Flex Those Business Muscles

Sadly,  I've arrived at my final blog.  I have truly enjoyed writing this blog and have appreciated the lessons it has taught me.  Mostly I've enjoyed the opportunity my blog brought me to meet new people.

The reason I'm passing on this wonderful task of writing a blog for the Mentoring Task Force is due to time constraints.  As I've progressed in my membership with Insurance Professionals I've had to leave behind old, and develop, new responsibilities.  This is what Insurance Professionals is about.  You find a role that will teach you, once you've held that position for awhile you move on so others can also learn from that role.

Of course, volunteering your time is the only way that Insurance Professionals has to teach you business and leadership skills.  Volunteering is very important to all levels of our organization.  My goodness,  our entire Executive Committee is all volunteers!  I urge all of you to commit to volunteering your time during this current term.  This is where you will get the greatest value from your membership.  The more you give to this association the more the association can give to you.

Taking on new roles and responsibilities is something I enjoy doing. It's just simply in my nature to want to volunteer and help - everyone!  I have to admit, though, one of the pitfalls of volunteering can be over-volunteering.  I'm afraid I have an issue with that one.  Often enough I find I've volunteered my way out of any personal time.  Which is kinda where I am at the moment.

My Mentor, Margie, is helping me step back from the edge on this particular cliff.  She is showing me that I need to prioritize where and what I volunteer my time for.  There are so many good reasons to give my time but I just can't spread myself thin enough to complete it all.  It's better to be able to focus your talents on fewer projects than to constantly be behind schedule or struggling to complete your responsibilities. You are better for it, too.  Concentrating on fewer responsibilities gives you a chance to really learn from the experience.  And that is why all of us are in Insurance Professionals, to learn and develop our leadership and professional skills.

Get out there and flex those business muscles!  Volunteer!  Your organization needs you, and you need this organization.  Just watch out that pitfall.

So now I am stepping away from the keyboard so that another may learn from this volunteer opportunity.  And so I can avoid the pitfall myself.



As a reminder your new Mentoring Task Force Chairperson is Pam Haakenson.  Her contact information is below.

Pam Haakenson, CPIW

507-283-2381

pamh@buffaloridgeins.com

Thank you, Pam, for volunteering your time and talents. 

 

The Ever Turning Wheel Completes Another Spin.

The Wheel of Fortune (not the game show) is the wheel that marks the passing of time.  It's been nearly a year since I started writing this blog.  The original concept of this blog was to give you an idea of what a mentoring relationship could look like.  I hope that my experience has helped you to understand the mentoring concept better and encouraged you to be open to this type of relationship or even possibly start a mentoring relationship.  I believe that both sides of the relationship can be very enriching.

I started a year ago looking for a mentor and beginning, with Margie Brown, on my first mentoring relationship.  After having focused on this concept for a year I see that I've had many mentors and that I've actually had the opportunity to mentor others.  These types of relationships are happening all around us all the time.  We need to be sure to recognize them and foster these relationships.

The Mentoring Task Force has been chaired this past year by Tish Riley who is our new National Secretary.  Tish and her task force did a great job on the Mentoring page of the National website.  I would like to thank Tish for offering me the opportunity to join the task force and allowing me to run with this blog idea.  This blog has given me the opportunity to grow and accomplish what I didn't think I was capable of.

I would also like to thank Polly Jones of the Communications committee who helped by getting the word out about this blog.

Tish and Polly have both been great supporters!

Of course, my mentor Margie Brown has been there to help, answer questions, hold my hand, push me forward and point me to understanding.  She continues to do so.  In fact, I've got yet another topic to discuss with her, right now.  I truly value this relationship we've developed and I don't think I would be nearly as successful without her.

Based on my personal experience with mentoring, and the relationships I've seen in Insurance Professionals, mentoring is yet one more impressive draw that makes us a desirable association to join.

