You are browsing the Blog for Speaker for Education Groups.

← Previous Entries

Keynote Speakers for Educators & Administrators

May 17, 2013 in Authors, Creativity & Innovation Speakers, Education Speakers, Featured Speakers, Inspiring Lives & Stories, Leadership speakers, Speaker for Education Groups, Speaker on Creativity and Imagination, Technology in Education Speakers

Quality keynote speaker for educators and administrators can be hard to come by. Collaborative Agency Group has already done the vetting for you! Below are a few GREAT keynote speakers that work well for both Educators & Administrators. Our educational keynote speakers spend the time to learn about your organization and your attendees to ensure their keynote is spot on!

zhao yong YONG ZHAO -Renowned Professor of Education, Author and, expert on educational policy, computer gaming and education, diffusion of innovations, teacher adoption of technology, computer-assisted language learning, and globalization and education.

 

wagner tony TONY WAGNER  – Change Leadership, Transforming Education for the 21st Century, Tony recently accepted a position as the first Innovation Education Fellow at the Technology & Entrepreneurship Center at Harvard.

 

gruwell_erin ERIN GRUWELL – Educator, Author and Founder, Freedom Writers Foundation, Honored by many teaching and humanitarian awards, Gruwell founded the Erin Gruwell Education Project dedicated to promoting tolerance and innovative educational methods

 

edwards steve DR. STEVEN EDWARDS - An award-winning administrator, speaker, trainer, and professor and the creator of the ED methods and products that have transformed schools throughout the nation

 

roekle_tc  T.C. ROEKLE – Education and technology expert, TC S is a highly respected educator who has solid leadership experience with a focus on innovative strategies to raise student and staff performance at the building and district level.

 

warlick david DAVID WARLICK  – Education Technology and 21st Century Learning Expert and Speaker, he has been an innovator and leader in the field of educational technology and a prolific programmer

 

Educational Keynote Speakers you can count out…Creating a Voice for your Vision!

Comments Off

YONG ZHAO — World Class Learners: Educating Creative and Entrepreneurial Students

May 8, 2013 in Authors, Diversity Speakers, Education Speakers, Featured Speakers, Speaker for Education Groups, Technology in Education Speakers

The book is about preparing global, creative, and entrepreneurial talents. It is my attempt to answer a number of pressing questions facing education today. These questions are exemplified by two new stories that have dominated the media recently, one around the Facebook IPO and the other the debt and jobs of college graduates.

100 billion, 900 million, and 28 are three numbers that quickly summarize the story of Facebook Inc.: a 28-year-old CEO who co-founded a company with 900 million users world-wide and is now valued at over 100 billion dollars. The 28-year-old CEO and Co-founder, Mark Zuckerberg, is worth nearly $20 billion dollars and one of the 30 wealthiest people on earth. He was named one of the 100 most influential people multiple times by the Time magazine. Along with Zuckerberg, Facebook has produced a few other young billionaires and created jobs for thousands of people.

1 trillion, 4.9 million, and 23,000 capture the essence three numbers for the latter story: over 1 trillion dollars in outstanding student loans, with an average of over $23,000, and 4.7 million who had gone or graduated from college are unemployed in the United States. “For the first time in history, the number of jobless workers age 25 and up who have attended some college now exceeds the ranks of those who settled for a high school diploma or less,” according to a story in The Investors’ Business Daily on May 17.

No question that Facebook stocks can go up and down, the company could be a bubble and even disappear after a while, just like many others, but at its current value, 10 Facebooks or 50 Zuckerbergs can wipe out all the college debts.  You may not like Facebook or its creator and you may question if Facebook is truly worth that much, but at this time, it sure would be nice to have a few more innovative entrepreneurs like Mark Zuckerberg.

