S.U.M.M.I.T. Leadership

"Losing your head in a crisis is a good way to become the crisis." - C.J. Redwine These are turbulent times. I don't like to talk politics or political views. But after watching (part of) the chaotic Presidential Debate last night it had me shaking my head in disbelief on how the two candidates handled each other. Uncontrolled chaos was all I could think of. Most people want a leader to be rational and calming. Confident and strong. Calm under pressure. Focused on the initiatives or objectives. Basically everything that was lacking in the debate.  Needless to say, I couldn't watch it very long and moved on to do something else. However, this got me thinking about leadership types in general, and about what makes a leader great. I started thinking about great leaders during chaotic or stressful times. It's a fact that good and bad things happen to all people. Stress can be caused by a variety of things. It's crazy to think that everything will go smoothly every...

  "Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out." - Robert Collier We all desire positive change in our lives. We all feel some level of discomfort, however, when faced with unexpected challenges when they come along the way. Occasionally in life we can feel overwhelmed with all of the things we have to do in order to reach our future goals. Often this creates us to avoid things in the present moment. And we end up wasting away our time and life doing nothing.  If you want to end up just like everyone else, it takes no effort to join the crowd. But to those who want to live a life of significance, with meaning and purpose, you need to intentionally get up and get moving, and push yourself to make things happen.  It can take a long time and cause a great deal of discomfort before we are willing to make major changes in our lives. When we finally do take that important first step, we're often so eager for immediate results that we become impatient if thi...

  "The mind is a muscle. The more you exercise it, the stronger it gets and the more it can expand." - Idowu Koyenikan Exercise is the single best thing you can do for your brain in terms of mood, memory and learning. The brain is your control center, playing an instrumental role in just about every major body system. Your brain allows you to have emotions, communicate your feelings, coordinate your movements, and control all your actions. It allows you to do all the things that make you human. As the most amazing and powerful part of your body, you can intentionally contribute toward keeping your brain healthy. Research has shown that you can help prevent cognitive decline and reduce the risk of dementia with some good basic health habits.   Here are some tips to help: EAT HEALTHY: The saying, “You are what you eat,” could not be truer in regard to your brain. While we can’t control everything that happens to our bodies, the foods we eat do influence the structure and he...

 "The problems of the world cannot possibly be solved by skeptics or cynics whose horizons are limited by the obvious realities. We need men who can dream of things that never were." - John F. Kennedy One of my daily objectives is to be innovative in my approach to everything I do. To dare myself to think differently. To challenge the status quo.  Everyone is creative. However, as time goes on, it can be easy to just conform to the norms around you and not realize that your creative lens has clouded a bit. We begin to do things 'the way we've been doing things' and expect to get different results. If solving problems just meant doing the same things we always do, we'd all be problem-free. To solve problems in our personal lives, or in the world, we sometimes need wild creativity; we need ideas that might seem crazy at first. Some of those wild ideas won't work. Maybe most of them won't work. But any problem only needs one solution. We've all heard ...

 "To make no mistake is not in the power of man; but from their errors and mistakes the wise and good learn wisdom for the future." - Plutarch We all make mitsakes. Darn it, I misspelled 'mistakes'. Instantly I feel irritated at such a simple error. Sound familiar? We all hate making mistakes, even when we know they're inevitable. Think about the last mistake you made, even if it was a minor one. Maybe you spilled coffee on a document seconds before you were going to present it. Likely you had an instant rush of panic, irritation and felt the inconvenience of having to re-do the work. It's easy to give into getting irritated, and staying irritated by repeating this scenario over and over in your mind. Instead of beating ourselves up over them, we should use them as learning experiences. What could I have done differently? How will I improve my chances of success in the future? When we are interviewing for a new job, we often have to submit a resume.  Our resum...

  "Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude." - Thomas Jefferson This week I've been in a sort of mental funk. At the time I finally came around to noticing it, it seemed that everyone else around me had a similar mental funk. We seemed to be feeding off each other. No one really able to pinpoint a reason why, or at least a good one. It just sometimes happens that way, and then begins to spiral in the wrong direction. Sometimes it can spark from one little negative attitude or phrase. It's infectious. How often do you catch yourself (or others) saying negative defeating phrases like: "I can't do it." "I've never been able to do it." "No one can do it." "We don't have the right tools." "We don't have the right resources." "We don't have the time." "We haven't had the training....

  On Sept. 11, 2001, America was changed forever. The attacks on the World Trade Center was an unforgettable time in U.S. history. Nineteen years later we can still envision the tragic event that claimed the lives of nearly 3,000 people and served as a true test of the American spirit. It will be remembered always.   On the morning of Tuesday, September 11, 2001, hijackers on American Airlines Flight 11 hit the North Tower of the World Trade Center at 8:46 a.m., killing everyone on board and hundreds of people inside the building. It was initially viewed as an accident until, just a little over 15 minutes later at 9:03 a.m., hijackers crashed United Airlines Flight 175 into the South Tower, killing those on board and several hundred inside the building.   At 9:31 a.m., President George W. Bush addressed the American people in a briefing from Booker Elementary School in Sarasota, FL, where he was visiting at the time of the attacks. He announced that the tragedy th...

  "Self-pity is easily the most destructive of the non-pharmaceutical narcotics; it is addictive, gives momentary pleasure and separates the victim from reality." - John Gardner   Life can get rough sometimes. Some hardship is inevitable. But the way we deal with life's inevitable challenges is up to us. We can choose to make the best of tough situations.   But what tends to happen more often, is, we indulge in a serious, self-pity party. We must be aware, and cautious, of the consequences and negative cycle that self-pity can bring along with it.   It can drain you of the mental strength you need to be your best. It can get you stuck in an emotional rut, which can be incredibly difficult to pull yourself out of. It can keep you in an unhealthy cycle of unhappiness and misery.   Life happens. We have failures, we make mistakes, we regret some of the things we have done in the past, we get heartbroken, we wish things would have turned out differently....

  "Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear - not absence of fear." - Mark Twain   One of the things that holds us all back the most is fear. Fear is and has always been our greatest enemy of man, and perhaps the greatest challenge you will ever face in life. When Franklin D. Roosevelt said, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself,” he was explaining that the emotion of fear, rather than the reality of what we fear, is what causes us anxiety, stress, and unhappiness.   We can typically have one of three responses to fear: We can try to avoid them. We can sit idle and wait in hope that they will just magically go away. Or, we can learn to face them courageously and overcome them.   Of course, there's only one true healthy response to fear, and that is facing it courageously.   But where do we begin? How can we constructively face our fears? How do we change our response to fear? We should approach fear the same way we a...

  "Spring passes and one remembers one's innocence. Summer passes and one remembers one's exuberance. Autumn passes and one remembers one's reverence. Winter passes and one remembers one's perseverance." -   Yoko Ono   Seasonal changes bring additional changes. As we get closer to the seasonal change from the end of summer into fall, we start to feel a change in the weather. Fall brings back cooler nights, darker mornings and shorter days. We have to move from days of wearing t-shirts and shorts, to sweaters and pants. Then, there are the changes for families who are faced with adjusting their schedules and daily routines as children go back-to-school.   Though many people consider spring to be a time of fresh new starts or new beginnings, fall can also be that for many people. It is a time of reflection on the summer and the year thus far, as well as a time to prepare for the winter and upcoming holiday season. As we enter the harvest season, consider...