The Mentoring Task Force will now be headed by Pam Haakenson.  I think she has great energy and can take the task force to a new level.  Please see her bio below:

I am a licensed agent and office manager for an independent agency, Buffalo Ridge Insurance, in Luverne, MN.    I have been an active member  of  IAIP for 20 years. My local association, Insurance Professionals of Greater Sioux Falls, is well known for their mentoring of young professionals.    I have held every local office and state office, and have  been on or chaired every committee on the local and state level.  I have co-chaired a Regional conference, been the RVP 5 RVP Assistant, and served on several Regional Committees.  I believe in the power of IAIP to mentor and develop insurance professionals, in all walks of life.
 I have been married to my wonderful husband, Mike, for 26 years.  We have been blessed with two children, Andy & Lindsay.  Andy graduated from South Dakota State University in 2011 with a degree in Construction Management and lives & works in Luverne, MN.  Lindsay will graduate from South Dakota State University in December of this year with a degree in Human Development and Family Studies.  I enjoy an active life style – I love new adventures of any kind, traveling, sports, theatre, shopping, and trying new exercise ideas.  (The latest of which was a 5k Glow Run in Sioux Falls, SD. We ran in 85 degree heat at 9 pm at night -  all decked out in light up accessories including glow in the dark devil horns for me and a  glow in the dark mohawk  for Mike– it was awesome!)

Pam's contact info is:

Pam Haakenson, CPIW

507-283-2381

pamh@buffaloridgeins.com

This blog is continuing on under Pam.  I will be back with you next month for my final blog.  It's been a great run and I hope you've been able to take something great from this blog for yourself.  I'm certain you will continue to enjoy this blog under Pam's direction.

That Sweet Fragrance of Opportunity

Aaahhh! The beginning of a new term.  (sniff sniff)  Do you smell that?  (sniff)  Yep, that's definitely the sweet fragrance of opportunity!  We're all starting fresh with new goals and new international and local board members.  It's a time to let go of what isn't working and clean out those stale routines.  Here is the chance to engage our new members at the beginning of something wonderful.  Time to plan your takeover if you haven't started already.

What are you going to do to shine for your local association or region?  If you're waiting for someone to notice or ask you for that wonderful idea, don't!  If you would like to "move up the ladder" in Insurance Professionals there is no better person to get you there than you. Those of you who have thought about working on the national level get your motors started.  I bet there's a national job/committee/task force that's perfect for your talents. Who are you going to network with? Who are you going to share your ideas with?

I want all of you to take an evening for yourself and think BIG.  Then I want you to go back and think EVEN BIGGER!   Yea - THAT big! Think BIG for yourself.  Then think BIG for your Local Association.  Then think BIG for your Region.  And then SHARE your ideas!  Your ideas won't do you any good keeping them to yourself.  I know from personal experience that not all of your ideas will be warmly received.  Don't get discouraged from that, just keep trying.  I'm a fan of the Law of Averages.  That means at least one of those ideas is going to be wildly successful.  If you haven't hit on the wildly successful idea yet keep coming up with more ideas until you do!

When it came to thinking big I had a leg up from my mentor.  Margie had sights on me being Rookie of the Year before I did.  She made sure I was involved wherever I could be.  Of course, it helped that I was really enjoying myself.  (Remember that, it's good advice for our new members and the long timers, when working on your projects try to have fun even when the project may not be.  It'll keep you, and them, coming back for more.)  I remember once, before our mentoring relationship, when Margie and I were at a Council meeting talking and Margie started listing off committee's and positions that she thought would be good for me. I could see that she was serious and expected me to follow up on at least one of these suggestions.  It surprised me because I hadn't had anyone take such a direct interest in helping me to gain experience.  I just looked at her for a moment and asked, "Am I your pet project?"  She answered back "Yes!" with a look on her face that said, you're just figuring this out?  That's when she also suggested I keep up a resume.  If you were a fly on the wall it wouldn't have been hard to see Margie was destined to be my Mentor.  Or as I like to refer to her, MMMM (My Main Mentor Margie).

Taking that BIG chance on an idea can be daunting.  It could even mean the loss of something important - like a job!  I've said it before - that is one of the superb advantages of membership to Insurance Professionals.  You can take those BIG chances without fear.  If you fail, well, you've gained valuable experience on how to try it again without losing those important "somethings" - like a job!  You keep trying until you're an expert and then you take your expert knowledge and use it in your career.  Where you can gain important things with that knowledge - like a job!

I can't encourage you enough to use your membership to help you lose the fear of the unknown and gain knowledge and insight.  If you're someone who's been "out there" in our association and feel that maybe you've participated enough, I say you're wrong.  Now that you've gained what you were looking for, mentor our younger and newer members to do the same.  In working on our own fears or helping others with theirs we are all becoming better members and in turn making Insurance Professionals a better association.

