The Activity and Ability Recall Exercise

I think the smartest move I could make is listing off the activities in high school I participated in, but also look to the activities I am currently involved in. I will note the skills and abilities and some of the things I learned from them. Otherwise, the purpose of this exercise is to be able to recall the activities I have taken part in, as well as take note of specific things that these activities have helped me build. Let's call this the Activity and Ability Recall Exercise. This exercise also helps me with understanding some areas of interest I have so that I can develop what i call "dream job characteristics", identifying things that I like to do and wouldn't mind being paid for.

When you are doing your own activity and ability recall exercise, make sure to focus on lesson you learned, skills and abilities that you have expanded, as well as things you liked and did not like. Keep building on it in a document on the computer or in a journal. This little exercise can act as a recall for your resume, application, or college/scholarship app.

So below I list my past activities, or activities that are not active on my calendar/to-do list. I only want to list the activities I did in high school because those are the ones that have built up my skills and abilities the most. This list might also allude other high school students to join activities that may build the following skills!

• Student Government: leadership, project management, time management, an understanding of the "big picture", working with staff and students, being a liaison between staff and students, setting up meetings, creating minutes, affective mass communications, advertising, marketing, design, cash management, opportunities and idea building, and of course an attitude to accomplish tasks and achieve at levels that I could never have before. And of course , how to have fun and be serious at the same time :).
• National Honor Society: leadership, teamwork with small group of people, and learning how to lead a volunteer organization that has an amount of non committed students but also a group that really wants to participate.
• Tonka Leadership Challenge: is an interesting one. This organization has re birthed itself so many times that no one really knows what it is anymore. I guess I learned how to effectively manage change in a leadership organization and how to manage a large amount of members.
• Skipper Film Festival: gave me insight on how to manage difficult situations and creating a situation of fairness. It also gave me insight on how to bring together both the technical side of a film festival and business side. Management of new projects (always fun) and developing documentation for future events. Training, fairness, and learning how to work with people that are so passionate about their product that they are somewhat unstable ( ;) ).
• Other activities were always nagging at the side of "My Plate" (will discuss later). With a continued focus on these extra activities in lieu of all the other ones above and below, I was able to learn how to manage my time, prioritize, and figure out when too much is too much. The great thing about learning how much is too much is sometimes you can take on a higher load when you have a good productivity ethic and some great productivity tactics in your suit case. I like to call this "work capacity", and it grows as you get older, but also as you learn new ways to become organized and manage your project more efficiently. If you want to be a crazy student, study up on those skills, and continually try to build on them!
• The old jobs: Having a job in high school is a wonderful thing. A steady source of income creates a larger amount of independence as well as give you money so that you don't have to ask your mom for any. Love it. You can also buy stuff out of the Christmas/Birthday seasonal big purchase months (which was a big deal back in the day). A job though, truly, builds a resume and gives you leverage in pursuing better and higher paid jobs. In respect to you young kids: make sure to go for a job, any job, at first. Even if the job sucks, it still is building your resume and giving you a leg up. Don't worry, your first job really only needs to last a year at the most, and then you (by my suggestion) can move on to a job that is probably more competitive and has a higher pay. "Base Hits" as my mum's boyfriend once said. Beyond all of this: great customer service and communication. I have learned that it is important to learn to communicate, and communicate well. Find a love for public speaking, and also learn some quick things that you can do to provide excellent customer service.

My current activities

• Running a biz: DRH Design Group (www.thedrhgroup.com). This has been a monumental experience, and one that I could never have gone without. The DRH Design Group works with small business owners to develop an affordable online presence in order to help their business grow. I have learned things about marketing, guerilla marketing, search engine optimization, search engine marketing, finance, taxes, small biz taxes, management of a small business, branding, leads and prospects maangement, as well as how to offer a better service to my clients. It has been a remarkable experience, and I continue to develop the c0mpany for the larger reasons of learning everything that it requires. I will be posting a good amount of information about stuff I have experienced, learned, and developed in order to make starting up a small business less of a hassle and more or a rewarding endeavor. Besides this I have leared how to communicate quickly and consistently.
• On my way to college: The University of Minnesota Twin Cities, Carlson School of Management (www.umn.edu): Ahh the transition to college. All I know is that there are sooo many things to look forward to when it comes to college. Things I have learned? Well I have certainly learned that with such a big split of friendships in everyone's life can cause people to only hang out with their close friends, and further focus on the things ahead. Beyond that...it has caused people to let loose a little bit because they have a certain expectation for what college should be. On the contrary, it is who I was and who I am now that got me in, and I expect that who I will become will be a product of the past and the present, not of what I believe the future should be. Confusing yet? Sorry. if anything, I learned to keep true to myself and keep moving forward.

From the many things I have gotten into over the course of the last four or five years, I have realized that you have to slow down once in a while in order to speed up. By this I mean take an hour a week to develop a plan, refocus on your goals, and acknowledge your accomplishments while looking to the tasks at hand. This slow down is what I call a "Refocus", which I will of course speak about in a later article.

Well that was nice. I spent a few minutes looking at my accomplishments, my activites from the past and the present, and taking a quick gander at some simple lessons. In essence you may learn a lot of things, but you need to write things down, remember them, and "recall" them in order to keep yourself focused.

Good luck, and I will catch you later.