Your heart must be in your work. Enthusiasm not only means hard work but it also means having fun and enjoying what you are doing. Enthusiasm makes industriousness a stronger quality. Enthusiasm means you are empowered and you have a spark in you that makes you never want to stop. I hope that at whatever I prosper to be in the future I have enthusiasm for because without it I will not succeed.
Block 3 Friendship:
"Comes from mutual esteem, respect and devotion. Like marriage it must not be taken for granted but requires a joint effort."To make a friend you must be a friend. Friends are your family, teammates, classmates and workmates. They help you succeed and achieve your goals. Friendship is mutual. It is not a one way street. Good friends do good things for each other. Friendship is important because they are what help you get through tough times. But along with having friends you also have to be making sure you choose the right people to trust, because there is people with bad intentions out in the world, you also have to see if they really do care for your well being as well as for your success. Not only do they have to do that for you but you also have to return that and support them in whatever they need. Friends support each other.
Block 4 Loyalty:
"To yourself and to all those depending upon you. Keep your self-respect." To be loyal means to be true to yourself and to others as well. If you make a promise to someone then keep that promise. The person you should be loyal to the most is to yourself, make promise to yourself that will help you succeed in life. When you are being loyal to others it means to be able to keep the promises you made to them, for that person to know that you have their back. You are also loyal to your family you have their backs and you would never want to hurt them. To be loyal also means to be committed if you put yourself to do something make sure you finish it no matter what.
Block 5 Cooperation:
"With all levels of your co-workers. Listen if you want to be heard. Be interested in finding the best way, not in having your own way." Cooperation is important because it means you are willing to be a productive collaborator, meaning you are willing to work with others to get the job done. Cooperation also brings many good qualities forward about you, it let's you create friendships, it let's people know you are reliable, it shows that you want to succeed to get something done, it shows that you are able to listen to others ideas and you have an open mind about things. Cooperation sometimes may not be easy because of others and how they work but it also let's you go through tough situations and let you figure them out. Some people may find an inner leader in themselves, not a leader who takes control of everything but a leader who lets people know when they have to step up, a leader who has an open mind and let's others ideas come in other than blocking everything out and doing it their own way, that is not cooperation.
Block 6 Ambition: For noble goals. To have Ambition means to have passion for something. It means to do your absolute best to accomplish your goal. When someone is ambitious they do not stop till they get to what they want or till to where they want to be.Life’s treasures are not typically handed to us, but they do not all require unbelievable amounts of work either. Some things just require a little pursuit and that is where ambition comes in. Some people may say "well I do not need to be ambition I have talent", that is not a good quality to have because even if you are the best player on the team you need to practice or else others will catch up to you.
Block 7 Self Control: "Practice self-discipline and keep emotions under control. Good judgement and common sense are essential." Self Control basically means what it says to be able to control yourself. Self Control not only means to be able to control yourself physically but it also means to be able to control yourself mentally. Self Control mentally means that if somebody gets you angry, you do not lash out at them, you do not go and beat them up. Self Control is being able to be patient, you know how to wait for things and you do not rush. Self control is being able to do what you want and not let others peer pressure you into something you do not want to do.
Block 8 Alertness:"Be observing constantly. Stay open-minded. Be eager to learn and improve." To be alert means to always be aware, aware of your surroundings and how other people around you are acting. Alertness can also mean concentration, concentration in being aware. When you are alert it takes off stress because you know whats around you and do not have to be constantly thinking or worrying about something happening without you knowing. By being aware you can also learn lots of things. You can learn lots of things about your surrounding and the people and objects around you. Goal setting is a way of being alert, you are being alert because you know what you want and how you want it and how you are going to get it.
Block 9 Initiative: "Cultivate the ability to make decisions and think alone. Do not be afraid of failure, but learn from it." you may hear some people say take initiative this means to take charge. You may meet people in life who do not put in as much work as you do and you are forced to work with them but you must take charge and do whatever it is to get them to do work. If they do not start they're work then you take initiative to tell someone about it so you won't receive the consequences that you do or did not deserve. Initiative not only counts for when you are working with others but also knowing how to take initiative for your own life and being able to know how you will succeed and how to get wherever you want to get to reach that place of success for yourself. Try to think about times when you could have taken initiative. Initiative also means to have ideas and to put them to good use.
Block 10 Intentness: "Set a realistic goal. Concentrate on its achievement by resisting all temptations. Be determined and persistent." Intentness means determination, I believe determination is very important because without being determined to something you are not really trying to succeed at it. Determination means you have a passion toward succeeding something, without you have no passion and it means that it is not important to you and it is a matter of which if you have time or not you will succeed it. Although getting to something may be hard never give up. Instead of giving up try to figure out what you are doing wrong and change your plans to make it better. Setting a goal takes determination so even being by doing that you are showing intentness. For example when playing softball I make sure I show determination when I go up to bat I say to myself "you are going to hit the ball" I used to doubt my self but I know that without self confidence I will not get better nor will I succeed.