So, do you have a few thoughts bumping around that might turn into a BIG idea?  I'm sitting here already revved up and thrilled about your ideas.  I would LOVE to have all of you come up to me next year at National in San Diego and tell me what BIG goals you reached for yourself, your local association and your region.  Heck, if you make that goal before national reach out to me sooner.  <<INHALE>>  I love the smell of opportunity.

Translating Mentoring Directly Into Success

Fellow Members, this month has been one big roller coaster of a ride!  It has been most successful for me.  I'm hoping that most of the people that read my blog are doing so because they are interested in mentoring due to being new to insurance or the association.  Because I want them to see exactly how mentoring has brought me to success. Successes this month include:

1) Attending National Convention
2) Winning Rookie of the Year
3) Being Installed as Local President

Attending National may not seem like a "success" or have anything to do with mentoring, but for me it does.  This mentoring lessons was taught to me about a year and a half year ago.  I was lucky enough to be on a short road trip with one of the leaders of my local association.  At the time I had been in the insurance industry only about a year and a member of Insurance Professionals for about six months and was headed to my first Council meeting.  I was looking for any way I could to save money on the trip and this local leader had offered for me to ride with her for the three hour drive.  I was grateful not only to save the cost of travel but mostly to have her captured attention to ask her all sorts of questions about Insurance Professionals and the insurance industry.  It was during that trip that she told me that she had always negotiated the financial cost of being a member of Insurance Professionals into her employment contracts.  This surprised me, it had not even occurred to me that you could do that!  I knew that many employers would support employees in industry associations and I had asked my employer to support me in the yearly and monthly dues.  Considering asking for anything beyond that wasn't even a possibility in my mind.  Well, I took that little nugget of information home with me and thought about it quite a bit.  I finally decided to try it myself.  I wasn't able to negotiate a new contract for my employment so I decided to just simply ask!  My confidant at my employer discouraged me but I decided the worst they could do would be to say "No".  So, fighting my personal fears, against others advice and with hope and encouragement from the original conversation I planned my approach and was very pleasantly pleased!  They said "Yes".  Since then my employer has supported me through one council, two regionals and two nationals!  I'm certain that I would not have been able to attend any of the regional or national conferences without their financial support. All of that from a conversation with one of our local association leaders.  (I knew that was going to be a great trip)  I learned several things from this lesson: have courage, don't listen to the naysayers, and recognize my value and the value of Insurance Professionals.  This built a lot of confidence for me.

Winning Rookie of the Year at National was phenomenal!  If you think I did that on my own you must be crazy!  My road to Rookie started before I even knew there was an award to win.  From the very beginning of my membership my local association brought me in and put me to work.  When I joined Insurance Professionals my local was revving up for the regional conference they were hosting.  Luck of all luck, the conference was literally just across the street from my employment.  I was only a member for a couple of months by the time we attended the conference so my understanding of Insurance Professionals was still pretty weak .  Everything and everyone was so new to me that it's hard for me to remember a lot of details about the event.  Though, I definitely remember the evening in the hospitality room when the then current International President, Margaret Wildi, took the time to talk with me.  I was so impressed that the international head of our association would bother to take so much time with a new member.  We spoke for quite a while and I will always find inspiration in that memory.  The support and encouragement from not just my local but also state, region and eventually national is why I was able to accomplish so much.  I have to tell all those new members out there.  Go to all the conferences you can.  Network as much as you can.  Even when it seems like a short simple conversation, that conversation can take you to unexpected and great places.  It has for me.  I have friends all over this country because of Insurance Professionals.

My next greatest thrill after Rookie is being installed as Local President.  I LOVE my local association because they are exceptional.  I hope everyone feels that way about their local association.  If you don't feel that way then make it exceptional!  We are all responsible for our association.  Whew, have I received a lot of mentoring for this.  I didn't have to be talked into this position, as some may.  I was ready to take on this role (I just didn't necessarily know what to do).  My Main Mentor Margie, or M4 for short, has helped me over many obstacles while planning my term.  She has given me ideas, guidance, timelines, deadlines and the room to succeed or fail on my own.  I know somewhere during this next term I'm going to fall flat on my face.  In fact, I'll be lucky if it's just once. But I'm taking to heart the new concept I learned at National this year.  Insurance Professionals gives us the ability to practice and fail without fear.  I know if I make a mistake that I will have someone there to help make it right, without fear of losing my job or receiving a black mark on my permanent record.

