Wednesday concluded the final day of our group sessions. It was a fun and busy day filled with group presentations, a lively guest speaker and a good-bye lunch. Each presentation had to be 10-15 minutes long and needed to include the process of our projects, the goals we had set and the individual tasks we had completed. Our group, the athletic district promotional video group, presented first, followed by the Buckeye Bash group and then the Scarlet and Gray Games group. For more information on the final group projects click on the Group Projects tab above.
Following presentations was our guest speaker, Steve Graef. Graef is a sports psychologist and former student-athlete at Ohio State and was so full of energy. He first talked about his personal journey as an example of his advice to us on the process of reaching our goals. According to Graef, the initial step needs to be “Finding your IT,” or identifying the goals you want in life. Next, once you know what your IT is you need to figure out “Why do you want IT?” What is the reason behind wanting to reach this goal? After you know why, you need to figure out “Who do you need to be to accomplish IT,” what characteristics, skills, strengths and values do you need to possess to achieve your goals? Finally, “How will you accomplish IT?” Brainstorm the steps/ process you need to go through to obtain your goals. Graef then went on to list 12 tips for us as we enter the professional world:
- Chart your course- know the directions to get where you’re going
- MAP it out- Mastery Autonomy Purpose
- Discover your sweet spot- where strength passion and money collide (also talked about by Coach Patrick Klein)
- Take care of yourself
- Serve others- leaders serve their teams
- Take baby steps- small steps lead big changes
- Learn to say “YES”- making the most of opportunities today adds experience that can make a difference in the future
- Listen to your gut- not just in the professional world but in all aspects of life
- Water the bamboo- trust the process, just because you don’t see immediate results doesn’t mean they won’t exist later
- Picture success- what the mind believes the body achieves
- Get out of your own way- fear is false evidence appearing real, let out your inner child
- Find balance- work hard, play hard
My favorite tip Graef gave us was #11 about getting out of your own way and expressing your inner-child. He used the example of when you are little you just go for everything such as playing tag at recess, and looking so uncoordinated while running but you don’t care because you’re having the time of your life. When you’re little you just go for things because you want to. Over the years society has masked how we think we should act, making it difficult to get out of our comfort zones and compressing the inner-child within us. Graef explained that when you can be truly comfortable with yourself and passionate about what you are doing success will come easily.
The day ended with a quick thank you from our supervisors along with an exclamation point lunch of pizza and salad from Adriatico’s. We all said our thank you’s and good byes and headed out with only one day left in our area internships.