In the previous post titled “Determinig your Acts of Initiative- Part II” we looked at developing your leadership ability through volunteering to take on additional leadership and administrative responsibilities in answer to Question #3, which is part of a discussion on increasing your odds of winning admission to the Air Force Academy by increasing your initiative.
In another 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 shared with you in that post 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” and the “Determining your Acts of Initiative - Part II” 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 #4 ……..
4. Do you remember a time during the past year when you didn’t want to do something, because you didn’t feel as though you “had to,” or you just didn’t want to do the task in the same manner that you were being told to do it? Maybe you just didn’t like the current system that was in place, and you felt as though it was cutting into something that was important to you?
Did you then change your mind and complete the task, and realize that it wasn’t so bad after all?
Doing tasks that are less than thrilling are going to be a part of life, no matter what.
Sometimes you will have to do these less than thrilling tasks simply because they are a part of your job. Sometimes you will create these less than thrilling tasks becuase of actions you take, or perhaps, fail to take. And sometimes these less than thrilling tasks are created by others or by your environment.
If you have read Zoomie to Be: How to Win an Appointment to the Air Force Academy and are working hard to implement the necessary strategies so that you can win admission to the Air Force Academy, then my bet is that you have a very full and busy life right now.
You’re working hard to do well in school. You’re working hard to do well outside of school.
So while you’re cranking along getting all of this important stuff done in your life, all of a sudden, one of these tasks comes along that is - you guessed it- less than thrilling!
Maybe someone asked you to do something, and you didn’t realy want to do what you were requested to do. Maybe you disliked the thought of doing the task so much that you tried to convince yourself that you didn’t “have to” do whatever it was.
Maybe you’re pushed for time. Maybe you don’t feel as though you’ve received the proper recognition (or at least, the proper thanks) from the one who is assigning you the task. Maybe you’re convinced that you have a better way of completing the task than the way that you’re being told to do it.
In other words, in terms of your personal growth, doing this task just gets in your way, right?
Well, maybe it’s time to try a new strategy. In order for you to develop your own leadership capabilities in this situation, maybe it’s time to consider that having to do the task isn’t really the point of your new found “challenge.”
Please note that I didn’t say not to do the task that you were assigned, because getting the task done is precisely the point for whoever it was that assigned it to you. And not getting it done as quickly and as effectively as possible could make you experience a not-so-pleasant confrontation that you would probably want to avoid.
What I’m talking about is looking at completion of your assigned task as an opportunity to increase your own flexibility.
If you hop on over to www.merriam-webster.com and look up the word “flexible,” you’ll find a definition of flexible as being “characterized by a ready capability to adapt to new, different, or changing requirements.”
You will likely find that as you go the Air Force Academy Admissions process that your flexibility is going to be tested. Forms have to be completed, tests have to be taken, and any deficiencies that you may have will have to be overcome.
Flexibility will likely be one of the most valuable traits that you can posess as a leader. So whatever task you may be avoiding, make a commitment to yourself that you will take action now and record the results. You may find that the task wasn’t so bad, or that the method that you had to use to complete the task wasn’t so bad after all.
In any event, you’ll have something to write down or to talk about when someone asks you to talk about a time when you face a challenging situation with a co-worker, teammate, or boss, and how you handled the challenge.
And if you are going to be applying to the Air Force Academy, that is a question that you should be prepared to answer.
For more tips and strategies on how you can increase your odds of winning admission to the Air Force Academy, order a copy of the e-manual Zoomie to Be: How to Win an Appointment to the Air Force Academy right now by visiting www.airforceacademyappointment.com .
You can also get the manual in paperback at www.lulu.com/content/364596.
Until next time, use your initiative, get out there, and seize the day!
To Your Success,
Elizabeth