Missions Trip to Poland

So as most of you know, Danielle and I decided a while back to go on a short terms mission trip to Poland. Our home church in Ogallala travels to Poland twice a year to help put on English Family Camps. Danielle and I will leave tomorrow and fly back to the states on August 10th. While in Poland, I will be working with high school men and Danielle is working with middle school females. While with those groups we will be doing bible studies. Then I will be working with high school co-ed advanced english speakers and Danielle will be working with middle school co-ed beginning english speakers.

Right now Danielle and I are sitting at Sleep Inn right outside of DIA. We will be shuttling to the airport tomorrow morning at 6:45 and our flight leaves Denver at 8:43. We make a stop in Washington D.C. and then board a plane to fly to Munich, Germany. From Munich we have one more short flight to Gdansk, Poland. We will spend a total of 13 1/2 hours in flight, with the D.C. to Munich flight taking 8 1/2 hours.

I'm very excited to see what God does through me on this missions trip. This is something that I truly feel will bring Danielle and I even CLOSER together...plus we get to celebrate our 4th wedding anniversary tomorrow flying(it will be Danielle's first time). We will have a computer with us and hope to update our blogs as we have time. For the sake of simplicity, Danielle and I will combine our blogs and post them on her blog (daniellehelzer.blogspot.com) so feel free to follow. Most importantly, feel free to pray for us and over the Polish camp participants...that the word of God will be heard and understood and the seeds be planted to grow into loving Christians. Thanks a bunch for following and look forward to reading replies!

Talent is Never Enough Chapter 2: "Passion Energizes Your Talent"

The focus of Chapter two is PASSION! For my students, you know that I am very enthusiastic when it comes to passion. Before sharing my thoughts on passion, let's review some of Maxwell's thoughts on passion.
Maxwell argues that a passionate person with limited talent will outperform a passive person who possesses great talent. He feels this is because passionate people act with boundless enthusiasm, and they just keep going. One research studied showed the correlation between following passion and financial success

• 1500 people participated in this study. 83%(group A) of them embarked on a career chosen for the prospects of making money now in order to do what they wanted later. 17%(group B) pursued what they wanted to do now and worry about money later. At the end of 2o years, 101 had become millionaires. Of the 101 millionaires, only 1 was from group A

Maxwell argues that passion will do much for a person, including:

1) Passion is the First Step to Achievement: loving what you do is the key that opens the door for achievement; it's difficult to achieve when you don't have the desire to do so; the only way you can achieve anything of significance is to really want it. Passion provides that.

2) Passion Increases Willpower: what we accomplish in life is based less on what we want and more on how much we want it; people who want something enough usually find the willpower to achieve it; you can't help people become winners unless they want to win

3) Passion Produces Energy: with passion, you don't have to produce perseverance because it is naturally present in you. If somebody claims to feel "burnt out", the truth is that they probably never were on fire.

"Death isn't the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is what dies inside of us while we live" - Norman Cousins

4) Passion Is the Foundation for Excellence

5) Passion Is the Key to Success: People are such that whenever anything fires their souls, impossibilities vanish; When 200 executives were asked what makes people successful, the #1 quality given was enthusiasm, NOT TALENT! 80% recognized that there needed to be a fire within to achieve success

6) Passion Makes a Person Contagious: people are instructed by reason, but they are inspired by passion.

"You cannot kindle a fire in any other heart until it is burning within your own" - Eleanor Doan

Maxwell Then goes on to explain how to fire up your passion. I found this part of the chapter to be especially rewarding and motivating.

1) Prioritize Your Life According to Your Passion: don't spend too much time doing tasks for which you neither possess talent or passion. You must align what you are doing with your passions. This will not eliminate struggles, but you can face them with greater energy & enthusiasm. Makings this changes will involve risk, but it is so important to have your priorities line up with your passions.

2)Protect Your Passions: In life, there are two types of people when it comes to YOUR passions, they are either firelighters or firefighters. Firelighters are those who encourage you to follow your passions & dreams. Firefighters are those who throw cold water on your fire of passion and put it out. These are the individuals you want to distance yourself from, and they always find the negative in a situation. Firefighters use phrases like: "It's not in the budget", "That's not practical", "It'll never work", "That's not how we do things around here". These individuals, plain and simple, keep people from reaching their potential by trying to put out their fore of their passion.

3) Pursue Your Passion with Everything You've Got: Do you want to focus your energy on survival, success, or significance? You need to dream big. Maxwell ends by saying, "Your passion has the potential to provide you energy far beyond the limitations of your talent. In the end, you will be remembered for your passion.

