A641.9.3.RB_SchreterPaul

Dear Paul,

I’ve learned today that you have a very direction oriented view of the future. There are specific ideas that will make you feel like “mission accomplished,” but the exact details of such aren’t going to be concrete. This is something that you will have to build along the way. Be open-minded! Your personal vision is to be in a state of freedom, control, and happiness. Perhaps another way to interpret happiness is filled with positivity and optimism.

The first learning goal that will help achieve the vision is to learn how to be financially successful in the stock/bond market. The idea here is that owning companies brings in money for the duration of the company, owning gold does not. If you own enough companies, essentially you will not have to work. Two of the milestones take on a learning objective of listening to podcasts and reading books. In regards to podcasts, your commutes have the potential of being very long. Rather than play music, play something where you can learn and be productive. Reading books is another alternative; perhaps look at the Intelligent Option Investor for starters. That doesn’t mean get into options, but simply learn about everything there is to do about stocks. Another milestone is the idea that practice makes perfect. Set money aside! Invest it, see how you do and see how you learn. Be willing to lose it for the sake of learning.

The second learning goal would be to learn to be more attentive and aware of your surroundings. Life might feel like its in autopilot right now, but that will go away if you can live in the moment. Find people who are knowledgeable in the subject and talk to them! For starters you can talk to Adam, who has practiced it for years. He could give great insight with regards to the subject. Something else you can do is actually start practicing! 5 minutes every day, that’s all you have to do. See what kind of a difference it makes you and then perhaps build on that. Gain insight from others and insight within yourself to figure out the optimal amount of time you should spend each day with this type of behavior.

Your final learning goal will be to add more positivity in your life. Okay, this one is a little bit trickier but remember Barbara and her talk about trying to keep an ideal positivity ratio of 3:1? Remember how emotions tend to spread? Remember how you can have a better influence on people when they’re in that PEA state? Well, the first job is to become more aware of what’s going on around you. Gee, I wonder how you can do that. Practice mindfulness! You can’t be aware of the positive things around you if you’re not seeing it. So really try to learn that second goal of being more attentive. Next change your mindset. Be more open, more transparent. No need for secrets, just be honest. Also be appreciative. Only practice makes perfect, so give it a try.

So tying these three learning goals together, being financially secure, being more mindful, and being more positive, all tie into your vision on being free, in control, and being happy. I know your future is wide open, but perhaps that’s just the way you like it. After all, your vision includes being free. Follow these guidelines and I believe you will be well on your way.

Thank you,

Kind regards,

And take care,

Paul

P.S. If you ever have kids, give them the marshmallow test.

A641.8.3.RB_SchreterPaul

            Hope being an elliptical is a means of which to create the hope from within. The basic definition of hope is that there is a “feeling of expectation and desire for a particular thing to happen.” (Oxford University Press, 2015) Using concepts and principles from Snyder’s Hope Theory, there are three basic building blocks that make up hope: goals, pathways, and the agency. (Snyder's Hope Theory, 2015) I will take a moment to reflect how these buildings blocks can be tied into Boyatzis Intentional Change Theory. (Boyatzis & McKee, 2005)

            Goals are the first ingredient for hope; these are what we want in our future. If you were to tie this into Intentional Change Theory, goals come into place when we imagine our ideal self. Our ideal self is a future that we want, a future that we see ourselves in. When we compare this to our real self, much like in mathematics we get the difference. This difference is what creates those goals that we need for hope.

            Creating pathways from point A to point B is the next ingredient for hope. Intentional change theory begins by asking the person to begin coming up with a learning agenda, to experiment with new behavior, and finally to build those supportive relationships. If it doesn’t seem likely that one pathway will work, begin working on another.

            Finally the idea of agency comes into play, which is the idea of how well a person can believe that the pathways will lead them to their goals. The more believable these pathways are the stronger the agency. Sometimes as supervisors we need to be able to help build these pathways, to give them that hope that something is possible. The moment they have hope, the more likely they will outperform.

