour drive from my house and no commercial airport in Statesboro. Blackhawk Technical College in southern Wisconsin on Friday and Waubonsee Community College about an hour and half south of there on Saturday? Great! Flew up on Delta! Problem. Two gigs, one flight. And the only return that worked was on the Friendly Skies of United.

This type of subversion of my goal continued throughout the fall. Until finally, I calculated that I was going to come up 8,850 miles short of my goal, missing Gold for a third straight year. What to do?

I started plotting flights to Seattle, Anchorage, Los Angeles, anywhere that I could rack up miles. But, the costs were too prohibitive. What to do?

Then, I lucked out. On the day after Thanksgiving I found my answer. I was messing around with a couple of different travel sites as well as the Delta site, when I came across a $270 round trip airfare from Atlanta to LAX. What? How could that be? But, there it was. If I flew from Atlanta to LAX on Tuesday, December 15, I could fly there and then right back for that low price and pick up 3,892 miles. Boy, was this great!

But, it would still leave me over 5,000 miles short of my goal. Hmmmm, is it possible to do this roundtrip scenario and then… Could I do it again?

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In part 1 of this blog post, I discussed five of my reasons why you should want to get students involved in community service. But how do you get students to be involved in service to others? Here are five ways that have worked for me:

Five Hows

1) Install a community service requirement for all campus organizations, Emerging Leaders and Honors program participants, scholarship recipients, and SGA officers and senators, etc. This is pretty straight forward, but be prepared for push-back. Students will tell you they don’t have enough time to do community service, and that they are too busy with their leadership roles and other involvements. They may even use going to class as an excuse! Don’t buy it!

I was fortunate to work with a student in Circle K from Georgia Tech who showed me that academic success, leadership involvement, and community service did fit together. She was an honor student, involved in Circle K leadership (two years as chapter president, one year as District Governor) AND she worked for an engineering firm. During her last two years of school, she performed over 700 hours of community service while excelling in all other areas of her life. She was named as the Outstanding Chapter President in Georgia one year, and then Circle K International recognized her the next year as a Distinguished District Governor and the district won a Distinguished District Award for her year. She also received the Circle K International Service Recognition Award (for 250+ hours of service) each of those years. She was an exceptional student, a top student leader, and a true community servant. Come on, if she could do all of that, then your students can perform 5-10 hours of service per semester. Read the rest of this post »

Staff Development training is something that people working in Residence Life are very familiar with, but we often forget about the student workers who are changing lightbulbs and serving spaghetti in the student union. Many of these students, given the right tools, would make fantastic Student Affairs administrators, or could simply benefit from training outside of their normal job description. Working in both student union activities and campus housing, I’ve noticed a significant difference in the training and development programs between these areas. While many student union staff are trained specifically for their job function, resident assistants and housing staff are trained in life skills and are given several opportunities for experiences beyond the scope of their employment. This is an understandable difference because staff development is somewhat ingrained into the culture of Residence Life. Read the rest of this post »

I am a professional speaker because my dad used to toss beer cans out of the window of his car. (letting that sink in) I grew up in Wisconsin, at a time when drinking while driving, or even riding, was not the taboo it is today. I always thought there was something wrong with my dad littering like that. Then I saw a TV commercial with a Native American shedding a tear while looking at garbage along a highway. I knew then that I wanted to make a difference in all of the trash that I was seeing, and later in the world.

So, I joined the Scouts and when I got into high school, I joined a student organization dedicated to community service. It was in these organizations that I had my first formal leadership experiences. I found that through serving others, I was learning more about myself and how to be an effective leader.

As I moved on to college, I continued my community service involvement and sought out leadership opportunities. I moved up the ranks of Circle K International and eventually served as International President. I got to travel the world and speak to groups large and small. I was even on the Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon. Twice!

I really enjoyed traveling, speaking and helping college students to achieve their goals and make great things happen. I became a state advisor for Circle K in Georgia and loved working with students and watching their leadership abilities grow through serving others. This led me to the career I now have as a collegiate speaker, mentor, and trainer.