This short list of three accomplishments changes my list of goals.  One goal will always be on my list, one is marked complete and the third, having been on my list for over a year, is really just beginning.  Whatever my goals are I know that I will always have an unlimited supply of mentors and supporters.  Almost every point I make above involves a different mentor and there are so many more that I haven't mentioned, but all are from Insurance Professionals.

Limburger Anyone?

I think most of us know the book by Spencer Johnson, "Who Moved My Cheese?".  It's a quick and easy read.  For anyone who hasn't had an opportunity to read it yet, I recommend it.  I recently had a HUGE helping of this book's lesson.  In fact I'm still searching for my cheese.

The last six weeks have been, without a doubt, the most stressful of my life.  I have several reasons for this and one of the major contributors has been my workplace.  We recently switched software from TAM (The Agency Manager) to a completely different system utilizing Sagitta and WorkSmart.  It has been a difficult transition for everyone in our office.  We only had, I think, two people who had ever used the new system previously.  Everyone else had been faithfully using TAM for years, and for some, decades.  The most basic and simple information is handled differently in the two systems.

The decision to change systems was not made easily.  The discussion, I understand, took weeks before the decision was made.  Once the decision was made it took months longer to plan and prepare.  Only a small handful from our office actually worked on the project that included several other offices throughout the Midwest.  The majority of us had to wait and listen for any piece of information that came our way.  We were told over and over, "This is going to be GREAT~ this is going to improve your work environment and work load incredibly!"

You can imagine there was A LOT of anxiety, worry and curiosity.

Everybody put on a brave face, smiled and agreed with whatever our planning committee passed on to us.  We all had the highest hopes and best of intentions to work with the new system.  Very close to our launch date we started having training sessions.  Half of us would train in the morning and the other half in the afternoon, giving us two weeks of half working days before the launch.  The thought of only being able to work half days for two weeks was stressful enough!  I was so fortunate to have "pulled the straw" to work in the afternoon training sessions.  I have to give kudos to the morning class for finding all of our bugs and working them out before our afternoon classes began.  Due to their terrible luck our afternoon class was able to spend more time learning, while they spent more time waiting for fixes.

Everyone was nervous to work on the new system and we were all afraid we would somehow cause an explosion if we clicked the wrong button.  But in our perfect world of "test environment" all seemed to go so smoothly!  The examples we used always worked.  The test clients always seemed to have the perfect accounts (in the afternoon classes anyway).  The afternoon students couldn't understand why the morning students were just a bit more cautious about their enthusiasm than we were.  We were lulled into believing that just possibly, come Monday launch day, our cheese of choice would be in the same old place in our cubicles.

The Friday before launch day we all congratulated each other on a fine job well done in training class.  We comforted each other that we would be there to help each other if something was difficult.  We were given Help signs to post on our cubicles to have someone come running to solve issues, should they arise.  So what if we were already behind in our work due to the two weeks of half days, we could make it through this!

Yes of course, we were warned:

"You do understand that your cheese will be moved on Monday, right?"

Naturally we had heard those rumors, but we were confident that at least a few nibbles would be there.

"You understand that you won't be able to bring any of your own cheese with you?"

Well, duh?!?!?!

Then.... what we still refer to as "Black Monday" dawned!

As we all, one by one, settled in front of our monitors (by the way, we now had three monitors each) it started to sink in.  It was as if we had been completely transported to a whole new mouse maze!  What were these strange icons in front of us?  It was like we hadn't spent two weeks in training; like we hadn't been warned; like... like.... LIKE SOMEONE HAD MOVED OUR CHEESE!

There weren't even any nibbles left.

What usually took us 15 minutes now took about two hours - If I'm lyin', I'm dyin' people! - TWO HOURS.  We nearly lost our minds.  Even the teetotalers were considering strong drink.  This wasn't cheese they were feeding us, this was some kind of soy byproduct!

By the end of that first week I think we all had wept, just a little, in memory of our favorite old cheeses.

It was about mid-way through the second week that we realized what we had been consuming was cheese after all.  It was just Limburger.  By the end of the third week, even the Limburger was starting to mellow.