Block 11 Sincerity: Keeps Friends. Sincerity means to be truthful in a way where you know you are not hurting people. Sincerity means to not be a hypocrite, you do not judge others based on looks or the way they act. I believe I am a very sincere person. Sincerity means to have a positive attitude and to be positive towards others. You are also very supportive when it is something good that your friends or people around you do. Sincerity is important because it helps build a high level of trust, sincere people are usually very easy to trust and very easy to talk to because they try to understand what a person is going through.
Block 12 Adaptability: To any situation. It is important more than ever to be flexible and agile, with plenty of resourcefulness and creativity to respond effectively to challenges and grab new opportunities. Adaptability means to be able to adapt to new challenges and to be able to succeed even when these challenges get in your way. As a student that wants to play a sport in college I have learned that many coaches sometimes not only look for skill and how good someone is, they also look for adaptability. When they the coaches look for adaptability they look for an athlete that will be able to manage the traveling a college athlete will do when in season. Coaches at how capable they would be when challenged to keep up with college level classes and the work it requires to pass them.
Block 13 Condition: "Mental-Moral-Physical. Rest, exercise and diet must be considered. Moderation must be practiced. Dissipation must be eliminated." To set conditions for yourself is very important because you have to set boundaries for yourself and how far you are going to push yourself. In sports it is very important to set boundaries because you know your body best, if you get hurt and know absolutely that you can not play then speak up and say something. As a pitcher I am aware that my arm may be sore after pitching a game, if it is then I do not throw because I am aware that I may injure my arm and may never get to play softball again because of it. A person must make their conditions aware to other people, in our health class we learned that it is okay to say NO to another person. Set conditions for yourself, the people around you, and how you do your work. Condition is not only for setting limits it is also in what condition is the work you do. The condition you take care of things. Excellent, Good, Fair, Poor, Unsatisfactory, all these say things about you and that way you strive to succeed at something.
Block 14 Skill: Skills are important, especially when applying for a job or internship. The people who will hire you look at not only look at how much commitment you have but also at your skills and what you can potentially offer to their work. People have different sets of skills personal and transferable. Transferable skills are skills that you have learned in a past place like school or from being a team, these skills may be able to be transferable to the new job you have to do. A personal skill is a skill that comes from you naturally that help you succeed in the job you have to do. Some examples of personal skills are Flexibility which means being able to move your schedule around without any problems, another skill is Motivation this means to be enthusiastic and to have a drive to finish what you are doing other than quitting also motivation can be how much you support the company you are working for, do you believe in what they believe.
Block 15 Team Spirit: "A genuine consideration for others. An eagerness to sacrifice personal interests of glory for the welfare of all." People work together
effectively to achieve a common target. Every individual must be involved in making the decisions
of what to do in a certain project or tasks given. Team members should have listening skills so that they could listen to other member's ideas. Members should be respecting of each other in order to achieve teamwork. Team spirit means to want to work with others and to be willing collaborators and to be very optimistic when working with others.
Block 16 Honesty: In thought and action. Honesty has to be practiced everyday in everything you do. Honesty is important because it creates peace of mind and promotes relationships of trust. Being an honest can help you as a person in any aspect of your life. Being an honest person can make it easy for you to make friends because other people know they can trust you. Honesty can also make you responsible, you are able to tell the truth of when you have and have not done something. As honest person you know how to tell people the truth when you are trying to help them out because they have done something wrong. Being an Honest person is very good, but sometimes being an honest person can make people not like you. As an honest person you have to know to what extent you can tell the truth and sometimes there are certain ways you have to tell the truth and you have to know them. Because there are times when you cannot tell the truth.
Block 17 Resourcefulness: Proper Judgement. Ability to find and use available resources to achieve goals. Being resourceful means to be able to achieve something with whatever is around you. People tend to use what they have around them to succeed. For example some people have connections after college and they use that to get jobs. That is why it is so good to put forward your best self, so that people may want to get to know you, and the more people you know the better. When putting yourself out there make sure you show them that you are responsible and trustworthy because those are two major qualities a person looks for. Make the most from what you have.
Block 18 Poise: Poise is the way you walk, the way you carry yourself, the thought you’ve put into your personal style. It makes people perceive you in a positive way. It shows people that you are confident in yourself, not cocky but confident. People with poise know how to keep themselves calm when under stress, people with poise are noticed what I mean by this is that they make themselves be known in a positive way when they are in a room full of people. Poise can also mean to have manners one part of poise that many people get noticed for is posture, having good posture can make everything easier, not having good posture is like saying you are carrying all your stress on your back. Lots of ballet dancers are known to have poise. When they are on sage in front of a big audience they have to make the little movements they do look big. They make themselves be known when they are on that stage.
