Communication principles

This week we are continuing on our project to help kids with special needs that are going to our school. Besides that, we are learning about attitudes and exterior look that can reveal a lot about us.

People are approaching us and talking to us, and it is in great measure determined by look on our faces, our external look or by gestures we do. If you have your arms crossed or in your pockets that can mean to some people you are not in good mood to talk and they wont even try to do so. But if you have you hands next to you, or only one of them in your pocket, that can mean that you are happy and opened to talk. Our look is in great measure determined by our mood, and our look is actually opinion we have about our selfs. If we are sloppy that can mean we do not care about how we look or what is going on. If we are too dressed up tough, it can mean that we think we are the best and that we are always right.

There is no ideal behavior and people will always have ticks, or gestures or something else. But if we realize it we can try stop it when it starts happening. I think we are learning this because of our upcoming start of work with special education students, and that we should know this because to them it means a lot more than it means to us. If they do not see you are interested in them, it will not be good and even tough it is not always on purpose it can seem like that to them. So always be aware of your gestures and actions and people will have a good opinion about you.

Friendship/help project

Today one teacher that works with special education kids came to our class to talk about those kids, and how we can be engaged in process of helping them.

He explained us what are situations with every kid at this moment, and what are difficulties they meet every day. He explained what are ways of helping every kid individually and what kind of help they need. He said that it is not gonna be easy in beginning but that we have to have patience and that soon kids will like us. All in all, everything these kids need is attention. They want same things we wanted a few years ago. They won't to be able to talk to someone, instead of being rejected; they want to be included in conversations and classes because  they are able to be, it depend on us will we except them or not. And if we have any sense for people, WE WILL. Same way as we wanted to be accepted when we were on their intellectual level, now we have to accept them and try in to help them develop, both intellectually and as persons. We will continue working on this project  and soon I hope we will start working with those kids.

Mission statement

This weeks topic is Mission statement about our task to help special education kids. Our entire class should write Mission statements which we will use in our trying to help kids with special needs. We will try to help them by playing games with them during our seminar time. It will take only few minutes from our side, but it will mean a lot to them. 


Our mission is to help develop young men with active and creative minds, a sense of understanding and compassion for others, and the courage to act on their beliefs. I want to try help for total development of each child: spiritual, moral, intellectual, social, emotional, and physical. 

I believe:

1. The change is an opportunity to progress;

2. That just a try from our side can help them integrate and to feel better;

3. That everyone must be treated same and with respect;

They did not choose to be born with disabilities, but they were and we need to try help them. It could be some of us, and that is why we need to try to understand them and to help them.

Leadership in its full meaning

I have been writing a lot about leadership, but last few days I learned in practice things I learned from books and teaching.

Leadership is not reading book and after you are done you say "I am a leader now". Leadership is about being involved. I do not say it is bad things to read a book, it is good but you should apply things you learn from those books to real life. My group and I have a task to research about some given subject. We were having problems because no one was steping forward and everyone was waiting for someone ellse to do their job. Now we started doing good, we organized and every person did its job. But we did it because someone said, this is not good we have to change something. And we did, and that is only a simple school task. In life you will have much more serious and important tasks and how will you accomplish them depend on how do you do small tasks as this one. Also to be a leader, you have to believe in your goal and things you do. And if you believe, than it will be much more easier to make decisions.

So whatever you do, even a simple task, always give your best and do not wait someone ellse to do your job and you will do good in life.

PDSA

I will write about new method I learned this week. It is called PDSA method. It stands for Plan, Do, Study, Act and it means exactly that.

PDSA method is used to help implement innovations and make changes and observe them. Plan part of this means that you should understand the problem and try to find opportunity in the problem. You should select your team and define all parts of problem or issue. Do part means that you should try to do something related to that problem, to make some change in the way things are done. After that you should Study. This part means that you observe results made from changes you made and trying to find the best solution. After analyzing the results, you should make final plan of action and to Act. In this part you should simply implement the solution you came up with as the best one, and if you did your PDSA good, things should be better. In PDSA, you can use lot of different charts and tables to record your results and to see what is the best solution. Using those charts you can follow the results and changes and decide what is good or bad.

Leadership skills and development

This week, I attended leadership conference with student councils in Ames. It was my first conference that type and I really learned a lot.

People are what they want to be. We are not all born equal, some of us are poor, some of us are rich, some of us are healthy others are not. But what we all have in common is opportunity. We all have chance to do something useful with our life, or to waste it. It does not always have to be shown by who earned a lot of money, or who has some material things. It is always shown by number of friends you have and what are those friends like. One man on conference said, "Show me your friends and I will show you your future". Other saying says, "Show me who your friends are, and I will know who you are". That is true. If you have people that care about you, and are your support ит will be much easier to succeed in life. You will have solid base for your future, and people you can always talk to. Our friends we choose on our own, and we decide in what environment are we gonna be and develop our future.

