#VSMusings

The new and improved Student Union website!

While enjoying my break, I was introduced to a four part series of “Llamas With Hats”. This is the first of the installation.

Why I love marketing.

TIME FOR A BED TIME STORY!

Lack of specialized branding experience produced new, creative, and noteworthy design.  

My Morning Coffee.

The world today, and organizations like the ones I am now a part of, are learning more and more the value of teamwork. The development of organizations like the EU show that countries are more apt to agree to join forces and create alliances, and that these alliances are proving themselves beneficial to the group as a whole.

If I were to describe teamwork’s benefits, I would refer to one of my heritage’s great inventions, Pizza. In a hypothetical situation, you have three dollars and five of your friends also have three dollars. Now if you were to ask one other friend to split a small pizza with you that costs 6 dollars, you would each get a good amount of pizza. But let’s say you took on another friend, and then had enough to get a medium pizza. Then you took on another, now you can buy a large. Now you take on the last two friends, and you have yourself a large pizza, and maybe some garlic knots and drinks. You have now gone from having probably 2 small slices of pizza to having 1 or 2 large slices, garlic knots, and a drink for yourself and five of your friends. All of you have benefited from putting the same amount of money on the table. That, to me, explains why teamwork is necessary and is very beneficial.

Like the pizza example, each person you take on to your team will provide more ideas(or dollars) to the table, and with these ideas comes another unique perspective that when combined with the others gives way to an unparalleled result. I used to think that my ideas had the best answer to any problem, that the knowledge I had of things was always the absolute truth, and that I was a great fit for any job. Recently, I thought that I had the ability to run both the largest student group on BU campus (Programming Council), and hold the presidential position on the Student Union. I thought that I could find the time, energy, and will to run both of these organizations, with their separate purposes, and still have time to focus on academics.

But what I learned is that this is obviously immature, obviously egotistical, and obviously illogical. I am one person, and while I consider myself a very motivated individual, there is no way that I could accomplish much in either of these organizations once I split my time between them. I could not possibly find the time to balance PC, Student Union, and my academics without either letting up on one of those, or eventually crashing and burning. Plus, shouldn’t I respect that their may be others who are better for the position who I could easily work with next year to provide my perspective and help wherever possible?

My perception of teamwork has been altered. At one point in time, I would have told you that the best product comes from a motivated individual allowed to produce without restrictions.(That one person, with their three dollars, doesn’t need anyone else if he can just find out a way to get more money using his creative brain and purchase his own pizza.) Now, however, I say that the most rewarding experience is when a group of individuals come together and work their hardest to inspire, motivate, and create as a team. (Plus, they get the pizza and the garlic knots)

Let’s work together, Let’s create, and let’s make every event and every day a learning experience from which we can grow.

A working piece, The Power of Perception is something I feel I am reminded of every day.  Each day we walk the earth in a different light, influenced by events of the past, environments in our vision, and thoughts developing in our head.  We feel sad, happy, angry, and attribute this to the situation’s decision.  But days do not decide, we decide.  Each day we wake up with a new attitude formed by our own perceptions, our own specific attitudes, and our behaviors for that day are affected.  

My question is, why can’t we change these perceptions?  What if every day we decided we would wake up and watch something enlightening? What if every day, irregardless of the weather, we decided we would wake happy, act happy, until some legitimate reason was presented for us to be anything else.  What would come of us?

Perception is a powerful thing, but we are in control of it.  Every day we can wake and believe what we want to.  If we can internalize this process, we can remain happy every day irregardless of the situation.   Soon situations will not affect our overall mood, just affect our reactions.  Soon reactions will become less guided by emotion, and more by logic.  And the cloud of emotion will no longer become destructive, but only constructive.  

I plan to continue searching for ways to overcome our perceptions, control them to benefit us daily and overall, but for now those are my thoughts.  I would love to hear what you think.  

“There is no way to happiness, happiness is the way.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_iK9PLdVXK4- Charlie Brown “Happiness”