But how come we don’t have more Zuckerbergs? What led to the making of Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook? What’s the difference between Zuckerberg, who dropped out of college but created jobs, and the many millions who finished college but are looking for jobs? Is Zuckerberg a nice accident, a lucky anomaly like Steve Jobs? What role did his schooling play in his success, if any? Did Zuckerberg become Zuckerberg because of or despite his schools? Can we design schools to cultivate creative and entrepreneurial talents like Zuckerberg? If so, what does it look like?

zhao-yong-book2

“College and career readiness” is the mantra in the global education reform circle. Uniform curriculum, common standards and assessments, globally benchmarked practices, data-driven instruction, and high-stakes testing-based accountability are touted as the path to edutopia. PISA, TIMSS, and other similar type of international tests are regarded as the gold standard of educational quality and indicators of a nation’s future prosperity. But at a time when college degrees do not guarantee gainful employment or a meaningful life, what is the point of preparing someone to be ready for college? At a time when most of the careers for our children are yet to be invented, how could we prepare them? At a time when seven billion human beings living in vastly different societies that are intricately connected, how could “all children be above average” or winners of the global competition in a narrowly defined game?

This book is the result of my attempts to answer these questions with data and evidence from a variety of sources. Essentially, I reached the following conclusions:

  1. The current education reform efforts that attempt to provide a common, homogenous, and standardized educational experience, e.g., the Common Core Standards Initiative in the U.S., are not only futile but also harmful to preparing our children for the future.
  2. Massive changes brought about by population growth, technology, and globalization not only demand but also create opportunities for “mass entrepreneurship” and thus require everyone to be globally minded, creative, and entrepreneurial. Entrepreneurship is no longer limited to starting or owning a business, but is expanded to social entrepreneurship, policy entrepreneurship, and intrapreneurship.
  3. Traditional schooling aims to prepare employees rather than creative entrepreneurs. As a result the more successful traditional schooling is (often measured by test scores in a few subjects), the more it stifles creativity and the entrepreneurial spirit.
  4. To cultivate creative and entrepreneurial talents is much more than adding an entrepreneurship course or program to the curriculum. It requires a paradigm shift—from employee-oriented education to entrepreneur-oriented education, from prescribing children’s education to supporting their learning, and from reducing human diversity to a few employable skills to enhancing individual talents.
  5. The elements of entrepreneur-oriented education have been proposed and practiced by various education leaders and institutions for a long time but they have largely remained on the fringe. What we need to do is to move them to the mainstream for all children.

YONG ZHAO 
Renowned Professor of Education, Author and sought after keynote speaker

Comments Off

STEVE GILLILAND — Discover Your Goat! (part 6 of Steve”s Discover Your Goat series)

May 6, 2013 in balanced living speaker, business speaker, Humorist Speakers, Motivational Speakers, School Board Speaker, Speaker for Education Groups, speaker on change, Speakers for Business Groups, Speakers for Human Relations and Communication

Most of us seem to live our entire lives without truly understanding ourselves. We talk too

much, give advice too quickly, get too angry or fail to keep our promises. If we are honest

with ourselves, we would admit that sometimes we feel smug over a friend”s plight or that

we value looks and money over integrity and kindness. We rarely allow ourselves to go

much beyond these realizations.

 

Understanding yourself is one of the most important tasks in hiding your goat. A lot of

pop psychology says to accentuate the positive and push the negative aside.

Unfortunately, without recognizing potential negatives, you can”t cast them off. So, as you

prepare to hide your goat, it may be helpful to discover your goat by answering the

following questions.

 

Are you a faultfinder?

 

Critical people can”t resist pointing out a problem. Nothing is ever good enough.

Faultfinders expect perfectionism in themselves and others. Finding fault or criticizing

exposes your goat and almost always derails relationships and drives people away.

Criticism does not persuade people to change, even if your criticism is valid. Worse,

others will not trust you because they know that, sooner or later, they, too, will fall prey

to your criticism. People will put their guard up. Spontaneity will disappear as they

carefully choose their words and watch their actions around you. Over time, they won”t

even want to be with you. Many roads lead to negativity. Sometimes a person is born into

a family in which one or both parents are critical. As a result, the child grows up learning

to look at the world through a negative lens. People can become faultfinders if they live or

work with negative people. If someone around you is pointing out mistakes, flaws and

injustices, it”s easy to start focusing on mistakes, flaws and injustices yourself. If you

think you”re too critical a person, change.

 

Are you a jealous person?

 

Do you constantly compare, evaluate and feel badly when someone else wins. Jealousy is

a flaw we often have difficulty acknowledging in ourselves. Not acknowledging someone

else”s achievements is one way jealousy rears its ugly head. I still remember the day a

committee member informed me that I had been elected to the Speaker Hall of Fame.