We're all still searching for our cheese.  Mine is a nice smoked Gouda.  I think I'll find it somewhere around week five.

The Value of a Conference

As a fairly new member to IAIP I try to take advantage of every opportunity to participate in and attend our conferences.  Every time I do it's an entirely new experience.  I learn so much from attending, like enhancing my skills and networking with new friends.

I was terribly lucky that my local association was hosting our Regional conference when I joined.  They immediately put me to work on more than one committee and I was happy to help.  I didn't know it at the time but I look back at that first Regional I attended and realize how lost I was.  I didn't know anyone, didn't really understand the different levels within IAIP and didn't realize how special those people attending were. Having just attended another conference I can say that the experience of attending our IAIP conferences (State, Regional and National) cannot be matched.   

Every conference gets me motivated and keeps my enthusiasm for our organization going.  There are so many ideas that I would like to talk about when it comes to our conferences, but since this is a mentoring blog I'd like to focus on my reminders and lessons (some surprising) from my recent regional conference.

I've been teased more than once about my willingness to volunteer.   This conference was no different.  I was willing to help any way I could.  You know from my previous blogs that I worked on helping to organize our regional for several months - and work I did!  It's always worth the time and effort though.

It is very rewarding when you can work with a group of people, especially when most of them don't even live in your state, yet your project turns out wonderful.. When that happens you know you've got dedicated and talented people.

You can never go into an event like a State, Regional or National convention and expect that everything will go according to the script.  You have to remember that life is fluid and just because it wasn't an expected outcome doesn't mean it wasn't a great outcome.

I get closer and more connected with our members every time we come together.  I truly miss those people in-between our gatherings.  Also, the more connected I feel with our members the more I feel I can rely on them to help me in a tough spot.  They have always come through for me.

Another important skill I've been working on sharpening is my leadership skill.   I try to pay attention to those in charge and understand their style - how they interact with members, how they interact differently depending on who they are working with, would those interactions work for me?

I am paying attention, in particular, at this time as my term as local president approaches.  I suspect I will learn MANY new leadership skills over the course of our next term.  I bet some of those lessons will be learned the hard way, too.  I'm going to have to depend on the patience and understanding of my local members to help and guide me through those misunderstandings.

As you can imagine Regional was a great place to pay attention to leadership skills.  As we made our way through the events and dates at Regional something odd and unexpected was happening.  I truly didn't see it coming.  People were looking to me as a leader!  I came to the conference as an assistant, and I expected to be helpful, of course, but it hadn't occurred to me that I would be seen as more than an assistant.  I had several people come to me for answers and direction.  It dawned on me that through my short years with IAIP I have slowly started to become a leader myself!  It was the first time that I could see it.

Leadership can come from a position but often it is something given by peers.  I was recognized during our conference for my contribution and I can't think of a better validation.

If you get a chance to attend any of the IAIP conferences you couldn't find a better place to understand the tremendous value IAIP has to offer us as members, or a better place to learn and grow your skills, or find your own worth.

Deconstructing Stress

With our Regional conference just around the corner my Mentor had to spend most of her time with me soothing my anxieties.

I have been working on the planning committee for Region VII's conference in Cody, Wyoming. There are quite a few people on the committee and I have all the confidence in them to get the job done and to have our event run very smoothly. I just don't seem to have the same confidence in myself. This is the first conference that I've been this involved in the planning.

Seeing my anxiety Margie asked me to list out my tasks for the conference.  Listing out all that I was responsible for I could see that I had completed all of my tasks. She pointed out all the preparation and organization I had worked on since I started working with the planning committee. Then she started listing off a few other items to make sure they had been completed. It seems all is in order. After talking it over with Margie I was able to finally relax.

I tend to let stress creep up on me by staying with a moment rather than looking at a bigger picture. Every once in a while we need to take a look at that bigger picture, allowing us to consider a few great points:

• Where we are in our plan
• Are we still on the correct path to accomplish the plan
• Smaller accomplishments that we can recognize
• To enjoy and celebrate how far we've come towards our goal

Staying focused is important, but not to the point of missing the bigger picture. I needed Margie to remind me to step back and see that. The further reaching your plan the more important it is to stand back and get that big picture.