Servant leadership is a term that was coined by Robert Greenleaf, an AT&T executive, in the late 60’s. He wrote the titular essay on the subject and posited that true leadership grows out of an attitude of service to others. The work he started continues today (www.greenleaf.org) and is carried out in the work of students everywhere.

I believe there are five reasons why you should want to involve your students in community service and five ways that you can implement community service into your student leadership programs. Part 1 of this blog post addresses the “whys” - the “hows” are covered in Part 2. Read the rest of this post »

While preparing for my Graduate Assistantship interviews later this month and interviewing students to be my replacement at UWM, I’ve been forced to think about what skill is the most necessary for a Student Affairs student employee. I think most of the skills that we gain in Student Affairs, and the ones we ask students to learn are trainable skills. We can interview a student who may not have specific campus marketing or residential experience, but if they’re a well-rounded individual we can hire them because thankfully, when you’re working in Student Affairs, you’re always learning. Read the rest of this post »

Pepsi has answered the question this year in a big way. For the past 23 consecutive years they have run commercial during the Super Bowl…but not this year. In a decision that gives me hope, they are instead doing a social-media campaign to promote its “Pepsi Refresh” initiative.

Pepsi plans to give away $20 million in grant money to fund projects in six categories: health, arts and culture, food and shelter, the planet, neighborhoods and education. People can go to the Pepsi website refresheverything.com – which can also be accessed through Facebook and Twitter – to both submit ideas and vote on others they find appealing.

Among those on the site now: “Form an all girls club that promotes self-esteem in poverty area” and “Build a fitness center for all students in Hays, Kansas community.”

Every month, the company will offer up to 32 grants to worthy projects in increments of $5000, $25,000, $50,000 and $250,000.
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We’re now entering the second-half of the academic year and many of you are probably realizing that your programming budgets aren’t taking you as far as they used to. With deep budget cuts affecting universities across the nation, programming and student activities budgets can sometimes be the easiest for administrators to cut. But we still need to create fun, effective and educational programs for students. Below are some strategies that programmers use on my campus to cut costs and still run thousands of successful programs.

Share your resources

Find a department on campus whose mission is similar to your department’s or wants to do a similar program. Instead of running two similar programs why not pool your resources and share the cost. Both departments will benefit from the savings on staff, setup, supplies, etc., but they also get exposure to each other’s audiences. Resources doesn’t just mean money. Your department may have access to things the other doesn’t such as advertising space, contacts and student staff.

Open your space

If your department is fortunate enough to have space to hold a program, why not try reaching out to other departments and offer your space for free if they want to run a program there. They get free event space and you get a free program that will show off your department. For example: on my campus, a student working at our LGBT Resource Center and I teamed up to create LGBTQA bowling. This is an event series where the LGBT center recruits students by having them sign-up for free bowling when they enter the center. They get to offer free bowling to students and we get to have new people experience our space.

Think like a student

Many of us think that it takes a lot to impress a student these days, but there are a lot of simple and inexpensive ways to attract students to an event. Remember when you were an undergrad and all you wanted was a free meal or a chance to relax? The same holds true today. Instead of just giving away free stuff, have students put forth a small amount of effort and engage in your program to get the prize. An example of this might be if a program has info booths or smaller activities, have each area’s staff give participants an event card when finished. If the participants collect 2 or 3 cards, they get the free stuff.

Use what you have

Large campuses might have a leg-up on smaller campuses in this example, but it still works. Our universities are filled with knowledgeable young adults who are practicing in several different fields. Why not try tapping into someone seeking experience for your next event? If you’re running an event about student health, try contacting your campus’s nursing student association or college health professionals to see if they’ll provide student nurses for free health screenings. If your campus has a Physical Therapy or Sports Medicine program, their students may need experience in the field and could give massages or do demonstrations for free or dirt cheap.

These are only a few examples of the many ways we can save money and still run great events for our students. If you’ve got other ideas or comments on mine, please feel free to share them in the comments below.