When I told a fellow speaker, whom I had known for over fourteen years, about the

induction, he said, “I”ve been nominated several times and never got elected. Sounds like

you had the right committee voting.” Just as you do when herding your goats, you must

look inside yourself for the reason you are jealous. The answer is there. Sometimes

jealousy arises from insecurity. Eighteenth century scholar and mystic Moshe Luzzatto

had great insight on jealousy when he wrote, “The one who envies gains nothing for

himself and deprives the one he envies of nothing. There are those who are so foolish that

if they perceive their neighbor to possess a certain good, they brood, worry and suffer to

the point that their neighbor”s good prevents them from enjoying their own.”

 

Do you have to be the center of attention?

 

People who talk too much are attention-competitive. What they are saying is, “Pay

attention to me!” Interrupting is another competitive behavior. Some people compete by

starting a side conversation. They”re proclaiming, “What I have to say is more important

than what others have to say.” People who seek to be the center of attention are terrible

listeners, too. When someone else is talking, their minds wander and they rarely ask

questions or contribute a comment.

 

Are you controlling?

If you don”t recognize your own controlling behavior, hiding your goat will be impossible,

leaving it exposed and vulnerable. So how controlling are you?

 

Do you talk too much?

Do you frequently offer unsolicited advice?

Do you have trouble apologizing?

Do you pout and refuse to talk when you get angry?

When you want something done, does it have to be done now?

Are you habitually late?

Are you often accused of not listening?

Do you often finish other people”s stories?

Do you usually have the last word in an argument?

 

If you desire good relationships with your fellow workers, your spouse, your children and your friends, discover — and then eliminate — your controlling behaviors.

 

Do you get too angry?

 

You may not like to admit it, but you know if you have an anger problem. What you may not understand is what drives that anger, its consequences or what you can do to change. How you interpret events in your life could be negative by default, thereby generating your own anger. The people you surround yourself with can play a significant role in how you interpret certain events as well. Negative people often gravitate toward each other, further fueling the situation. Things not going the way you expect can also ignite your anger by making you feel off balance, threatened, challenged and not in control. Maybe the worst byproduct of getting too angry is that you name-call, exaggerate and become sanctimonious.

I once read, “A life not examined is like an unopened letter.” Just as it”s impossible to reach your

destination when you don”t know where you are, youcan”t become who you want to be until you”re sure who you are. I challenge each of you to take an introspective journey. Then change the parts of yourself you don”t like and accentuate those you do. Having a clear self-image is essential in relationships,

confidence and growth — and the only way you can hide your goat is to discover it first.

STEVE GILLILAND 
Author, Motivator and humorist

Comments Off

DAVID WARLICK [Education Expert & Speaker] — Telling the New Story

May 2, 2013 in Education Speakers, School Board Speaker, Speaker for Education Groups, Technology in Education Speakers

It is often said that “the future is not what it use to be.” In this information-driven, technology-rich world, where jobs are created and become obsolete in only a few years, preparing our children for a future that we can not even imagine has become one of our society’s greatest challenges.There are many barriers that prevent us from retooling our classrooms for 21st century teaching and learning. But at the core are the “stories” about education that we share. Most adults base their images of schooling on their education experiences from 20, 30, or 40 years ago. It is a story that is etched almost indelibly by years of being taught in isolated, assembly-line classrooms.

Our classrooms — what they look like, how the furniture is arranged, what teachers and students do, what is taught, how it is taught, and why — are all modeled after old and outdated stories that are still being told by our culture. We must change these stories and tell new ones, based on a new world, an unpredictable future, almost unlimited opportunities, a new kind of student, and compelling new learning experiences that have never been possible before.

This engaging presentation will inspire educators to craft and tell new stories. It will provoke visions of a new kind of classroom based on a new information environment, because only with visions of classrooms that are so irresistible that they will wipe out the old images, will we be able to reform education for the 21st century.