So, whatever you do always choose your friends wisely. Your future is decided by decisions you make as a young person, so always be sure you are giving your best to do right things.

Decision making

This weeks topic are decisions and decision making. What are decisions? Those are choices we make every day, that shape our life now and our future later. Decisions can be good and bad, and people make decisions not even knowing they made them. They can be small like, will you get up at 6 or 7am, or big ones like Will you buy house or you will live in apartment.

Most common opinion is that teenagers make a lot of wrong decisions. And they sure do. Reasons for it are that teenagers are often under influence of society, friends, conditions of life, social media and list goes on and on. They but also all people should base their decisions on our moral and our values. If you want to be decisive leader, you should make your decisions based on: 1) Accurate facts; 2) Wise counsel; 3) Clearly defined goals;. Only if you make your decisions based on this, you can say you did everything you could to get best decision possible.

So, whenever you want to make a decision spend some time thinking about it and if you follow these instructions you will be able to say you did wright thing.

This week, we have to deliver persuasive speech. My speech is about texting and driving, and here are some outlines from it.

Have you ever received text message while driving? And have you ever thought that it is important to text that person back? Well, think again!

By some researches I've found, 8 out of 10 people driving are agreed with all types of restrictions while driving. Yes, you heard me, that is 80%. But did you also know that most of those drivers who agree with restrictions have violated them at some point of time. Today, I will be talking about statistics and researches about texting and driving. I will try to show how texting while driving influences you. But wait, there are more people driving is same time as you. So you are in chance not just to hurt yourself, but also people driving in car with you, or innocent walker or other drivers. And for what, why? By site Nationwide.com, if you are using phone and driving you are 4 times likely to have a crash or cause an accident and hurt you and other people. I also found a statistic that texting uses 37% of brain activity related to driving. I ask you, are you wiling to risk lives just to write text message? Think, that can happen to people you care about. Studies show this is almost as dangerous as drunk driving. And I know some of you think that it can't happen to you, and that you are not distracted. Well you are wrong. Utah university proved that using cell-phone while driving, whether it is hand held or hands free delays drivers reactions as much as having a blood alcohol concentration at legal limit of 0,8%. That means you will late with your reaction, maybe too late. So if you think it can't happen to you, you should better think again. Using cell phone will delay your reaction, and even it is for just a second, that second can be difference between life and death. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDb-15hAtxY, this is code for YouTube video. Paste it to YouTube search bar and you will see what I am talking about.

This is all I have got to say. Statistics and researches proved this, thousands of dead people in crashes every year proved this. Texting while driving is dangerous. Do not be that person.

First follower

What is first follower? That is a person that recognizes good idea presented by certain person, and helps developing that idea and converting it from idea to a movement and action. He also helps that person that presented idea to become a leader. So if you think better, without first follower there is no action. He is the one that shows other people how to follow, and what to do. When leader embraces him, then it is no more about leader, it is about that movement and they become equal. First follower is some form of leader himself, because he leads other person to become a leader. He has to have guts, and has to maybe embarrass himself to attract other people to movement, and then it will go on it's own. More and more people will join group, but all started with just one follower.

So remember, if you see and recognize a good idea, do not be afraid to follow it and try to develop it to its limits. First follower is important, he is the one that transforms everything from idea to action.

My five goals for next mont

Five short term goals, that I will try to accomplish in next mont are:
1-Every day spend minimum hour doing homework and studying. My goal is to have 4.0 GPA.
2-Every weekend spend 2 hours volunteering. My goal is 8-10 hours in next month.
3-Every day make improvements to my poster about Serbia, and spend half-hour per day creating it. This is for accomplishing program requirements. Goal is to have it ready for presentations next month.
4-Every morning get up at 6:45 and go jogging to keep in shape. My goal is to get from 175 to 170 pounds.
5-Every day lift weights for half hour. My goal is to get from 25 to 30 pounds.

Core values

This weeks topic are Core values. There is a lot of definitions what Core values are, but I am not going to write them. I will write my seeing of Core values.

