Happy Thanksgiving

This is an email I sent to our leadership academy today....

Campus is really quiet today.  It is raining and slowly I can see the snow starting to mix in.  I hope all of you that are travelling over the thanksgiving break are safe and are or will be with the ones you loves soon.  Thanksgiving is one of my favorite times of the year.  I enjoy seeing old friends and spending some quality time with family.  I hope you get a chance to express your thanks and gratitude to the people you have received so many blessings from during the year.  I want to thank you all for the work you are doing within the Loyola Greyhounds Leadership Academy.  I have two things I wanted to share with you all.

I wanted to gather as a group and enjoy a nice meal and have a chance to talk about being a leader and what we have learned during our time together.  I will send an invitation so please RSVP to that invite.  It should be a nice get together.

The other item I wanted to share was the Campus Ministry #Gratitude campaign.  If you get a chance send a tweet out to to recognize those who you are thankful for—and as the staff from Campus Ministry said - to use the month of November as an opportunity to "bring a little joy and delight to the ones who have meant so much to us." If you did not see the video  click here to check it out -  video from Felisa Velasco, '15, and Paul Lozowicki, '16.  After you share who you are thankful for, Campus Ministry encourages you to invite someone else to share his or her person of #Gratitude.  Use the hashtag and @LoyolaCampusMin.

And what would one of my emails be without a poem, I think this is perfect for gratitude and thanksgiving.… Enjoy your weekend…

Prayer for the Great Family

by Gary Snyder

Gratitude to Mother Earth, sailing through night and day—
        and to her soil: rich, rare and sweet
                            in our minds so be it.

Gratitude to Plants, the sun-facing, light-changing leaf
        and fine root-hairs; standing still through wind
        and rain; their dance is in the flowering spiral grain
                            in our minds so be it.

Gratitude to Air, bearing the soaring Swift and silent
        Owl at dawn. Breath of our song
        clear spirit breeze
                            in our minds so be it.

Gratitude to Wild Beings, our brothers, teaching secrets,
        freedoms, and ways; who share with us their milk;
        self-complete, brave and aware
                            in our minds so be it.

Gratitude to Water: clouds, lakes, rivers, glaciers;
        holding or releasing; streaming through all
        our bodies salty seas
                            in our minds so be it.

Gratitude to the Sun: blinding pulsing light through
        trunks of trees, through mists, warming caves where
        bears and snakes sleep— he who wakes us—
                            in our minds so be it.

Gratitude to the Great Sky
        who holds billions of stars— and goes yet beyond that—
        beyond all powers, and thoughts
        and yet is within us—
        Grandfather Space.
        The Mind is his Wife.
                            so be it.

                                                        after a Mohawk prayer

Gary Snyder, Turtle Island
New Directions, New York, 1974, pp. 24-25

Have a great Thanksgiving!

Dave

Last Year's Leadership Conference at USNA

This is an email I sent out to our student-athletes last year... I will be attending this conference again in 2015.

I returned yesterday from a trip to the United States Naval Academy.  I had the pleasure of attending the USNA Leadership Conference with Andrew McGill (Men’s Golf), Anna Bosse (Track and Cross Country) and our two student interns from Campus Ministry Ed Ortiz and Christin Campbell.  (If you bump into them ask them about the conference!)

There were 220 student leaders from over 60 schools.  There were regular students, ROTC members, Midshipmen and Cadets from military academies and also student-athletes.  The theme of the conference was Followership: The Evolution of a Leader.

I wanted to share just a couple highlights from the event and will share some more in the future.  The conference featured talks by former Vice President Dick Cheney, current VP for US Public Policy for Facebook Joel Kaplan, Lieutenant General Sattler of the USMC, Astronaut Chris Cassidy, and many more. It was amazing and the takeaways were numerous.

The first talk that I want to talk to you all about was by Captain Will Byrne, Commandant of Midshipmen at the USNA.  

The best way to describe his role in terms of Loyola is his position is similar to the Dean of Students.  He shared a simple message that when you take a look at it a few times you will smile and say I can do that.

He started by talking about a book that has all the secrets of life – All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten by Robert Fulghum.