DAVID WARLICK 
Education Technology and 21st Century Learning Expert and Speaker

 

Comments Off

Steve Gilliland – Hide Your Goat Part 5 – Feeding Your Goat the Right Stuff

April 29, 2013 in Authors, balanced living speaker, Humorist Speakers, Motivational Speakers, School Board Speaker, Speaker for Education Groups, speaker on change, Teamwork Speakers

 

The next time you stop into Starbucks for a caffeine breakfast, you may want to consider

that the contents of a steaming mug won”t hold you over till lunch break — and even if

you think it will, it isn”t helping your body acquire the energy it needs or burn the calories

it should! We”ve all heard that breakfast is considered the most important meal of the

day, and for good reason. Food is fuel and energy for our bodies. Without it, we spend the

day stumbling around in a fog and fighting off headaches and bad attitudes. Breakfast is

literally just that, breaking the fast that your body is in from the night before. The

consumption of breakfast increases the metabolic rate and kick-starts your body, telling it

what to expect the rest of the day. Without food, your body won”t process your next meal

as quickly and will hoard those nutrients. Those who skip breakfast have a tendency to

consume more food than usual and have a higher tendency to snack on high-calorie

foods, which can lead to a number of weight control problems.

 

We”re aware of the negative consequences of feeding our bodies unhealthy foods, but how

many of us pay attention to the effects of what we”re feeding our minds. “Garbage in,

garbage out” is a direct reference to what we feed our minds — and what we get in

return. We can either feed it mental protein or mental candy. When we deprive our minds of

useful and beneficial foods, we leave ourselves defenseless to people who hunt our goats. We

must have an appetite for the thoughts, language and beliefs that will allow us to live and experience the lives we desire. It”s imperative that we reprogram our minds with positive

input. The most significant decision we can make every day is our choice of attitude,

which becomes either our best friend or our worst enemy. What we feed our goats

(minds) determines our attitude toward ourselves, toward other people and toward how

we live.

 

Wake up and Relax (Your Mind)

 

The definition of oxymoron is a phrase in which two words of contradictory meaning are

used together for special effect — e.g., “wake up and relax.” Syndicated columnist Sydney

Harris once said, “The time to relax is when you don”t have time for it.” When you start

your day by hitting the snooze button ten times and then rushing to get ready for work,

you miss feeding your goat and deprive yourself of the energy essential to having a

balanced day. Mornings can offer a quieter, more contemplative atmosphere. Take

advantage of that by following poet William Blake”s advice: “Think in the morning and act

in the afternoon.” Even if your job”s more about cranking out than managing and

contemplating, use the mornings where you”re not on a tight deadline to think over

problems, consider future challenges and give your tasks more mindful attention than

they”ll get once the rest of the world wakes up and interferes with your attention. The

best part of waking up in the morning is, well, waking up. Count your blessings and relax.

 

The Breakfast of Champions

 

While breakfast may be the most important meal of the day, that meal needs to be

balanced with protein, fiber, a little bit of healthy fat and some complex carbohydrates.

Before the age of electronic gadgetry, I remember when the bookmobile would arrive in

our neighborhood every week to serve those who didn”t have transportation to the

regional library. Because of the bookmobile, I spent many happy hours acquiring a desire

for reading that continues today. Feed your goat the mental protein and fiber it needs by

reading something inspirational and uplifting every morning. Start your day without email,

Facebook or tweeting. Resist the temptation to read the newspaper or watch the news.

Instead, spend a few minutes with a good book or periodical. Feed your mind with

information and ideas that are uplifting and that make you feel happy and more confident

about yourself and your world.

 

Choose an important task over checking your email. Whatever arrived in your inbox last

night likely isn”t as important as the most important thing you need to work on this

morning. The way most of us handle our mornings, though, you wouldn”t know it. If you

want to look back on your morning and not feel like it disappeared, take control of your

workday by prioritizing one task — just one thing you really need to do — and put off

opening your inbox for one hour. Seems sacrilegious, yes, but what you accomplish will

not only surprise you, but defrag your mental storage. Start your day by feeding your

goat something that will stimulate your mental metabolism.