As a future leader I intend to remember this lesson. It will be important to show my team that their leader is able to handle stress and lead by example. I've seen it before, a manager that displays a lot of stress usually instills that trait into their team. The stress of the manager may not even be work related. Once the team is on edge, though, it can be difficult to reverse the situation.

I've also seen the opposite. A manager that has the trust of their team to carry them through a difficult project. That manager conveys confidence and an ability to handle stress, recognizes and celebrates the teams success within the broader project.

I want to be the confident leader who inspires creativity in their team. For now I'll take this lesson and learn to manage my own stress!

Lend Me Your Ears and Your Voice

Between the crowded schedules, terrible midwestern weather and the short month it was not such a great time for mentoring. I was unable to meet with Margie or talk with her about my current projects. I've hardly had time to think about what direction I'm going in.

So I thought I would talk to you about the idea of mentoring and how mentoring happens even when you're not thinking about it. Then I would like to hear from you. Yes, you. Whether you think the story is any good or not. I would like the members of our International Association to hear the many ways that we've been helped by someone, even if that someone didn't know they were helping.

Before Margie agreed to mentor me I already had mentors. My very first mentor was my Mom. To this day a situation will come up and I'll try to see it through her eyes and consider what she might do. After that I had teachers whom I looked up to. I would use them as my example as how to see life. As teachers do, they would open my eyes to unconsidered options.

It wasn't until I started my working career that I actually started thinking of mentoring in "mentoring" terms. Until then I wasn't fully aware how these people had affected my life. We think of mentoring as mostly turning to someone for advice, or for guidance. Someone who can give us the insight we need in our industries to get ahead and make the best decisions for our careers. There are other mentors out there. The ones that lead by example and encourage us to make those "big, scary" leaps into the unknown.

At this point I'm going to have to brag on my local association and show them some love - the Insurance Association of Suburban Kansas City in Overland Park, Kansas. We are not a large association, but there are some very important people involved. There is of course my Mentor Margie Brown, but in my association many have mentored me. Something that completely impresses me is the number of members in my association that have held leadership positions of International President and Regional Vice President. Even though they have held these positions they are still involved, still guiding our association. I've heard from people in other associations that once someone holds one of these leadership positions in their associations, they tend to move on or sit back and watch what happens next. But in our association our leaders stay involved and do their best to see the new members step up to the leadership roles. It's very inspiring to me. That's mentoring. I've seen it not only in my local association but I've seen it in my State Council and I've seen it in my Region and I've seen it on the National Level. This is just one of the great reasons why I love this association. Mentor's - everywhere you look and seasoned members encouraging the new.

I don't think my local association knows how much they have mentored me. Honestly, I am nearly a different person since I joined this association. The way all the members in my local have encouraged me, educated me, informed me. I have such greater belief in myself and my talents. This blog is one example of that. I would have thought you crazy if you told me I would be writing this blog for National. I would not have thought I could do it. I think of the many times when I was uncertain of what I was doing, but my fellow members were right there to hold me up. I have accomplished so much because of our members both local and beyond. Our association members inspire me and make me WANT to do more. To find out just how far I can go. Now THAT is mentoring.

I believe my association and my experiences are not unique. I would bet that many of you have these same leaders in your local associations. Please share with all of us your stories of mentors and successes. Share your thoughts on mentoring. You never know, YOUR story my be the one that encourages the next new member.

Get The (New Year) Ball Rolling

OY! When I said I was going to start my year off organizing, I didn't know I meant THAT much organizing. Once I started, I couldn't seem to stop. It felt terrific, too.

Holiday decorations organized and packed away (like they should be)
CHECK
Home office file cabinet cleaned out
CHECK
All the papers filed away (now that the file cabinet is ready)
CHECK
My desk at home cleaned off, organized and papers filed
CHECK

Then I started on my work space in my office. I actually went in over the holiday when no one else was around and cleaned, organized and filed. When I went back the first day after the holidays, all was pristine and waiting for me to start fresh.

A very welcomed, unexpected benefit from all this organizing was that my husband caught the bug too! We were two organizing fools, when the cats weren't in the way. Cat's tend to lean towards the chaotic. So they did everything they could to slow progress. Sorry kitties, the work was completed.

I'm looking good, but organizing is only half of my goal. Or as I put it in my last blog- only one side of the coin. The other half is preparation.

