In the previous post titled “Determinig your Acts of Initiative- Part III” we looked at developing your leadership ability through being willing to increase your flexibility when faced or requested to do an univiting task in answer to Question #4. , which is part of a discussion on increasing your odds of winning admission to the Air Force Academy by increasing your initiative.
This post is part of a series called “Determining your Acts of Initiative ,” which is part of a discussion on increasing your odds of winning admission to the Air Force Academy by increasing your initiative.
Throughout these posts, I’ve 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 also shared with you in this series of post thoughts on why your answers to the questions that I’ve posed could be considered to be 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” as well as “Determining your Acts of Initiative - Part II” , and “Determining your Acts of Initiative - Part III” 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 #5 ……..
5. Do you remember a time during the past year when you were a bit apprehensive or unsure about trying something new, but you went ahead and tried it anyway? Maybe it was trying a new sport or learning a new skill, or helping someone else? What happened and what were the results?
No one likes to look foolish. But at times it seems as though there are a lot of opportunities out there to look exactly that way, doesn’t it?
Maybe you were the first one to volunteer in the classroom to present the results of a difficult problem, but your presentation didn’t go quite as well as you had hoped.
Maybe you were trying out for a new sport, or trying out a new drill in a sport that you already play, but your performance didn’t go as well as you had hoped.
If you’ve been there, I’m sure that you know exactly what I’m talking about.
Or maybe everything went great. You did something that you were uncomfortable with, maybe even a little bit scarred, and it went much better than you thought that it would.
Whether that situation went as you hoped that it would or whether you instead feel as though you came up short, there’s something that I want you to know.
You won.
I’m not saying that you necessarily won at this attempt.
You won because you decided to surrender yourself to the process that provides for success.
When you see someone else achieve a big success, all that you typically see is the end result. What you typically don’t see is the anywhere from 1 to 15 or more years that it typically takes to acheive a substantial level of success.
Between the time of that first effort when most people are trying to achieve something and the success that finally comes, there is typically some failure, a some improvement and then probably some more failure, and then maybe a long span of time where it doesn’t seem like much is happening.
But staying committed to going through that process and focusing on actions that you can take to improve your peformance are your keys to success.
If you feel like things aren’t happening fast enough or are still a touch worried about trying something new, you may want to think of your path to success as if you were a beginning golfer.
You probably know a golfer. If not, then you’ve likely seen one on TV, or you’ve at least seen one as you passed by a nearby golf course. What you may not know is the process that golfers have to go through to be assigned a handicap.
Whether they take some lessons, watch some videos, or get some pointers from a friend, most beginning golfers spend many hours on the driving range before they ever play their first round of golf.
A lot of times, a golfer will play several rounds without scoring at all so that they can focus on technique without getting frustrated by the score.
To be assigned a handicap, a golfer must have at least 10 scorecards that are signed by both the golfer, and by someone who has him or her on that round.
Why am I telling you this?
Well, look at it this way. As I just said, a golfer needs to have someone accompany him or her on at least 10 rounds of golf. A round of golf is 18 holes. Let’s say that each one of those holes is Par 3. (”Par” is the number of strokes that you should need to put the ball in the hole.)
That’s 10×18x3 =540. That beginning golfer will likely have a minimum of 540 times for things to “not go as well as he hoped” in front of someone else.
And since beginning golfers are highly unlikely to make Par on every hole, that number will likely be a lot higher.
Yet in spite of that reality, I see golfers as I drive past various courses all the time.
Your success is a process. Keep focused on staying with and improving within that process. Any few ungraceful moments that you may experience are just part of the game.
Success is usually looking at things from a long term perspective and taking daily action to improve. That’s a good answer that you can carry with you to your Air Force Academy interviews, and it’s a great idea to put into practice in all areas of your life.
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