Core values are things you believe in. They are like a root for a person, and they determine how we act and what is important to us. Decisions we make are consequence of our Core values. Our values actually show what we believe in. As you grow up and get older you have more and more Core values, but you never loose your previous ones. If you think something is good, you will still believe in it but you will just add some new values or you will expand old ones. One of Core values is family, and when you grow up and expand your family you also expand your values related to your family. Man has a lot of values, and if he believe in them 99 percent of his decisions are already made. If your values are strong, and you believe in them that says a lot of you as a person.If a person has core values and believe in them, they have them because think their values are good and that person will have no problem making even the hardest decisions. They will just follow their values and know that they did a good thing, and made right decision. I have Core values in which I believe in. Some of my values are family, faith and persistence. I have more of them, but these are some of most important.

And so, every person should think about their Core values and to see are they relining on them while making decisions. If you want to have Core values have them because you, and do not look at other people values. Close your eyes and you will see thing that mater to you, those things are your Core values.

Vision

This week topic is vision. Probably everyone of us know what it is, but how often do you make your vision and more important, how hard do you try to accomplish it?

What is vision? Vision is plan that you make for future, that is how you see yourself in certain period of time. If you have vision, you probably have faith because those two go together. Faith is ability to believe in something even if you can't see it. If you have vision, and you believe that you can accomplish it you are on half way there.

There is quote I like, it says: "When you are born, everybody are smiling but you are only one crying. Live your life in such way on the end you are the only one smiling, and everybody else are crying". I like this quote because it shows us that you can make your life worth something, and that people will be sad that good man died but you will be happy because you know you did good job and that you accomplished your vision.

Success comes when readiness meets opportunity. If you have vision and try to accomplish it, eventually there will be chance for you to use it. Vision without action is like a dream, action without vision is simply passing time. When vision meets action, that is making positive difference.  This is also a good quote, and it shows thing I wrote on beginning of this paragraph.

So for the end, dream big and try to accomplish it. My favorite quote is:"You do not lose until you quit trying".  
Never quit trying, if you accomplish smaller tasks every day they will lead you to your goal.

Law off process, and our rights

This week was fast one, it passed quickly but in that time I learned a lot about Law or process. You have to work on your changes and improvements daily, you can't wake up and say "I will change" and think that is enough. You have to put effort in what you do and to it every day. I like the quote "Leaders are not born, they are made", because it shows us that everyone can improve it-self and to be better. You only have to try, sometimes maybe it will seem that goal is not worth of changes and that everything is good how it is now, but think twice. Nobody is perfect, you should admit that and try to improve your-self. Life is like an open book, and with lots of free pages to write every day.

And about our rights. I think all people are free to do whatever they want, wherever they want, whenever they want, BUT only if that does not hurt other people. It is hard to find middle, because it is hard for all people to get along and all people can't be satisfied with all rules, but what would life look like without that. People should not be controlled for no reason. When I heard about people being ticketed for taking beer cans on street on Iowa game days I was shocked. People should have right to take those, if they are not causing problems. Some person can get alcohol at home, and go drunk to game but he wont be ticketed because he did not have can with  him. Thats way it is hard to find middle. Rights are really heavy topic, because people should have rights, but they often abuse them and then it is hard to adjust them to fit all people. Because small percentage of people does some things, bigger percentage has to make rules and to adjust them.

Things I would like people to say about me for my 85th birthday

These are things I would like people to say about me for my 85th birthday, and I hope that I will live the day to hear this things. I hope that I would accomplish my goals, and that I will deserve to hear this words.

1-He believed that his has a purpose, and that he can change things to better. He changed himself even do it was not easy to do. He set a trail there where no one did, and he was truly a leader.

2-He never complained about life, and asked why am I not rich or powerful. He accepted it and always tried to be better, not because others but because himself.

3-He had his commitments and he fought for them without fears. When it was hard he continued, because he knew it has to be hard to become better.

4-And probably the most important, he is a husband and a father who loves his family and they are most important thing in his life, and he is also a good man.

If I live day that I will hear this words, I will know that I did not wasted my life and that I am truly a happy man.

Comitments

Every succesfull man, a leader has to have some plans for future. These plans are called Comitments, and when one person makes them that person should folow them without any fears.

Here are comitments that I made and that I will try to folow in my trying to become a better man, and to became a succesfull leader.

1.   Work today, to have better tomorow;
2.   Live your every day like it is last, becouse you will not get a second chance;
3.   If you have dreams, fight to make them real;
4    Make goals, and try to reach them;
5.   Attitude means a lot, but the gratitude is important to;
6.   Do not wait someone else to do something for you, do it yourself;
7.   Do not be afraid to step up and express your ideas.
8.   People rely on you, try not to let them dissapoint in you;
9.   When it is hard continue, you do not lose until you stop trying;
10.  Difference betwen things that can and can't be done is in mans will to try, always try;
11.  Prepare for the worste and defeat, but work and fight for the best and victory;