Walk Into the Future

Tag: Future

  • Back to the Future

    (Image by Tumisu from Pixabay)

    “Opportunities don’t happen; you create them”.

    (Chris Grosser)

    What did you want to be growing up?

    This was an icebreaker question in a recent meeting we had at work.

    It seemed like a simple question, but it made me pause for a second.  Why do you ask?  Great question as always Maria! 😊

    Well, I had my mind set on being a forest ranger when I entered high school.  I didn’t know anyone who was a ranger, but I always saw them around growing up in rural northern Florida.  My hometown is Jasper, Florida which is right on the Florida / Georgia line.  It’s known for farming and fishing, so I spent a lot of time outdoors and wandering in the woods.

    I thought being a ranger would allow me to enjoy this aspect of growing up and help make a difference in the world.  I researched everything about becoming a ranger and joined 4H to develop additional skills.  I thought being in the woods and protecting the environment was going to be my career.

    Well, that all changed when I took a TV Productions class in my senior year. We got a chance to host live TV segments that aired in our school.  I never thought I would enjoy that aspect of the class but found a new joy going to school.  We got a chance to produce segments and conduct interviews with different topics ranging from sports, education and life after high school.

    I changed my mind about becoming a forest ranger due to our TV Productions course.  I started watching nightly news shows looking for pointers I could leverage in our class.  Journalism was going to be my new career, and I was excited about this.   I put a lot of extra effort into this course and a few of us were requested to video football and basketball games and provide the tape to coaches. This was an exciting time and showed another aspect to the course.  I was hooked!  Journalism was my thing.

    Fast forward a bit and I received a partial Journalism scholarship to Lake City Community College.  Turns out school was not my thing at that point in my life.  I flunked out of community college and joined the Air Force.  I had an outstanding Air Force career but never forgot about journalism.

    I started the Walk into the Future blog to share adventures and stories.  It’s not a traditional journalism role but I have people around the world reading my blog and sharing experiences with me.

    I’m not writing for a large newspaper or covering stories from New York as a photojournalist, but I am chronicling adventures and stories to share with folks around the world.  This may have been an unconventional route to get where I wanted to be back in high school but I’m here pounding out articles weekly.

    Hooray for that TV Productions class back in Jasper, Florida!  It opened opportunities and doors for me in life.  Well done, Mrs. Klepper!

    What did YOU want to be when you grew up?  Let’s make it happen.

    Irie!

    Calvin Williams

    “It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop”.

    (Confucius)

  • The true anniversary date

    anniversary image

    (Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay) 

    “A year from now, you will wish you had started today”.

    (Karen Lamb)

    Dictionary.com defines an anniversary as the yearly recurrence of the date of a past event and the celebration or commemoration of such a date.

    The first Walk into the Future article was posted on this site on 6/18/2018.  The true anniversary date for me is 4/14/2018—let me explain why I say this.

    I sat on the beach at St. George Island (SGI) on 4/14/2018 with the idea of deciding which direction I wanted to pursue moving forward.  The Walk into the Future concept was not on my radar but needed the beach atmosphere to help with a huge decision.

    So, I sat on the beach on this prophetic day with my beach towel, cooler of beer, reggae, pen, and paper to figure this thing called life out (Prince reference).

    I have used the concept of a pros/cons list in the past to help with major decisions and my goal on this day was to identify pro/con items to inform the decision I needed to make.  Dr. Henry Cloud identifies successful people do not hang on to bad stuff for long in his book 9 Things you Simply Must do in Love and Life.  The only way to label something as bad is to take a true look at it without emotion, hence the pros/cons list for me.

    I finally admitted I spent too much time determining if I should stay in my old role.  The interactions I had with students, employers, faculty, staff, and community members still appealed to me but there was always something daily to eliminate my joy.  Turns out it was too much negative workplace energy.  This is not a complaint just a stated fact from my perspective—negative energy can and will wear you down over time.

