How to be a REAL Success Blog Post

What does “REAL” mean?

REAL is an acronym that stands for:
Relationships
Equipping
Attitude
Leadership

The paragraphs

Relationships

My chosen principle for Relationships is “Follow the 101% principle.” The 101% principle is to find the 1% that everyone agrees on and give it 100% of the effort. The reason why this principle exists is that we as a society often concentrate much more on the 99% and never get to the 1%.

I chose this principle because I believe it could be an amazing tactic into moving a conflict towards a resolution with minimal effort. After all, the first and best response to conflict emerging within a relationship is to actively find areas on which you already agree. I also chose this principle because arguments often break out among the relationships I’m usually in. Due to this, I believe I can utilize this principle to quickly and effectively start moving any conflict towards a resolution.

Cases, where I could implement this principle, could be when I’m dealing with a difficult classmate in a group project. Let’s say that this classmate is arguing with me over what we should go for our planned trip, event, or leadership activity. I would see that the conversation was getting nowhere, and I would implement the 101% principle. I would ask my classmate what he and I both agree on, and let’s say that we both agree that it should also be educational. We would then focus on finding a place where we could bring our classmates that would also be educational. This would at least resolve some of our conflict as we’ve found something that we both agree on and make some progress on the planning itself.

Equipping

For Equipping, I chose to write about “Reasons why we don’t equip others: We want to keep control.” It means that I don’t In the presentation, John C. Maxwell told us that there were several reasons why we don’t often equip others. These reasons included: “It’s hard work”, “We enjoy doing the task ourselves”, ”We don’t notice leadership potential in those around us”, and a few more. This principle is talking about people who aren’t willing to practice teamwork because they feel threatened by their teammates/colleagues. Because of this, these people often want to maintain total control as a leader, and often fail to equip others because of their insecurity.

I chose this principle because this happens often when I’m introduced to a new team, and I feel like I could really learn more about this principle if I researched and wrote about it. While most of the other reasons that John Maxwell stated I also apply to, I feel like this one just applies to me the most, and I’m worried it’ll be a roadblock to successfully equipping others.

Ways that I could apply this principle in future events, could include when I’m leading a brand new team of people, and we’re making a group presentation for Leadership. When trying to equip others, I could remember this principle and actively try to get to know everyone so I won’t feel so insecure, and won’t try to keep control over everything. I could also actively give power to my teammates as a leader, have faith in their own leadership abilities, helping when I can, and equipping the ones who need help to become great leaders of their own. I believe that actively implementing this principle will help me successfully equip and build teams.

Attitude

The principle that I chose for Attitude was “Our attitude is a choice.” John C. Maxwell was the one to discover this principle when observing the attitudes of the people around him. He explains that this principle refers to the idea that only ourselves have the power to choose what attitude we embrace for each situation in our life.

I chose to write about this principle because I frequently have a somewhat bad attitude, and I want to correct that by learning about this principle. For example, when I’m corrected sometimes, I choose to have a bad attitude in response, and It’s been damaging some of my relationships lately. If I can properly learn this principle, I think I can mend the damage, and start to be more actively aware of what attitudes I can respond with.

Ways I could apply this principle to future events include when I’m planning a leadership lesson with a group. For example, let’s say that we’re planning a lesson for leadership on overcoming obstacles, and we’re giving out sections for each person in our group to research and present on. Perhaps I had really wanted to do the “Coping With Stress” section but was given the “Finding Solutions”  section instead. I would probably want to sulk or be angry, but instead, I could remember this principle and reason that having a bad attitude just because I didn’t get the section I wanted would affect the others in the group as well as the lesson itself. I would then choose to accept the change, and still put in just as much effort into it as I would’ve on my preferred section. All I want to do is start putting more effort into having a better attitude every day, and I believe this is a good place to start.

Leadership

The principle that I chose to write about for Leadership is “The Law of the Lid.” The Law of the Lid is the law that states leadership ability determines a person’s level of effectiveness. Leadership ability is like a lid that determines a person’s level of effectiveness, thus calling it the Law of the “Lid.” The lower one’s individual leadership ability is, the lower the lid on their potential. However, the higher one’s individual leadership ability is, the higher the lid on their potential. A person can only operate at a level below their ability to lead.

I chose to write about this principle because I’ve seen low leadership ability affect people’s efficiency within groups, and I want to learn how to effectively equip others with more leadership skills and knowledge to raise their leadership ability, making them more efficient. I also chose this principle because I’ve been wondering how leadership affects one efficiency since the school year started, and I hoped writing about this law would answer some of my questions about it.

Ways that I could apply this principle to future activities include improving my ability to lead in group projects. I could improve my ability to lead by taking on leadership roles more often, and by trying my best within those positions, taking in criticisms that can further improve my ability to lead. This way, my efficiency as a leader also increases, and thus, my team’s effectiveness would also increase to a new level as well. I’m sure if I start to improve my leadership ability now, I can use it to my advantage in later group projects.

Thanks for reading! And remember to tip your Chef!