Running head: Leadership And Success 1

Leadership and Success: A Reflective Essay

Eric M. Brame

National Society of Leadership and Success

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Reflective Essay

The United State of America as entered the 21st Century. Although it has endured economic hardships, tragedy, and other issues, it has continued to promote higher education in a globalizing world. Thus, it is necessary for every student to become highly involved in society. This involvement must be productive and positive in its own right. In fact, there are many methods of completing this concept. My concept was to graduate for the University of Central Florida (UCF) with Baccalaureate of Arts in English, through the Literature Track. Sadly, I was never part of an honors society of any sort during my undergraduate career in UCF. For this reason, I will be discussing the advantages of the National Society of Leadership and Success. Also, I will be discussing why my membership has enriched my graduate program.

Firstly, I am not in the English Department of the College of Arts and Humanities anymore. Instead, I am part of the College of Education. In this college of UCF, I am earning my Master’s in Teaching. My specialty is English Language Arts Education. The primary focus of my academic career is teaching (e.g., reading, writing, and young adult literature). Secondly, I am focused on using these concepts to assist young adults in their quest and struggle to appreciate the classics.

For this reason, there has been a lot of confusion in my mind. This confusion asked the question: “Where do I begin?” When I was inducted into the Gold Key International Honors Society, I was notified by a woman that sat next to me about the National Society of Leadership and Success (NSLS). She told me it helped her become focused. For this reason, I decided to look into the NSLS. Now I am here. It has begun. The online classes that I am working with to learn more about what it takes to make a leader are intensive. However, I have realized that I was looking at the whole concept of leadership incorrectly.

One of the major benefits I noticed immediately is that I was spoken to as a human being. I didn’t know how to give advice to people at all. I thought that giving them advice by saying, “You need to do this,” and “You need to do that,” or words to that effect was effective. Now, I use parables, experience, etc. to tell a story instead. Thus, I have become more effective toward young adults and society in general.

Although I would enjoy discussing my affect toward young adults and society, I must move on to the primary focus. It is Leadership Training Day. It is this very concept of training I believe everyone should be entitled to. Firstly, I can say that my self-efficacy is extremely low. Thus, my self-esteem is affected terribly. One major issue is that I have the concept that I am less than capable to succeed in life. This concept is holding me back from numerous opportunities. One reason this is an issue is due to those I befriended at my source of employment: Wal-Mart.

Wal-Mart has not been a good influence on my self-efficacy. Instead, I feel like I am less than human in a giant sweat factor. However, from the testimony that I have seen from the videos, I know that I want to be able to move forward in the face of adversity. In fact, I want to go to Seattle University for law school eventually. However, I have been told that it is difficult. Also, I have been told none of my academic awards mean anything either. Thus, I want to prove them wrong and be a positive light in the midst of a dark tunnel.

For this reason, I must decide what “friends” I have to let go off now. In fact many of them are holding me back. As one speaker said, “Are you doing something about the problem? If not, you are part of it.” Thus, I want to ask myself how I can build friendships that are there to

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support me 110%. To me it is the sovereignty of God, as Augustine wrote about, that brought me to the National Society of Leadership and Success.

Thus, I know that my family supports me and desires my 110% success in life. One of these concepts is my movement toward Seattle University for law school, an elite Jesuit school of about 7,500 students. I want to believe they are working with me step by step. In fact, a creative writer said it wonderfully by stating, “do it bird by bird.” For reasons like this, Augustine, the great Christian philosopher, in writing about God’s sovereignty stated,

So far as it has been given us, let us have wisdom, and let us understand that the good Lord God sometimes withholds even from His saints either the certain knowledge or the triumphant joy of a good work, just in order that they may discover that it is not from themselves, but from Him that they receive the light which illuminates their darkness, and the sweet grace which causes their land to yield her fruit.(http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf105.x.iv.xxxii.html)

Thus, I know that it wasn’t by my own capacity that I sought assistance from the National Society of Leadership and Success. My self-efficacy is all but gone due to issue of the past. For this reason, I am here to seek wisdom from leaders of today to regain the very self-efficacy I desire.

Every day I think about the budget I have. Truly, I desire to end this hamster wheel. I want to believe that I am independently wealthy and can live a fulfilling life without the need to struggle with finances. Back in 2006, I purposely plunged into debt so my mother could buy a house for my grandfather in South America. This debt took five years to pay off. However, during the entire time I was angry about listening to my mother. Truly, I was very anger driven. This is a poor quality in a leader. A leader, as Augustine stated, must know this:

Instead, believing as we do that what we hope for and love is coming to pass, they tremble. Therefore, the apostle Paul approves and commends the faith that works by love and that cannot exist without hope. Thus it is that love is not without hope, hope is not without love, and neither hope nor love are without faith. (http://www.ccel.org/ccel/augustine/enchiridion.chapter2.html)

In stating this, he speaks about James and his condemnation of people who claim to believe. However, he rebukes them by saying, “Even the demons believe and tremble” (James 2:19). Thus, anyone can say they are successful. However, as Augustine stated, people can say they want to be successful in a material sense; but, this doesn’t explain failures we have. In fact, money is spent quickly. For this reason, there must be the more to success. This I call the Know thyself effect.

During the video, I noticed the know thyself effect being created through just the first step. This was the gift game. I narrowed everything to: bringing joy to others, writing things and researching things. Thus, the challenge is to create opportunities to tap into this potential. In fact, I didn’t realize that I had this potential at all. However, I was able to come to the realization that I want to bring joy to others while writing different things such as novels. To do this, I must be able to research things as well. In the end, I would like to assist Calvinist philosophers reach adolescents while growing as an attorney.

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In summary, I did not understand what leadership is. In fact, I thought it was about being the best. However, I didn’t fully understand that being the best is someone that sets an example. For this reason, I believe that I have come to the realization at the end of this reflection that my thinking patterns were off on a tangent of negativity. Thus, this opportunity to get involved with leadership training day was the best metacognitive exercise I have received. It calls me to ask “Who am I?” and “Why do I think so?” while showing me another way of looking at leadership, to the benefit of those around me.