    Fast forward to the list and the decision was obvious!  There were  5 pros and 15 cons.  I tried to manufacture some additional pros just to see if I could even this process out a bit, but this was the final tally.  The 15 cons were present EVERY day and only 3 pros were daily items.  I was amused when I saw the disparity of my two lists.  I subconsciously knew this to be true but never wrote it out to examine more in-depth.  Sadly, none of the cons listed were fixable—not one.

    I laughed when I was able to view the list for the insight in front of me.  So, on 4/14/2018 the Walk into the Future journey began after I made the decision it was time to move on from what I was doing.  The work and making a difference daily were not the problem it was the negative energy—the opposite of the Irie mindset I seek in life.  Dr. Cloud has another principle he calls Pull the Tooth.  I decided to pull the tooth and Walk into the Future after I finished my beer and listened to a few more Bob Marley songs.

    I decided to write this post after looking in my journal and coming across the page with my pros/cons list.  Just happened to be 2 years to the date I wrote the items and wanted to share with my readers I just had an anniversary.

    So, happy anniversary to the Walk into the Future blog. Here is to a few more years of writing, sharing adventures and making a difference in the world.  Thanks for walking with me!

    What tooth do YOU need to pull?  How could the pros/cons list help with your decision?

     

    “The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing”.

    (Walt Disney)

  • Zoom into the Future

    zoom

    (Image by Alexandra_Koch from Pixabay)

    “When in doubt, zoom out”.

    (Reggie Watts)

    I like starting Walk into the Future articles with a quote to inspire my thought process and get me going.  Well, the quote above is the best I could find with zoom in it but has nothing really to do with this article.  Forgive me but thought it was funny and had the appropriate word (zoom) I needed to move forward.

    The last several months have been productive, exciting, and frustrating (COVID-19) but progress has been made daily.  The Zoom application has become a popular way for the workforce to keep making positive things happen considering the COVID-19 pandemic.  More people are using this platform to ensure daily operations and tasks are completed in this new way to go to work.

    Zoom interview

    My first foray using the Zoom application came back in February when I was introduced to it for a first-round interview.  I have used Skype to interview for past positions and to interview candidates for openings on my team.  Did not know much about Zoom but found the process a lot more seamless than the Skype application.  Simply receive an email with a link, click on the link at the appropriate time and you are meeting with the folks on the distant end.  Zoom provides the capability to host multiple people in multiple locations so this appears to make getting a team together to interview candidates a bit easier than Skype.  I am sure there are still uses for the Skype platform but thought Zoom took pressure off me as the candidates since I did not have to test my computer/software as in the past.

    Zoom team meeting

    Leveraged my newfound appreciation for Zoom by hosting my first team meeting with my new team at Indian River State College prior to starting work.  Again, COVID-19 has most organizations working remotely to avoid large meetings and practicing physical distancing.  I wanted to get a head start on teambuilding prior to moving to Fort Pierce and Zoom was the perfect application.  We were able to host 10 people in 5 different locations (physical distancing) and build a team foundation to help us find ways to ensure students, faculty/staff and employers continue to receive world class customer service.  I have talked with tree branches who are using Zoom but found it to be an even better platform than described.

    Zoom work process (onboarding, team meetings, teambuilding)

    Realize there are several who will read this article who have been using Zoom for a while.  I am just getting my feet wet and see so many useful ways to use this platform even after we recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.  Staff on satellite campuses can continue to participate in meetings, workshops, and teambuilding activities without having to drive to the main campus.  There will be times when they need/want to be present, but Zoom can save time and driving to and from the main campus.  Also, see the benefits of conducting one-on-one sessions with distant students, employers, and staff.  Just getting my thoughts together but I am sure I will leverage Zoom to find ways to ensure our students have the best employment opportunities available.  Zoom appears to be setting the pace for a new world order!  Stay tuned as I will continue to share how I am zooming into the future. 😊

     How does your organization use the Zoom platform?  Do you have tricks of the trade you can share?  Thanks!

    NOTE:  Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Blackboard Collaborate are three platforms I am actively using at work.  The three platforms are easy to navigate and provides similar functionality.

  • Pivot into the Future

    Pivot butterfly

    (Image by GLady from Pixabay)

     “If you are always trying to be normal, you will never know how amazing you can be”.