Preparation is going to take more time than organizing. I'm learning that a great deal of preparing is thinking. Starting with, as silly as it may seem, figuring out what I'm preparing for. I've got so many goals I want to reach that I have to start by organizing them and deciding which goals can be grouped together. Some of the goals I'm currently working on and preparing for are:

For IAIP:

• RVP Assistant
• Helping in the planning and organization of the Regional Conference
• My upcoming term as Association President

For my personal career:

• Scheduling test and working towards three designations simultaneously
• Positioning myself for my next achievements

Thank goodness I've got my Mentor, Margie, standing beside me, guiding me towards success. It doesn't hurt either that she is a Past Regional Vice President, twice over.

The most time consuming goal at the moment is being Assistant to the Regional Vice President and preparing for our Regional Conference. I am learning so much and I'm putting information together that's allowing me insights into IAIP that I haven't had before.

Margie is helping me to map out my timeline and sending me spreadsheets to help organize. She's also my sounding board for anything I find a bit confusing. I have no doubt that having manageable stress levels are due to Margie.

Working on the Regional level is also giving me the opportunity to really see where networking can make a difference. I have to admit that I'm not very good in large groups or small talk. So networking is not my strong suit. But if you can get me on a more personal level, I can make a friend. And the friends I've made across my state and region have made a difference for me and given me wider resources to perform at a higher level for my RVP. I've been able to reach out to friends to ask them for their expertise on a topic or to ask someone to chair a committee that I know they would be excellent for. Just knowing all the people involved in preparing for the Regional conference makes a big difference.

I'm also working on preparing for my upcoming term as President of my local association. I know what you're thinking, and yes, I'm relying heavily on my mentor's guidance. I'm certain if I work hard over the next 5 months (with Margie's help) that I will be making it easier to accomplish my goals.

You Call It: Heads or Tails

I just had a most exciting meeting with my Mentor, Margie. Between my being sick part of this month and the holidays I wasn't sure we would be able to get our meeting done. I'm so glad we squeezed it in.

We met at a sandwich and coffee shop after work. We shut the place down and they had to kick us out. But not before Margie filled my pockets with coins of mentoring wisdom.

We began, of course, spending some time sharing holiday stories. Which spun off into some reminiscing about childhood. And that rolled into a good bit of blessing counting and appreciation of ingenuity. Margie talked about the incredible work ethic of her parents and the creativity involved in raising seven children in a small town. I am so impressed with her parents talents and tireless efforts that gave Margie and her siblings the best traits; ethics, creativity, appreciation for products not mass produced, caring for each other and so much more.

Later we talked about some previous colleagues that each of us had dealt with. These colleagues, for both of us, were great examples of terrible work ethics. I think we've all had to deal with these types of colleagues at some point in our careers - they complain, they slack off, they infuriate us. Often I have wondered how some of these people kept their jobs! My number one question to these people would be "If you're so miserable, why would you stay in this job?".  I think I know the answer: being miserable is their natural state and they would prefer you to be miserable as well. They have the attitude of "The World Owes Me". I think that is one of the saddest attitudes a person can have. It usually means they will never be happy. And it usually means they have given up on relying on themselves to improve their lots in life.

These are perfect examples of the opposite sides of the same coin. Heads (Margie's family); happy and fulfilling . Tails (Colleagues with bad attitudes); unhappy and never fulfilled.

We then talked about organizing. From the large (hosting a conference) to the small (keeping your email up to date). Whether you like to work with an electronic medium or write your list down on paper, you've got to
keep track of your projects and timelines. Margie will be sending me forms and spreadsheets to help keep me organized for an upcoming conference. Working on this conference will be a new experience for me
and at this point I'm not even sure what I need to keep organized!

Being prepared was another great topic we discussed over our grilled cheese sandwiches. You've got to take the time to think ahead and make sure you have the tools to complete your projects. This goes for anything, from building a bird house, to taking a CISR test or wrapping holiday presents. Margie, once again, will be sending me helpful information and forms for preparing for my upcoming conference.

These last two ideas are again a perfect example of two sides of a coin. Heads (Organization); Tails (Being Prepared).

Margie has me really revved up. I'm going to use the last days of 2012 spending my new coins of mentoring wisdom. I'm more than motivated to roll up my sleeves and organize my home office and clean out the file cabinets to make room for my new plans. Once I'm done you better look out because 2013 is in my sights, my soon to be organized and prepared sights.