Marissa – Learning Journal Assignment I

What is your unique gift? – Do you believe in it enough to invest everything you have in it?

In terms of the business end of the things, I believe my unique gift is a combination of my curiosity/endless pursuit of knowledge and my lack of willingness to become complacent. I very much so believe in it enough to invest everything I have in it.

What difference are you trying to make in the world? – How passionate are you about doing this?

Honestly, the difference I’m trying to make in this world isn’t directly connected to my professional goals. I don’t believe I can make one big impact on the entire world, but I believe that I can create a domino effect by doing what I can to make the people I do have the honor of interacting with feel loved and know kindness. I think the connection this can have to my professional goals is by pursuing companies that are mindful of their impact on the world around them.

I’m rather passionate about all of this to the extent that I think about my actions towards others on a daily basis, but I’m not so passionate about it that I’m pursuing a career with the Peace Corps.

How do you define success for yourself? – What challenges do you face in order to create success?

Because I can’t stand stagnancy, I define success as growth in numbers and/or positive feedback to innovative or new initiatives.

One of the bigger challenges that may be faced in order to create my definition of success is that people are uncontrolled variables, it’s impossible to always satisfy people and get that positive feedback. In times like those just mentioned, I think it’s most important to reflect on the experience, take note of the lessons learned and grow from that. My personal success can’t be found if I don’t keep moving forward.

What is career vision and a mission?

Career vision is an individual’s statement of the major accomplishments they hope to attain or the lasting impacts they hope to make within their career. The mission, I believe, is the practical terms as to how the individual intends to attain their vision and why. The mission is more action oriented.

Can you innovate and create value and successfully communicate that value to intended audiences?

I do believe I can innovate, create value and successfully communicate it to the intended audiences. Of course it may be impossible to achieve 100% of the time, but I know with my mindset I’ll be making the best effort to.

I will be able to do this by being conscientious and educated in the innovations being made. The innovations would have purpose and meet needs of audiences; whether it be known or unknown needs they had.

Do you have a positive attitude?

I do have a generally positive attitude when it comes to being around people. I try my best to keep any negativity I might have to myself, as I don’t believe in rubbing off bad energy on other people.

Have you set your goals? What is your road map to success? Can you set inspiring and realistic goals?

I don’t have a large list of long term goals, but I do have a small list of goals for the next 5 years. I think long term goals are finicky, as future circumstances are so unpredictable. Having my first goal accomplished makes the remaining goals on my list feel more attainable. I have a job with a reputable company filled with accomplished professionals, my roadmap from here is to learn as much as I can from the people I’ll have the pleasure of working with as well as to say yes to assignments. I want to 1) gain as much knowledge as I can and 2) build a strong resume of accomplishments so that I may be a desirable team mate.

Do you have and/or acquire the necessary expertise to actualize your vision?

I believe I’ll be continuously acquiring the expertise needed to actualize my vision.

What are your priorities? Can you set priorities?

My current priorities include finishing my final semester of college/graduating, preparing for my job by gaining as much pertinent knowledge as I can, finding an apartment for post-graduation that meets my needs,

What opportunities are you looking for? What opportunities are you creating or intend to create?

This is a little broad. I am very interested in a combination of sales, marketing and data analysis opportunities. Another response, would be that I’m very interested in opportunities to travel to new places.  On a career level, I can’t think of opportunities I intend to create. In regards to traveling, I’ve created opportunities to travel through the my relationships with people.

How comfortable are you with uncertainty? What risks are you willing to take?

Every now and then I do find myself worried about the future, but I’ve learned to embrace uncertainty because certainty can be very limiting. For the most part I believe I take calculated risks, but I’m willing to take financial risks and move to new cities for career opportunities.

When facing challenges, do you persevere or do you walk away?

If I face a challenge, I will persevere and try to find solutions because adversity can bring growth or wisdom. If the situation is toxic/unhealthy/degrading then I believe it is appropriate to walk away.

What experience have you learned the most from?

The year of 2018 was filled with the most educational experiences for me. Overall, I believe my experience as the president of an organization that governs 160+ women taught me the most. To name a few things it taught me my style of leadership, how to be diplomatic, how to manage many tasks and delegate work, how to manage a group of people, and how to sustain and positive organizational culture.

What actions are you taking to realize your vision? Are you consistently taking action?

The actions that I’ve taken and continue to take to realize my vision is staying outside of my comfort zone in terms of leadership/professional roles to see where I excel and what interests me. I’ve been consistently taking actions like this since my freshman year of highschool and have learned so much about my aspirations because of it.

How well do you put things in context? Are you able to easily respond to changes in your environment? What’s your best example?

On a scale of 1-10 (1 being bad, 10 being great), I’d rate myself an 8 at putting things in context and responding to changes in my environment. This was another skill that my experience as president of an organization allowed me to hone.

An example of my ability to respond to changes in my environment was during a recruitment event ran by my organization. With recruitment there are 160+ existing members that need to be managed on the recruiter side and then 100+ potential new members that need to be managed on the recruitee side. Recruitment is also a very scheduled, meticulous and organized event so combining that with the large number of people being managed, it’s not hard to imagine that unpredictable changes may come about. During the first round of events, there was a miscommunication and a girl was placed in the wrong group – which created an issue with group rotations which can also be detrimental to the sororities recruiting. With this happening, it was extremely stressful as it meant for myself and my Vice President of Recruitment to crunch numbers and rearrange schedules as soon as possible. We were able to stay focused on the best way to adapt the schedule and it was smooth flowing again.

What is your plan to continually grow and evolve? How have you grown or evolved in there past year or three?

Very similar to my response on realizing my vision, my plan to continually grow and evolve is by stepping out of my comfort zone and challenging myself by being in unusual situations for myself. Three years ago I was afraid to speak up, didn’t believe in myself, didn’t have the experience or knowledge to feel confident in having a voice in organizations. In the past three years I’ve evolved tremendously from taking on such diverse leadership experiences that have revealed to me skills and traits I never imagined having. I went from being someone afraid to give an opinion in their organization to being president of an organization and helping the people I lead find their voice.

How easy is it for you to reach out to others to ask for support and to offer help?

I used to be very reluctant to ask for support, not out of pride but out of fear of being a burden. Again, my role as president allowed me to find comfort in asking for support and learn the value of teamwork. I’m very big on offering help to people, a little too much actually.

How are you inspiring others to join and/or support your mission in order to create a financially sustainable enterprise that allows you to live your gift and contribute something valuable to society? – If you aren’t currently, how do you intend to?

I believe I have a large group of supporters and I believe that’s because I’m sincere, humble, transparent, knowledgeable and mutually supportive. I think something about being authentic in my relationships with people, makes it easy for them to want to support me and join me in my aspirations.