This past September, I was recruited for combat duty by the Georgia Southern University Leadership Boot Camp. My job was to turn students into a well-oiled, combat-ready leadership machine. Ok, that is a bit of an exaggeration, but I was the keynote speaker (“10 Steps to a Winning Mental Attitude”) and a break-out session presenter (“Making the Most of Your 24/7” and “Everyday Leadership”). However, this blog entry is about what I saw the Georgia Southern people doing right and some ideas for you to use on your campus.

Success Tactic #1- The event was put together by Mandie Thacker, the leadership coordinator of the Office of Student Leadership and Civic Engagement, with the assistance of a committee of active, engaged students. This was the 46th annual fall conference! That tells me something about the consistency of this event (an important ingredient in developing student leaders). It is something students can count on and look forward to each fall. The co-chairs had both previously served on the planning committee and had experience in putting the event on. Read the rest of this post »

At the start of the academic year or the semester many colleges and universities conduct leadership programs and retreats for student government officers, members of the campus programming board, emerging leaders programs, and residence life. Many of these programs include a variety of topics including servant leadership and developing effective communication between team members. Usually, there is a team building element to these events where students get to know each other better and make connections that will hopefully make the year a success.

There is another large pool of student leaders on your campus who sometimes get overlooked and who also need to develop their leadership skills. Those are the officers and prominent members of other campus organizations. A half- or full-day training program can help run their organizations more effectively, get more students involved, and do some great things for your school and community. A great benefit of this training is that you increase involvement of more students through the organizations. This should lead to increased retention of those students at your institution, give them a greater sense of connection to the school, and diminish the challenges and disciplinary situations that you and other administrators may have to face. Overall, these students will have enhanced their educational experience and be better prepared for life beyond school. Read the rest of this post »

HE DID WHAT???

Are you ever in shock over the things your dorm mates or work buddies do? (Leave their shoes everywhere, never put anything back, etc.) You’d think they’d know better than that. Well, always remember “Common sense isn’t always common.”

Think about it. We live in such a diverse culture today that everybody has totally different expectations based on their own experiences. That’s why people can do what they do without embarrassment.

That was the subject of an article I recently read on AOL - ”How Toxic Behavior Leads to Sinful Behavior at Work.” The article did an excellent job of relating unseemly behavior in the workplace to the Seven Deadly Sins.. you know – envy, gluttony, greed, lust, pride, sloth and wrath. A great list and here’s seven more deadly sins I’ve come up with to expand the lsit to 14! Read the rest of this post »

Do you consume cold cereals, ketchup, hotdogs, aspartame, chocolate, powdered sugar, high fructose corn syrup, pop, or cakes/cookies/donuts? Are you a sugarholic? Chances are…you are! Have you ever attempted to remove sugar from your diet for even a short period of time? If so, I’ll bet life became REALLY unreasonable for you, huh? You probably went through withdrawal symptoms such as headaches, shakes, depression, decreased study habits, or even arguments with your roommate!

If you are anything like me when I first tried to remove it from my diet, you seriously considered getting back on the sugar fix pronto! Yes, I decided that I wanted to keep sweet stuff “in the mix” even though so many people advised otherwise. I know how hard it is to give up something you absolutely love. So, for the purposes of today’s energy booster, I will focus on strategies that help you adjust what you are already consuming, OK?

In strategy #1, we focused on how much you can boost your energy just by focusing on your breath and in strategy #2; we explored the idea of listening to your body and responding appropriately to its requests. Here is the third strategy to help boost your energy the natural way:Adjust your sugar intake. Read the rest of this post »

Being a professional speaker and student leadership trainer, I’m on college campuses facilitating leadership retreats and orientations often. This icebreaker has never failed. I’ve used it successfully with groups as small as 10 people all the way to 800 people. This is great for adding some fun and energy to a meeting or helping new acquaintances feel more comfortable around each other. Just follow my script and it will work for you too.

Create groups

The first thing I do is get them into smaller groups- ideally no less then 4 and no more than 12. It’s best if the groups are the same numbers, but depending on the number of people, that can be a difficult thing. My favorite size ranges from 8-10. It’s important to get them into their groups in quick and succinct manor.