 

Take Your Daily Vitamins

When was the last time you supplemented your daily routine with activities that can

enrich your outlook? Everyone needs diversity in their lives. Unfortunately, many of us

reach a point of burnout that affects us mentally, physically and emotionally and can turn positive attitudes into negative ones. When you aren”t feeding your goat the right stuff,

you begin to look at things in more negative terms, feel trapped and helpless, and are

more easily fatigued. Here are some vitamin supplements to feed your goat:

 

Read a book for fun

Attend a play or concert

Invite friends over for the evening

Play with your children

Take a two-week vacation

Exercise ten minutes every day

Drive with no destination in mind

Take a class or lesson for enjoyment

Take up a hobby

Attend a social function

 

Beware of the Harmful Ingredients

 

Much of Americans” household food budget is spent on processed foods, the majority of

which are filled with additives and stripped of nutrients. Dieticians suggest we avoid

common ingredients in the foods we eat that pose the greatest risk to our health. Family

conflict is a common “ingredient” that can pose a risk to our mental health by exposing

our goats to others. But how do we avoid something that”s long been a part of our

everyday lives? We make a commitment to modify our behavior. However, keep in mind

that change of any kind is an enormous challenge, let alone identifying the harmful

ingredients we might have been fed early in life and trying to eradicate them from diets to

which we”ve become accustomed. Change is up to each individual — no one else, not even

family. Waiting around for others to change only paralyzes us. Here are five common

harmful ingredients we must acknowledge and remove from our diets.

Abandonment

 

Fear of being left behind plagues many people. They feel left out, unimportant or

simply forgotten. Abandonment experiences are in no way indictments of a child”s

innate goodness and value. Instead, they reveal the flawed thinking, false beliefs

and impaired behaviors of those who hurt them. Still, the wounds strike deep within

their young hearts and minds, and the very real pain can still be felt when they

grow up. The causes of emotional injury need to be understood and accepted so

they can heal. Until that occurs, the pain will stay with them, becoming a driving

force in their adult lives. Work activities that include change — such as promotions,

layoffs, acquisitions, mergers, buyouts and even award banquets — can seriously

affect a negative employee who fears abandonment.

 

Control

 

Some people see control as a major issue in their lives. Typically, they have either

been dominated by overly strict parents or allowed to run wild with no parental

supervision. The need to control is almost always fueled by anxiety — though people

who have a need for control seldom recognize their fears. At work, they may worry

about failure. In relationships, they may worry about not having their needs met. To keep this anxiety from overwhelming them, they try to control the people or things

around them. They have a hard time with negotiation and compromise, and they

can”t stand imperfection. Needless to say, they are difficult to live with, work with

and/or socialize with.

 

Boundaries

This involves the inability to say no and set reasonable limits. Some people struggle

to differentiate between their needs and those of other people and other situations.

People with low self-esteem are dependent on others” approval and recognition and

are therefore fearful of rejection by and conflict with others. People with low

self-esteem have their major difficulties in relationships with others. This is because

they are unable to establish healthy boundaries or limits. On the job, this inability to

say no and set limits translates into workaholism.

 

Denial

Denying or avoiding reality is a learned behavior. Being in denial has a way of sneaking up on us when

we least expect it, influencing us and manipulating us to believe in false illusions. It preys on our

insecurities, our hopes, our dreams, our wants, our needs and even our positive qualities like loyalty and

trust by using that to keep us hooked into the illusion. When you are in denial, you refuse to admit

the truth or reality of something unpleasant. In a work environment, it results in running from the

truth or internalizing issues rather than confronting them.

 

Drama

Over-stimulating events — such as confrontations, crises, emergencies and calamities — are a common

way of life. The emotionally immature person has low levels of self-esteem and self-confidence and

consequently feels insecure. To counter these feelings of insecurity, they will spend a large portion

of their lives creating situations in which they become the center of attention. It may be that the

need for attention is inversely proportional to emotional maturity; therefore, anyone indulging in

attention-seeking behaviors is telling you how emotionally immature they are. Attention-seeking

behavior is surprisingly common. Facebook is a great platform for people who are seeking attention to

alleviate feelings of insecurity and inadequacy, but the relief is temporary as the underlying problem

remains unaddressed: low self-confidence and low self-esteem, and consequent low levels of self-worth and self-love. Some people seek out that adrenalin (sugar) rush that gives them the feeling of security and adequacy.