The following is from that book-

“These are the things I learned (in Kindergarten):
1. Share everything.
2. Play fair.
3. Don't hit people.
4. Put things back where you found them.
5. CLEAN UP YOUR OWN MESS.
6. Don't take things that aren't yours.
7. Say you're SORRY when you HURT somebody.
8. Wash your hands before you eat.
9. Flush.
10. Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.
11. Live a balanced life - learn some and drink some and draw some and paint some and sing and dance and play and work every day some.
12. Take a nap every afternoon.
13. When you go out into the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands, and stick together.
14. Be aware of wonder. Remember the little seed in the Styrofoam cup: The roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that.
15. Goldfish and hamster and white mice and even the little seed in the Styrofoam cup - they all die. So do we.
16. And then remember the Dick-and-Jane books and the first worked you learned - the biggest word of all - LOOK.”  

It is so simple but so true.

His other point shared with us was based upon what he says to the new midshipmen when they arrive in Annapolis. 

“Be Excellent.”

That is it.  Be Excellent. 

He did expand to add the following –

Be Excellent – to yourself

Be Excellent – to each other

Be Excellent – to this place

He went on about each area briefly as well.

Be Excellent –

To yourself - eat right, work out, study, tell the truth, know the rules

To each other – be a good listener, share your time, be an active bystander

To this place – take care of your school, your dorm room, your locker room, etc.

These are two simple points to share with your teammates.

Thanks for taking the time to read this and please touch base if you have any questions.

Character and how to conduct yourself with class

I was just reviewing Chapter 5 of Jeff Janssen’s The Team Captain’s Leadership Manual.  It deals with the topic of character and how to conduct yourself with class.  

You often hear people say “Do the right thing” and in this chapter you find out how your team counts on you to do the right thing (even when it may not be the most popular thing to do!)

Janssen breaks doing the right thing down into four areas where your example will show your commitment to your team and university:

1)      In your sport

a.       Play aggressively but not dirty

b.      Respect officials

c.       Obey the rules of the game, conference and association

d.      Watch your language

e.       Be a gracious winner and loser

2)      In the classroom

a.       Apply yourself

b.      Attend all your classes

c.       Take good notes

d.      Maybe it is not straight A’s but always “Do your best!”

3)      In your social life

a.       It is important to relax to relieve pressure

b.      Everything in moderation

c.       Balance your priorities (social life should not rank first!)

d.      Be a leader by example – be responsible!

e.       Speak up when your teammates might be straying into unsafe behaviors

f.       Conduct yourself with class and expect the same from your teammates!

4)      In the community

a.       All of our teams give back – help drive community service on your team

b.      Giving back to the community is a “win-win” for all involved!

Take some time this week and think about your character.  Are you leading by example?  Are you a vocal leader when you need to be?

Remember – nobody is perfect, always try to do the right thing.

The last line of the chapter on page 68 – “Represent yourself, your family, your team and your school with pride and class and you will win the respect of many.”

Helen Keller once said - Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved.

Thanks for taking the time to read through this and I hope you get a chance to lead by example!

Dave Gerrity

Confidence + Composure

 

Last week, we talked about confidence. The more confidence you have in yourself the better equipped you will be to deal with the many different things you have going on in your life.

Your academic success gives you confidence. Your athletic success gives you even more. Your social life being under control and living a healthy lifestyle adds even more to your confidence.

All of these areas feed upon each other and the balance you have in your life helps you to be successful in all of these areas.

What do you do when the pressure is on? How do you maintain your composure? In chapter 4 of Jeff Janssen’s The Team Captain’s Leadership Manual , you get a great dose of information on how to deal with pressure, but, even more importantly, you get some pointers on how to recognized pressure situations and how they can potentially impact your teammates.

The traffic light analogy is a simple method of assessing where you and your teammates are in regards to managing collective emotions. Think Green, Yellow and Red lights. Read up on this and it will really help you in your ability to lead by example and to help your teammates when they are looking to you for guidance. How do you handle a red light or yellow light and get it back to a green light? Look at some of the refocusing strategies presented on page 56-59.

Your ability to lead in pressure situations will teach life lessons that will by the example you set be contagious with your teammates!

I am going to leave you with one of my favorite poems. I really think you can apply it to your everyday life and your time shared with your teammates.
Just like confidence is contagious – so is composure.
Take a second to read Rudyard Kipling’s If.

If 

BY RUDYARD KIPLING
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!
Source: A Choice of Kipling's Verse (1943)