Move them to the outside

“With your group, stand in a circle linking elbows. Without disconnecting your arms, shuffle yourselves to the outside of the room so you make a circle of circles. Go!” Get them to spread out; ideally, they are an equal distance from you in the center. Read the rest of this post »

I have had a lot of mentors in my life, people that I look up to, people who encouraged and supported me. They could have easily pushed me aside or told me I was never going to succeed, but they took an interest in me, and that has made all of the difference in my life. My friend, Dr. Jeanine C. Long, a Licensed Professional Counselor and Director of Career Placement and Development at Southwest Georgia Technical College in Thomasville, GA has had a similar experience. She sent me the following in response to my on-going request for people to send in their own stories of success, mentors, triumphs and more.

Glass Beach used to be a public dump. Refuge was thrown off the cliff and into the ocean including old cars, household garbage, and a lot of glass. In 1967, the dump, located in Ft. Bragg, California, a little coastal town in the northern part of the state, was closed. At first, the beach was a natural disaster but after years of pounding surf, tons and tons of polished glass looking like priceless gems were deposited on the shore.

In the 1990s, Glass Beach was reopened to the public. In the summer of 2006, I found myself sitting on its shoreline and I realized that my life was like this polished glass! No one had given me hope for college. My high school counselor even told me, “You will never get accepted by a college, but if by fluke you do, you will never make it. You just don’t have what it takes.”

Well, I did get accepted and it was by my first-choice college! However, I left after my freshman year. I felt ruined, worthless, and tossed away. Storms, rough waves, and circumstances made me feel like the pieces of glass that had been dumped into the ocean: broken.

Two years later, a single mom with a minimum-wage job, I returned to college. What happened to me those next few years was nothing short of a miracle. As I weathered the storms and was tossed by the waves, my life was being polished. Back then, I didn’t recognize what was happening to me as instructors, mentors, and peers washed me to shore as a shining gem. I was no longer broken trash.

The jar of polished glass on my desk reminds me of where I came from. Without the storms, waves, and pounding, that glass would be just glass. But want a difference adversity can make in a broken life!

Do you toss others aside as trash and broken refuse? Or, do you push them forward, gently brushing off and reshaping sharp, jagged edges, allowing their scratched lives to shine? I choose to be a glass polisher.

I would love to hear your story, too. Please take a moment to comment here with your story. And then, why not drop a note to one of your mentors to thank them for being a glass polisher for you?

I wasn’t kidding! I really do want to write about YOU in a future blog post! Tell me how you have overcome obstacles, achieved goals, or surpassed the expectations of others—especially those who may have underestimated you. If you want to tell me your story, but don’t want me to publish your name, I can do that too!

Here’s your motivation tip: Avoid routines, do something unusual

Are you in a rut, bunky? Feeling like every day is like the day before? And you are certain that you are not caught up in a “Star Trek” or “Groundhog Day” like time loop?

I have an idea for you!

Change things up! Do something impulsive, unusual, or out of your world. Go for a bike ride, take a dance class, or apply to be an astronaut. An astronaut? Sure! You might not make it, but would it not be cool to go through the interview process?

Or take a trip. As a professional speaker, I travel a lot. My primary airline is Delta Airlines, since I travel from Atlanta, and I annually qualify as a “Silver Medallion” frequent flyer (25,000 miles flown in a calendar year). Each of the past three years I have fallen 5-6,000 miles short of “Gold Medallion” status (50,000 miles). That is very frustrating, because as a “Silver” I get one bonus mile for every four that I fly. As a “Gold”, I would get a one to one, plus a higher priority for upgrades, and some other perks.

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We all want money, and one thing for sure is this – we can do a lot more with money than without it! However, in order to get money so that we can do the things we say we want to do, we’ve got to have the knowledge or “know how” to get it and more important, how to keep it! Here is a short parable that illustrates the money priority…

Once upon a time, in a far away land, a young man went to the forest and said to his spiritual master, “I want to have unlimited wealth, I want to help and heal the world. Will you please tell me the secret to creating wealth?”