 

If you don”t feed your goat the right stuff, you allow negativity to grow and aggravate you

and the people around you. People don”t like to admit they are negative, but there is no

hiding it. Just as importantly, negativity will not go away unless you address it. Feeding

your goat the right diet will help you achieve your goals by staying positive and not

exposing it to others. Remember, you”re not responsible for changing or “fixing” the whole

family”s diet. You”re responsible for taking care of yourself and making the changes you

want. Changing your goat”s eating habits is difficult and takes time, so be patient.

 

STEVE GILLILAND 
Author, Motivator and humorist

Comments Off

TONY WAGNER [Education Expert] — Transforming Education for the 21st Century

April 29, 2013 in Authors, Education Speakers, School Board Speaker, Speaker for Education Groups

Tony Wagner recently accepted a position as the first Innovation Education Fellow at the Technology & Entrepreneurship Center at Harvard. Prior to this, he was the founder and co-director of the Change Leadership Group at the Harvard Graduate School of Education for more than a decade. Tony consults widely to schools, districts, and foundations around the country and internationally. His previous work experience includes twelve years as a high school teacher, K-8 principal, university professor in teacher education, and founding executive director of Educators for Social Responsibility.

Tony is also a frequent speaker at national and international conferences and a widely published author. His work includes numerous articles and five books. Tony’s latest, Creating Innovators: The Making of Young People Who Will Change The World, has just been published by Simon & Schuster to rave reviews and will soon be available in Spanish and Chinese translations. His 2008 book, The Global Achievement Gap has been an international best seller and has also been translated into Chinese. Tony has also recently collaborated with noted filmmaker Robert Compton to create a 60 minute documentary, “The Finland Phenomenon: Inside The World’s Most Surprising School System.”

 

 

TONY WAGNER 
Change Leadership, Transforming Education for the 21st Century

 

 

Comments Off

MAWI ASGEDOM — EDUCATION / TEACH SPEAKER –English Language Learners (ELL) Guide to Success

April 25, 2013 in Authors, balanced living speaker, Diversity Speakers, Education Speakers, Inspiring Lives & Stories, Mawi Asgedom Speaker, Speaker for Education Groups

As someone who had to learn English in school, I’ve always felt a special affinity for ELL students. I’ve created this 12-minute video that shares some of my best tips for ELL student success. I know that some students will not understand everything I say, and that’s okay – this video is meant as much for the educators as it is for the students. My assumption of course is that ELL students can achieve at incredibly high levels.

 

 

MAWI ASGEDOM
Author of “Of Beetles & Angels:A Boy”s Remarkable Journey from a Refugee Camp to Harvard”

 

Comments Off

IAN JUKES — Educator & Technology Visionary–

April 23, 2013 in Education Speakers, Speaker for Education Groups


Windows on the Future

This presentation challenges our assumptions about the world we live in and the future we”re headed for by carefully examining the significance of several global exponential trends. In “Windows on Tomorrow,” speaker Ian Jukes considers how these trends affect and will continue to affect our personal and professional lives, our children, our learning institutions, the nature of teaching and learning, and even our definition of intelligence. This presentation, based on the new book Living on the Future Edge: Windows on Tomorrow, is a compelling glimpse into the bold, dynamic future that awaits us all.

 

 

Ian Jukes has been a teacher, an administrator, writer, consultant, university instructor and keynote speaker. As a founding partner of the 21st Century Project, an international consulting group, Ian has worked with clients in more than 40 countries and made more than 9,000 presentations. He typically speaks to between 300,000 and 400,000 people a year.

 

Comments Off

CHARLES GARCIA — Believe In Yourself and Stand By Your Convictions —

April 10, 2013 in Authors, balanced living speaker, business speaker, Diversity Speakers, Education Speakers, Growth Speakers, Immigration Issues Speaker, Inspiring Lives & Stories, Leadership speakers, Motivational Speakers, Speaker for Education Groups, speaker on change, speaker on generational issues, Speakers for Business Groups

To believe in yourself you have to develop your own convictions and stand firmly by them. Though it may sometimes be very difficult and painful, you must find your own path and follow it.

One of the reasons I went to the U.S. Air Force Academy was because I wanted to be independent of my father.  By getting into the Air Force Academy, which I was able to do through a full academic scholarship, I didn’t have to rely on my father to help pay my tuition.