Helzer's Thoughts
Living a passionate life is so much more rewarding than going through the motions of an mundane job that you are collecting paychecks for. What is mundane to me may be a passion for somebody else, so pursue your personal passion. Life is NOT about how big your bank account is or how nice your house is. Now I understand those MAY be byproducts of living a passionate life, but to me following your passions is living a fulfilling life. Just through the process of talking about passion I feel more uplifted and able to handle more difficult situations. The point Maxwell made that hit hard with me was to "Protect Your Passion." It is so important to have the strength to cut yourself off from those who are stomping on your passions. Unfortunately, those could be superiors who you can't avoid, but strive to surround yourself with MORE firelighters than firefighters. I LOVE taking Master's Classes because for 5 weeks, I am surrounded by other professionals who share some of the same passions. I LOVE attend NCDA or NMEA conventions because if feels like I just juiced up on 'roids or something. I return to my everyday life fired up. The goal then is to remain fired up, but SURROUNDING yourself with lighter fluid. In 7 days, Danielle and I leave for Poland for a missions trip. My hopes and prayers is that we return with a uncontrollable fire for Christ and can keep that fire burning strong in Ogallala.
If anybody out there feels they need that "lifeline" or connection with somebody who shares the same passions, seek them out. You know how to get a hold of me (or should). Please remember to follow your passion, prioritize your life around them, and PROTECT them. What you are passionate about will help determine what life you will live and be happy!

Talent is Never Enough Chapter 1: "Belief Lifts Your Talent"

"The first and greatest obstacle to success for most people is their belief in themselves" Maxwell hits the nail on the head with this thought. As I look at my own success, doubt by far holds me back. I doubt I am capable enough, I doubt I have the time to succeed, etc. Maxwell goes on to explain that it is a lack of trust that prevents success, which is a self-imposed limitation.

This chapter was great for me to read, because it helped me to approach my frustrations with growth. I think what I struggle with the most is when you come across a very successful individual who is as arrogant as all get up. I know we have all met that person. Regardless of their success, you leave the experience with a bad taste in your mouth. Then you can meet somebody as equally successful, who is modest and easy to talk with. My fear of being certain of my abilities is that I will become one of those arrogant individuals. In my career...life, I desire nothing more than to be approachable by ALL who have a desire or need to get to me. Last week I had the opportunity to attend an NCDA Convention, and observe both kinds of people, those who are modest and those who are arrogant. At convention, I have the opportunity to be surrounded by the who's-who of choral education. I have learned that my personal belief of MYSELF is the biggest hurdle I get. Can I approach Dan Hayes, Kurt Runestad, Colin Brown, Don Reimer, etc. with the feeling of validity and that I'm not wasting their time. BELIEF plays a huge part in this struggle of mine.

In Maxwell's writing, he goes on to talk about some "beliefs" worth buying into:
1)Belief In Your Potential: I talked about this a bit in the above example. Believing in your potential is accepting the fact that you are going to live PAST average. You will not be held back by physical limitations and you will follow what you feel is the best options. Yes there will be mistakes, but you learn from them. Potential is what lies within you, and whether you decide to bring it out.
2)Believe in Yourself: "It's one thing to believe that you possess remarkable potential. It's another thing to have enough faith in yourself that you think you can fulfill it" I think this quote is pretty self-explanatory. He also provides a credo that golfer Arnold Palmer uses:

If you think you are beaten, you are.
If you think you dare not, you don't.
If you'd like to win, but think you can't
It's almost certain you won't...
Life's battles don't always go
To the stronger or faster man,
But soon or late, the man who wins
Is the man who thinks he can.

3)Believe in your Mission: My History & Philosophy of Music Education class this summer really helped me to create a stronger belief in my mission. Our professor, Dr. Richmond, talked so passionately and intellectually about the need for music education. You can tell this man believed in his mission of music education. My goal this year is to fervently seak this belief & apply it to my life. BY doing this, Maxwell argues that you are empowered, encouraged, & enlarged. You would have to be sick NOT to want to feel encouraged and more successful. Only through believing in your mission will this happen!

For the sake of time, & keeping the attention of my audience, I will leave out discussion of the second half of the chapter(or even better, go buy the book and read it for yourself)

On a deeper (and much more important level), how does my belief in my Christian faith motivate & guide me. Do I believe in myself as a follower of Christ. do I believe in my potential to be a "warrior" for Christ and lead, follow, & teach as Christ wants me to? Do I believe in the mission of my Christian faith? What is my purpose? I can honestly say I lack in my belief in my ability. It is amazing to see how "effortless" it is for some to preach, serve, etc. for Christ. I have often times considered a career in the ministries, and reading just the little bit of Maxwell that I have has helped me to realize I need to work on these passion in my life. Make it more apparent that it IS a passion of mine!