    (Maya Angelou)

    The Walk into the Future blog and my parallel journey began on May 21, 2018.

    Did not know how much my mindset and writing style had changed over the past two years until I started looking back at the archive articles.  Happy to see improvement in my article design, verbiage, visual appearance, and storytelling abilities.  Never want to think I am in the same place when I started especially with Walk into the Future as the blog title.  Still got more things to learn to ensure my content grabs a reader’s attention and attracts new readers to the blog.  Will leverage new techniques, visual presentations, guest bloggers and concepts to stay fresh in the blog world.

    Five examples I highlighted for a Walk into the Future were:

    • Take that vacation you have been putting off
    • Decide to create your own blog to document your walk into the future
    • Make time for family and friends (again)
    • Discover new talents you may have or wanted to explore
    • Live life the way you want to

    Did not keep a running tab of how well I was doing in these areas but happy to report I have repeatedly checked off each item listed above, multiple times.  My initial vision for my Walk into the Future was basic but I have been able to grow through personal development and gravitating to things I enjoy.

    Sounds simple enough but the concept of generating content for the blog has been a life course on:  continuous learning, networking, research, leadership development, mentoring, storytelling, public speaking, traveling, training, running, marketing, cold calling, selling, patience, blogging, blog design, Word Press, podcasts and the art of pivoting.

    I identified everyone should be prepared to pivot as needed in a previous post about overcoming fears.  There are times a fundamental change in approach is needed to get what you want (quoting myself here).

    Throwback article:

    2020 Pivot

    The Walk into the Future blog has been a fantastic incubator for my time, thoughts, and actions.

    I was presented with multiple opportunities to join forces with others based on the growth mindset I have gained from Walking into the Future.  I have been extremely selective on who I work with and what projects I decide to add to my portfolio.  No more Big Gulps for me!

    Happy to report my Walk into the Future has relocated to Fort Pierce, Florida.  I will create new tree branches as the Director of Career and Transfer Services at Indian River State College.  I was able to leverage my past work experiences AND my Walk into the Future topics, adventures, and growth during the interview process.  The ability to relay real-world examples on how I interact with others, my mission to make a positive impact and desire to be a People Builder were leveraged to show impact I will have at Indian River State College.

    This pivot creates a larger audience for Inspiration Man and allows me to keep my Walk into the Future moving forward.  Excited for the new adventures, location, beaches, tree branches, thoughts, actions, energy, and blog articles.

    The Walk into the Future journey continues, just from a new location.  I am sure I will write most of my future articles from the beach with an ice-cold drink close by. 😊

    The Walk into the Future production process has generated a roadmap for two new projects I am working on in 2020.  The first project will be to develop several Walk into the Future leadership articles into a concise eBook titled, The Voice of a Leader.

    The second project will be to develop an on-line Authentic Leadership course to help learners understand the leadership model and the variables needed to become an authentic leader (self-awareness, internalized moral perspective, relational transparency, and balanced processing).

    These projects are exciting to me since I will get to learn how to create an eBook and build/design an on-line course people would be interested in.  More to come as I get smart on both platforms.  The eBook will come first since I have got the content at my fingertips, just need to organize, and reformat—sounds easy enough, huh?

    Interesting fact (to me)

    I view life as a daily adventure and continue to seek ways to make a difference in this world.

    One area I explored was teaching psychology courses since I do have a PhD in Industrial/Organizational Psychology.  Seemed simple enough but a funny thing happened on my Walk into the Future.  I applied to the local community college to teach General Psychology as an adjunct professor.  Repeat, an adjunct professor! Never heard back from them even after reaching out to people in the department via LinkedIn and direct email.  Ironically, if they had leveraged my talents in the classroom, I may have missed this amazing pivot opportunity.  Things happen for a reason—Irie!

    Tree branches will still receive text messages, emails, and LinkedIn articles from me. You have all been a major part of my journey and look forward to expanding our reach—just from another location.  Walking, smiling and inspiring into the future!

     “The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity”.

    (Amelia Earhart)

    irsc project wall

    (Summer 2020 project wall)