If my father paid my tuition, I would have had to answer to my dad, “El Tigre,” about my grades, and everything else and I did not want that.  My desire to attend the Air Force Academy was also fueled by the challenge of succeeding at a school that is one of the toughest in the United States.

Obtaining recommendations for my application to the Air Force Academy was an important part of the process.  I asked my high school principal for one, and he told me that he couldn’t recommend me because I wasn’t involved in my high school’s Junior ROTC program; I’d be taking away a spot at a service academy from someone who was more deserving.

To get that recommendation, I went from shooting spitballs at the Junior ROTC cadets to being one of those guys parading around in boots and uniform, having spitballs shot at me, and being mocked by my own friends.  Much to my surprise however, not only did I like Junior ROTC, but I also discovered that I was good at it.

I ended up joining the elite Rangers program.  The challenge of doing well in that program excited me and pushed me forward. After two years of Junior ROTC, I achieved the highest rank possible. I finally earned the recommendation that I had originally sought from my principal.

Although my father wasn’t happy with me being in the military, he put a lot of weight and credence in the character traits such as discipline, honor and integrity.  There was no better place than the Air Force Academy to build those traits.

Years later, my father came to respect my decision to join the military.  Family members were invited to a ceremony at the White House for White House Fellows and got to meet President Reagan.  Because of my father’s keen interest in American government and history, he was as excited as I was to be there.  My father knew I would never have been a White House Fellow if I hadn’t gone to the Air Force Academy and joined the military.

Through all of my successes and setbacks, I believed in myself.  Could I have taken an easier path?  Yes.

Did I have to fight my father and work incredibly hard to gain admission to the U.S. Air Force Academy?  Yes.

Did I have total faith in my ability to achieve this goal? Absolutely.

Would I have gone as far without believing in myself and without a burning desire to succeed?  Absolutely not.

STANDING BY YOUR CONVICTIONS PAYS OFF

Actress and screenwriter Nia Vardalos isn’t the prettiest woman in Hollywood, but certainly is someone who believes in herself.  She wrote the screenplay for the hit movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding.  She also stars in the movie, but that wasn’t necessarily going to be the case if Vardalos had left her fate in others hands. Vardalos refused to sell her screenplay to those interested in making it unless she was allowed to star in it.  She believed in herself as an actress and was willing to risk losing a short-term windfall so she could achieve her long-term goal.

Success is about pursuing your passions, not someone else’s dreams. Although your parents may want you to pursue a safe and traditional path to their version of success, it may not be the one that’s right for you.

And if you’re a parent, remember that if you have done your job well, the best you can hope for is that your children are happy with whatever it is they do in life, regardless of their job or who they marry.

Success is not necessarily measured by someone’s bank account, but by the depth of their soul and the contribution they make to others.

Believe in yourself and stand by your convictions!

 

CHARLES GARCIA 
Successful Entrepreneur, Author and Leading Latino Motivational Speaker

Comments Off

STEVE GILLILAND — HIDE YOUR GOAT PART 2 –

April 5, 2013 in balanced living speaker, business speaker, Education Speakers, Humorist Speakers, Motivational Speakers, Speaker for Education Groups, speaker on change, Speakers for Business Groups, Teamwork Speakers

“HERDING YOUR GOATS”

Too many times in life we expect others to do what we have never done, follow us to where we have never been and without reason, believe in us even when our actions don”t match our own beliefs. It becomes problematic when our actions, which create our outcomes, are determined by speculation, assumptions, misconceptions and numerous other thought patterns not based on the facts or reality of a given situation. As a child, our thinking is primarily influenced by our parents and the people we spend the most time around. Insecure adults have a tendency to create insecure children. Show me a mother who is a drama queen and I”ll show you a child who grows up embracing the role of a victim.

 

While people and circumstances may get your goat, knowing how andwhy that happens will best help you to hide it. Later in this series we will examine more regarding the who - or, as I will refer to them, The Goat Hunters. But for the purpose of this article, let”s figure out how to find and herd your goats by determining the how and why.

 

The problem with herding our goats is where do we look for them? For some of us, someone or something may have gotten our goat earlier in life and we have never found it. When our goats jump the fence and we can”t find them, that affects us for the rest of our lives. Instead of having closure and resolving our feelings, we harbor resentment and become susceptible to having someone or something else find our goat. Our past is a powerful dictator of our future, and unless we determine why we feel the way we do, we are destined to allow certain things to always get our goat.