            When looking over hope theory, every aspect is important. Without goals there cannot be hope. Without pathways there cannot be hope. Without the ability to imagine the reality of the future as a possible future, there cannot be hope. The biggest of these I believe is the ability to create the pathways from real self to ideal self. This is how I can keep moving forward. It’s not just imaging my ideal self but to build a strong pathway that could get me there, one that is specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound. This is how I would build that elliptical for myself and is how I will need to build that elliptical for others.

            There are three basic building blocks to Snyder’s Hope Theory: goals, pathways, and agency. These building blocks are all required to have hope, but the most important one is being able to build that pathway. This can be strongly tied to Boyatzis Intentional Change Theory with creating that pathway to get from the real self to the ideal self. This is what is required to build that hope not for myself, but for others as well.

References

Boyatzis, R., & McKee, A. (2005). Resonant Leadership. Boston: Harvard Business School Publishing.

Oxford University Press. (2015). hope. Retrieved 2015, from Oxford Dictionaries: http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/hope

Snyder's Hope Theory. (2015). Retrieved 2015, from Mind Tools: http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/snyder-hope-theory.htm

A641.7.3.RB_SchreterPaul

After composing my lifeline, I’ve noticed several events in my life that shaped who I am today. Up until the 11^th grade I believed myself to be a relatively normal kid, however as soon as I became a Jr. I immediately started college (earning both college credits and high school credits). This in combination with me starting a part time job as a hotel desk agent isolated me from most friends and matured me up as an individual quite quickly. I began to take life quite seriously.

After I graduated from Uni, I ultimately sat around the house for an entire year before joining the military. This was when I really started to notice all the hard work that my mom does around the house and how much I’ve taken her for granted all my life. I’ve began noticing how much she does for other people as well, making sure all our old clothes, electronics, etc. all go to poor families. While my attitudes at this revelation didn’t immediately change, it was the seed that was planted that ultimately made me want to care for others as well. I wanted to be a good person.

When I joined the military, in Basic Military Training, I immediately made it a point to care about others people success over my own. This was immediately recognized and I was instantly promoted to become an element leader. Later the Military Training Instructor had a one on one conversation about my leadership style and fired me because I admitted that I wasn’t the type to yell at my fellow trainings for slacking. This never stopped me from helping people, but this was about when I realized that having positional power and leading people actually felt good.

Towards the end of my technical training in the military I was the head white rope on base, which is a volunteer student organization that focuses on building moral on base and assisting the chaplains. I quickly started encouraging other ropes to volunteer off base and amongst the community. While I wasn’t one to volunteer myself, the feeling that I received when facilitating a volunteering movement is something that really planted the type of person I want to be when I grow up.

There are two social identities that have really resonated within me. The first is being a servant. Not so much a domestic servant, but more so someone who looks into and assists with the success of others. For example in my Airman Leadership School (ALS) training, I make a great deal of effort to make sure everyone in the class academically succeeds. Everyone thinks the class is chaotic and disorganized; I reshape it to bring order. The other social identity is mentor. I love the feeling that I get when others come to me for my advice and assistance. The fact that they keep doing it makes me think that I’ve developed into a great asset for the organization.

My biggest strength is the fact that I actually take the time to develop others. I will fight tooth and nail to give our new guys in the shop an opportunity to learn and to shine. For example, I was tasked to change out a part during a RED BALL (changing a part when a jet has engines running, trying to take off) and I allowed a new guy the opportunity to try it himself. Changing a part under normal conditions isn’t bad, changing it during a RED BALL brings on all new levels of pressure. I’m also not afraid to stand up for them if they make a mistake. In my current ALS for example, day two our instructor was harping on everyone for not turning in their homework. I quickly stood up, took responsibility, and let the instructor know that I told everyone not to do that because there were no explicit instructions to do so. In a way this reminds me a little bit about how a father might try to develop and protect his cubs.