Block 19 Confidence: "Respect without fear. May come from being prepared and keeping all things in proper perspective." Confidence is very important because without you do not believe in yourself and if you do not believe in yourself then you can not accomplish anything. In softball I have learned that you need to be confident in yourself or else you will not get better, you have to be positive about yourself and say I know I can do this. A confident sets goals for themselves and they make a list of how to achieve it, they not only set goals for themselves but they also challenge themselves and give them a certain amount of time to achieve some of them.
Block 20 Reliability: Creates Respect. Reliability means to be reliable and to be reliable means that people can trust in you. When someone is reliable they're friends can trust in them and can sometimes even ask that person to do something for them. To be a reliable person you have to be trustworthy, responsible and honest. Reliability does not mean that you go and do something you know you are not supposed to be doing for a person. You only do good things for good people that are reliable to you.
Block 21 Fight: Determined Effort. Fight does not necessarily mean to fight but it means to be strong and to be determined. It means to fight through all the way to the finish and not give up. Athletes must have the "fight" in them no matter if they are losing. If you want to reach success you have to have the fight in you. You want something so bad that no matter what it takes you will try to succeed. Bruce Lee says " Do not pray for the easy life, pray for the strength to endure a difficult one". To me this means that you must be ready for whatever comes to you in life and be ready to fight through it all.
Block 22 Competitive Greatness: Competitive greatness is important because if you are not
competitive then somebody else will always be ahead of you. You have to be willing to fight for what you want and be able to make it to the end. Competitive greatness means to always be great and always do your best no matter what. A teacher once told me that once you stop doing your best someone will always be there to get ahead of you. Continuing to do your best will make you better. Like one of my teachers once quoted Good, Better, Best, Never Ever Rest Until your Good is Better and your Better is Best. You must do your best 100% of the time because if you do not you are not getting better you are just staying at the same level. A person who had competitive greatness strives for the best in themselves. They also challenge themselves.
Block 23 Integrity: Purity of Intention. Integrity means to have strong moral principles and the quality of being honest. Integrity is to be trustworthy, people know that they are able to trust you with personal things. People who have integrity always tell the truth no matter what. If you know you have done something wrong you always tell the truth and you take responsibility for what you have done. You also take responsibility for telling the truth about others when you know it is necessary. At the end of the day a person with integrity is a honest person. A person who takes responsibility and is very truthful. Integrity is important to have when you want to be a leader and when you want to be leader, it is a trait you would like to show to other people that way they can learn from you as well.
Block 24 Faith: Many people believe that having faith means to have faith in god. In my point of view faith means to to believe in yourself nobody else will believe in you. It means to trust yourself. Have confidence when trying to achieve your goals and know that the only way you will get to them is by hard work and only hard work. Faith to me means to have confidence in not only myself, I also have faith that the people and things that surround me and hope or know that these things or people will benefit me for the better. If I do not have faith in choosing the people who surround me then no good will come out of them and neither will they support me or have faith in me a real friend should have towards another true friend. Faith has to be bigger than fear. When you are fearful of something you automatically lose that power you had when you are not afraid. Do not be afraid to follow your gut sometimes, sometimes it may good but you also have to know how to have faith that
you are making the correct decision.
Block 25 Patience: Patience is a key to success because without it you will not have discipline towards your actions. A person has to know how to wait because if not then sometimes nothing good will come out of it. With patience you avoid making quick and unsure decisions. Patience also helps you with other people, it helps you be empathetic. Patience makes you a healthier person, it helps take away stress and anger that results from a person not being patient. Patience also helps when a person is trying to become better at something, without patience a person will give up right away. Getting better at something takes time so you need patience if you want to succeed. Almost every aspect of your life needs patience especially the part of yourself, you can never give up on yourself.
Reflection: The building blocks of this pyramid of success benefit me because they are teaching me ways on how to be successful. This pyramid of success shows me things like the importance of loyalty, taking initiative, cooperation etc. These 3 blocks that I mentioned were the ones that stood out to me the most, loyalty stood out to me in order to be successful you have to loyal to other people like your boss and the most important person you have to be loyal to is to yourself. The second that stood out to me was taking initiative, this means to take a stand and be a leader. The third that stood out to me was cooperation, cooperation is important because in a team you have to work together everybody has to cooperate, even by yourself you have to be cooperative which means to be able to do what someone tells you and for your work to be at a good level. Those are the 3 building block of success that stood out to me the most.