 

As a young child, I watched my father favor my older brother. As a young adult, I witnessed his approval of my brother and felt his disappointment in me. I did everything possible to win his approval. While my brother”s birthday cards were signed “Love, Dad,” mine were signed with merely his first name. By the time my 40th birthday rolled around, I was still seeking the approval of my father, family and friends. Only when I found my goat and herded my feelings did I understand I didn”t need the approval of others. I stopped wasting time and energy on things beyond my control. The hardest thing we do most days is to let go of our past, which has a few of our goats roaming around.

 

Have you ever watched a person you don”t really know do something that bothers you so much it affects your attitude? Why is that? Why does their clothing, earrings, hair or fingernail color get your goat?

 

A few years ago, a young gentleman sat beside me on a flight from Amarillo, Texas to Dallas. I couldn”t help but notice the vast array of tattoos covering his arms, neck and hands. What I noticed more than that, however, were the passengers across the aisle who looked absolutely appalled by his appearance.

 

After I introduced myself, he smiled, shook my hand and told me his name. When I told him I was from North Carolina he said, “Great state. I got my MBA at Duke University.” We chatted throughout the flight, and when we landed, he said, “Thanks.” “For what?” I asked. “You are probably the first person I have sat beside in the last three months that has even acknowledged me without thinking I was a thug,” he said.

 

The good news for me here was that several years prior to this encounter I had found one of my goats and herded it: labeling is disabling, and the stereotypes and stigma attached to certain people is not only unfair to them, but an extremely unhealthy way for me to think.

 

I now believe that if I can change the way you think I will change your world forever. Good people listen, learn and edify people. Average people talk about themselves. Small people talk about others. You need only look at a person”s Facebook page to see how he or she thinks. Good people post pictures and information that is positive and intended to allow REAL friends and family to keep up with their IMPORTANT events and the growth of their children. Average people post information intended to inflate their egos and make themselves, their children and their lives appear to be something they are really not. Small people post negative things about others, solicit responses to situations that should be handled privately and post quotes to underhandedly make a point. They thrive on the responses that make them “feel” better as a person, which, unfortunately, doesn”t make them a better person. If anything, they are viewed by the majority of good thinking people for who they really are: insecure, negative people filled with anger and unresolved issues.

 

Herding your goats is critical to hiding them. Yes, we will always be vulnerable to people and circumstances getting our goats; however, we can build a stronger fence around them once we find them. Being honest with ourselves and resolving issues in our own lives will give us the strength we need. The mastery of life is the mastery of self. Unfortunately, many people never master themselves, stranding their goats outside the fence where others can get at them.

 

Make a list of what and who gets your goat, then ask how and why? What is it about YOU that adds to the negativity of the situation? Once you determine your contributions, figure out what you need to do in order to change the way you think. My unresolved feelings about my father led me down a path of thinking that produced behaviors detrimental to certain situations. Instead of being who I really was, years ago I would do almost anything to be accepted. By seeking the approval of others, I would act in ways that were all about the people I was trying to impress. Once I finally looked in the mirror and saw what I liked, I stopped wanting to be the person I thought others wanted me to be. I herded my goat named Seeking the Approval of Others and fenced it in so no one could ever get it again.

 

The dilemma is that sometimes when you herd one of your goats, another one slips out-kind of like the guys who butt in line ahead of me when we”re boarding a flight. Oh, but wait, I think I can grab this goat, too, and put it back behind my fence. You see, that kind of aggressive behavior annoyed me until I realized I used to do the very same thing to make sure my carry-on luggage would fit in the overhead bin above my seat. I was fine once I took a chill pill and realized that even if my carry-on wasn”t stored above me I”d still make it to my destination. Plus, the people who”d see those guys butt in front of me often hand my luggage forward to me as a way of saying, “We got your back!”
So before you can hide your goat, find it! Once you find it, figure out why and how you lost it, not who took it. The why and the how will allow you to begin Herding Your Goats!

STEVE GILLILAND 
Author, Motivator and humorist

Comments Off

← Previous Entries