Talent is Never Enough: Preface

So I have actually read the first two chapters of this book, and can't recall a whole lot of information that I digested. Like I said....bad memory. So before continuing with reading, I'm going to skim through the first two chapters and refresh my memory, blogging my thoughts and important quotes I find along the way.

The book Talent is Never Enough starts with a preface to the first chapter. Within this opening, Maxwell asks the question: DO YOU HAVE WHAT IT TAKES? He is talking about succeeding. Do "I" have the necessary tools to be successful. Maxwell then goes on to share some of his beliefs in regards to talent & success:

1) EVERYONE HAS TALENT: "people have equal value, but not equal giftedness" As an educator, this quote really hits home. There are times I find my students values in their gifts. I need to strive to view ALL of my students as equal regardless of their abilities. Maxwell also reassures the believe that "all of us have something we can do well" If this is true, it is my responsibility to find that "something" within myself and within those who I live with and am around daily.

2)DEVELOP THE TALENT YOU HAVE, NOT THE ONE YOU WANT: "why do most people spend the majority of their time focused on strengthening their weaknesses?" Maxwell teaches people to stop working on weaknesses & start working on strengths. To be completely honest, I don't know how I feel about this. It really forces me to forget the feeling that I shouldn't have weaknesses. Human condition provides the opportunity for ALL to have weaknesses, so why should we focus on them? If I were to focus on this approach to talent, I would NOT be blogging right now, I would NOT be making a conscious effort to read more, and I would DEFINITELY not be focusing on my piano skills. I think I would be continue to focus on relationships. I would look more at character education. My life would be even MORE engrossed with the youth of America! This is still a tough point for me to continue to chew on...any outside thoughts?

3)ANYONE CAN MAKE CHOICES THAT WILL ADD VALUE TO TALENT: "the key choices you make - apart from the natural talent you already have - will set you apart from others ho have talent alone" Maxwell adds 13 key choices that can be made to maximize any person's talent. For the sake of simplicity, I'm focusing on the token word of each choices: Belief, Passion, Initiative, Focus, Preparation, Practice, Perseverance, Courage, Teachability, Character, Relationships, Responsibility, & Teamwork. Talent alone will help you along the path of success, but focusing on the above words will help you to stand out in your field of choice. Make it a goal to weekly focus on one of the above terms & see what difference it can make in your successes.

So what does all of this mean? Talent is truly NEVER enough. You have to make a decision to work at those talents to maximize true growth. As I continue to read this blog, I'm really going to strive to find ways to apply this to ALL areas of my life. It is easy to find the connection to my career, but what about my walk with God, my service to my wife, my relationships with friends & families. Success, leadership, and talent play important roles in ALL of these areas of life, so don't neglect majority to gain growth in just one!

Dr. Suess said it best in the book "Oh the Places You'll Go!" when he said:

You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes
You can steer yoruself
Any direction you choose.

So I ask you...which direction are you steering your life?

Attempt At Intellect

So here I sit, hesitantly diving into the realms of blogging. My wife has been blogging for quite some time now, as has my sister...and I have felt the pressure to take a stab at this whole blogging thing myself. For those of you who know me, I'm not eloquent with words. Most of the time, I don't have anything of importance to say, and I would prefer to make some snide or sarcastic remark to participate in a conversation. So why the change of heart?

PEER PRESSURE! kind of. My wife always talks about how much it helps her to put her thought into words. I also had the opportunity to complete my second summer of Master's Classes and really enjoyed learning! Don't get me wrong, I missed my summer...but being surrounded by scholarly individuals who have a passion for learning and music really inspired me to grow personally & professionally. Also, for those of you who DON'T know me, I have a horrible memory. I hope by synthesizing my thoughts it will help me to submit more information to memory.

So what do I post on? Should I post on the day in the life of Helzer? Do I post my thoughts on politics & religion? Do I post the most random information I can possibly think of? Or do I just strive to post, not letting this idea vanish within a week of conception?

I'm going to begin my first posting series on Leadership. This summer I decided to do some more reading into leadership, hoping to grow my leadership abilities & my ability to lead my students to productive leadership. I will be keeping you up-to-date with my current reading and thoughts. I encourage any followers (I can't help but laugh at the thought of somebody following my blog) to post questions, comments, or arguments that will force me to think even more! The first book that I bought concerning leadership is by John C. Maxwell. It is actually a piece of literature containing two books, "Becoming an person of Influence" & Talent is Never Enough."

Please enjoy the readings and I hope you can find something of worth in it...whether it be a great idea or HORRIBLE grammar!