And the spiritual master replied, “There are two Goddesses that reside in the heart of every human being. Everybody is deeply in love with these supreme beings. But there is a certain secret that you need to know, and I will tell you what it is. Although you love both Goddesses, you must pay more attention to one of them. She is the Goddess of Knowledge. Pursue her and give her all of your attention.

The other Goddess if the Goddess of Wealth. When you pay more attention to the Goddess of Knowledge, the Goddess of Wealth will become extremely jealous and pay more attention to you. The more you seek the Goddess of Knowledge, the more the Goddess of Wealth will seek you. She will follow you wherever you go and never leave you. And the wealth you desire will be yours forever.”

So, for all of you aspiring millionaires, it’s time to buckle down and pursue the Goddess of Knowledge. Amp up your study skills by disciplining your mind and staying focused on what’s important. Once you build a firm foundation for learning and living, The Goddess of Wealth will see to it that you have lots of positive cash flow, but you’ve got to do your part. So get busy pursuing the Goddess of Knowledge and get busy at all costs!

OK, I admit it, like many of you I love the TV show, “Glee!” I love the music, the stories, the ironies, and definitely Jane Lynch, as Sue Sylvester, who is the most amazing character actress around.

Why do I love it so? Well, it is about high school, and I went to high school. It is about athletes, and I was an athlete as a prep (8 letters in 3 sports-most in my class, thank you!). And it is about show choir, which I was a member of. In fact, the Horace Mann High Schoolswing choir went to state two of the three years that I was involved. The one year we did not make it was because of a prima donna guy who messed up everything for everyone. The first year, when I was a sophomore, we won at state with a combo of “Cry Me a River” and “All For The Best” from the Broadway show “Godspell”. That was our school musical that year and I was bitten by the acting bug and the joy of being in front of audiences.

What are your favorite “Glee!” moments?

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I just had my whole thought process rearranged by my friend, Chris Jachimowicz. Don’t worry about your weaknesses. It will take so much more effort to improve them than it will to improve your strengths. Learn more about your strengths at http://www.StrengthsQuest.com.

I recorded this as I was walking down The Tunnel of Lights in Chicago.

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I’m always amazed that we seem to know more about our gadgets, computers and VCRs than we do our own brains. In order to utilize and get the most from the precious gift you carry around, you might want to learn a little more about it. And who would be the foremost authority? Carl Sagan for one.

Never mind that Carl Sagan sounds like Agent Smith in the Matrix, he was one of the most popular and fascinating scientists of our times. He was an expert in astronomy, astrochemistry and other natural sciences, and he pioneered exobiology or the origin, evolution and future of life in the universe. Boy oh boy, was this some heavy dude or what?

What I love about Carl Sagan is that he connects the dots like none other. He can talk about the universe and space travel and then bring that conversation right down to the universe we carry around on our necks everyday – the amazing human brain.

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How many times have you heard the phrase “you’re not listening to me!” or “you need to listen better?” Chances are that you have heard these phrases a lot during your time at college. It may be your professor trying to emphasize an important point after too much discussion during the lecture, your roommate’s dissatisfaction with the way you have been ignoring her, your parents schooling you about the money you’ve wasted, or even your boyfriend trying to get you to agree with his perspective.

Listening to other people can be a bore when you really don’t want to. And it can even be more of a challenge when the person you are not listening to is yourself. Have you ever thought about that? Listening to yourself? I’m not talking about a crazy person. I’m referring to the art of listening to your “inner voice.”

You know it; it is the voice that says “don’t go partying tonight because you have to get up early tomorrow for class and it will be the final exam.” Or, it may be your body screaming “I’m tired! I’m exhausted! I need to get some rest or I won’t make it much further!” When your body starts to “talk to you” in a negative way, it is past due time for you to listen.

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Employers receive approximately 100 resumes per week! That includes resumes submitted online as well as mailed. Out of that number, they keep approximately one-third to read and evaluate. And to make matters worse, only a total of 10 applicants will probably be interviewed.

So, what does it take to make sure people don’t shuffle your resume (application) to the bottom of the pile? Your information has to be MEMORABLE. What does that mean? From the format to the font style to the envelope it’s sent in, all of these items will determine which one will pull interest and actually be read.

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