In the previous post titled “Determining your Acts of Initiative,” I asked you a series of 5 questions to help you to discover 5 acts of initiative that you have taken within the past year. I’ve shared with you the thoughts on why your answers to Questions #1 and #2 are acts of initiative.
If you have no idea what I’m talking about, then please visit a post that I wrote, titled “Have you been exercising initiative lately?”, and then check out the post “In what ways have you been exercising your initiative lately? ”
Even if you’ve come up with your 5 acts of initiative on your own, you’ll probably want to review the “Determining your Acts of Initiative” post so that you can catch up to where we are now. No worries; this post will still be here when you get done reading.
Let’s discover another act of initiative by looking at Question #3 ……..
3. Do you remember a time during the past year when you volunteered to do something, maybe at your church or place of worship, or with a club or a sports team? Maybe with a local community group? What did you do, and what were the results?
Organizations, particularly volunteer organizations, are always in need of those who are willing to show initiative and get results.
Here’s something to think about. When you get involved in any activity, whether it is a sport, a volunteer organization, or your first job, there are three levels at which you can develop yourself.
A. You can do only what is required of you, and nothing more.
B. You can do more than what is required in order to excel at the job that you perform in that organization.
C. You can do more than what is required of you not only to excel at the job that you perform in that organization, but also to develop valuable leadership, organizational, and managerial skills to use in other areas of your life, even years later!
I’ll touch briefly on point “A.” right now………
In any activity you are involved in, you may choose to do only what is requested of you, and nothing more. You can do the drills that your coach tells you to do while giving your all. You can do the things required of a member of your club or local community group.
While doing things that are required of you are important, it won’t do a lot for you in terms of expanding your initiative.
Remember, the definition of initiative is energy or aptitude displayed in initiation of action. There is only so much that you can do to develop your initiative (or “initiation of action”) while performing actions that someone else has told you to perform.
Now let’s talk about point “B.“, which is doing more than what is required in order to excel at the job that you perform in that organization.
I’ll give you a couple of examples. Are you on the soccer team? If you play any sport at all, I’m sure that there are drills that you can practice on your own to improve yourself, outside of your regular practices with your team.
Are you involved with a local community group? Then I’m sure that there are extra tasks that need to be done to help keep everything running smoothly, which you can volunteer to do. Even if it is paperwork.
I realize that paperwork isn’t glamorous, but the truth is that much of what gets accomplished in this country happens with a certain amount of paperwork involved.
For example, a bridge that you may drive across on a regular basis didn’t just magically appear. It took the work of a lot of construction workers, but their work was preceded by a lot of paperwork, including architectural plans, material lists, budgets, estimated time of completion data, and so on. These are just a few of the things that have to be done before the bridge can be built.
In other words, by volunteering to do things that may be outside your job description or outside of the role that you play, you’ll likely not only perform your own job better, but you will help the organization that you are involved with to run more smoothly. You’ll also be developing your initiative.
Let’s now look at point “C“, which is doing more than what is required of you not only to excel at the job that you perform in that organization, but also to develop valuable leadership, organizational, and managerial skills to use in other areas of your life.
You can also view your participation in sports, clubs, or local community groups as a way to gain skills that will carry over into other activities in life. In other words, you should definitely work to excel in everything that you choose to do. But you should also take a look at what you can take with you that will help you to excel in other areas of your life.
For example, let’s say that you are on a soccer team. You work hard in practices, and you even practice on your own time. You’re a positive person, and you may have even been chosen as the team Captain. Or maybe you weren’t chosen as the team Captain. In terms of showing initiative, your position really doesn’t matter.
No matter what your position or status on the team, here is a great opportunity to develop your initiative and your leadership skills, which is something that the Air Force Academy admissions department looks for when you apply!
How, you may ask?
Well, let’s say that there are some weaker players on your team. If you have worked hard to develop a positive relationship with these players, you may find that a couple of them want to do additional work to improve their own playing abilities.
You could literally develop a “practice outside of the main team practice” in order to show these not as skilled players different drills and techniques. You could make out a written chart of where each of these players is in terms of skills (passing, dribbling, indirect kicks, etc.) and then work with each one to improve these areas. And you could also keep track of where each player is by keeping a special log book to write down what you are doing to improve each player, and any problems that you are experiencing and what you are doing to overcome them.
If you were to do something like this, you would likely improve your communication skills by mentoring the players that you were working with and instructing them. You would also likely improve your written organization and planning skills by sketching out what you plan to accomplish in advance of your sessions with the players. After all, you can’t “wing” your training sessions with them, otherwise both you and they are going to lose interest pretty quickly.
I’ve got more to say about this, so I think that I will continue on this same topic in my next post.
For more information on tips and strategies that can help you win admission to the Air Force Academy, get your official copy of Zoomie to Be: How to Win an Appointment to the Air Force Academy right now.
You can get a copy of Zoomie to Be in electronic format by going to www.airforceacademyappointment.com or in paperback by going to www.lulu.com/content/364596 .
Until next time, use your initiative, get out there, and seize the day!
To Your Success,
Elizabeth