Put in any place.

I feel like a person who has aspirations to become a leader of an organization can be put in that position without any type of credibility or experience.  A person can change the views that others have on them by creating an environment that puts them in a place of power and of authority.  Then the members of the organization will put that person in a leadership role before the person states their experience or credibility.

Whats changed?

I feel that my leadership knowledge has developed significantly over the past year.  I have never been a person who wanted to take a leadership position before college.  However, college has developed my leadership aspirations and ideals and has made me pursue a goal that deals with being a leader for life.  With this new attitude of leadership I feel like people respect me more and strive to have relations with me because of my leadership and knowledge about leadership.

Is the outside the inside?

Sometimes I feel that some organizations are viewed differently from outside communities differently than what the people in the organization view their own organization. For instance think that there are some Fraternities that look all good and dandy from the outside but some people within the chapter see all the problems and negative things that are meant to be hidden from the outside.  Mostly member relations and how things are run are usually criticized from people within the chapter.  

Are we inclusive?

I believe that the F&S community is not inclusive because we rely on a lot of support and relations with outside communities.  I think that we need a link from one community to the next so that the lives of our community and other communities will be impacted.  I also believe that if we were inclusive our community would never get in trouble because we would not care about people in outside communities judging their every move.

Lowest common denominator

In every organization there are the leaders, then the people who aspire to be leaders, then the people who are just there to enjoy the ride, then the people who cause a lot of trouble for the leaders.  For the leaders they are the ones who have to deal with the ones who cause all the trouble.  Instead of punishing them they need to help them and push them to become part of the group of people that are just there to enjoy the ride or even acquire aspirations to become a leader.  However a lot of weaknesses in chapters is the leaders just throwing those people under the bus and not trying to make them become a better leader and a better man.

Leadership

Is someone born a leader or can they be developed into one?  Is leadership a personality or a trait?  What is leadership?
I believe that a leader is not born a leader, but rather a leader develops over time with the teachings and experiences that they go through throughout their life.  I do believe that being a leader is a personality and not a trait.  Leaders who lead do it unconsciously and do not lead because they have to or because a leader is needed. Being a leader shapes a persons life decisions and how they treat those they share their experiences.  Being a leader is not made of just one thing, but rather an idea derived from the Lambda Chi Alpha learning L.D.R.S.H.I.P model.
L-Loyalty
D-Duty
R-Respect
S-Service and Stewardship
H-Honor
I-Integrity
P-Personal Courge
To be a leader one must live out all of these core values in their every day life.

What is your purpose?

My purpose as an individual is to use the knowledge that I have developed to learn overtime to further my knowledge, pass on my knowledge, and use my knowledge as a respected leader, role model, and parent.  My purpose as a member in the Greek community is to slowly learn what it takes to become a respected leader.  Then take the knowledge that I have developed overtime and give back to those who passed on their knowledge to me by becoming a respected leader in the Greek community as well as use my knowledge to further my organization to greater heights.  With this knowledge it is my duty to pass it on to the next leader and then the next leader after that.  Fortunately, my purpose as an individual and my purpose as a member in the Greek community go hand in hand.

Knowing your role

One problem I see when I look at the leaders in the F&S community is the knowledge of their limit in regards to their position or role with the organization.  For example in a lot of organizations, not just Greek, there are some leaders who do their job but for some reason they feel they have to do everybody else's job even if they are doing their job up to par.  I feel some leaders do this because they think they have the power to step in and help some body when they are new or when they want to change things from how it is normally done.  The leader usually has his or her own way of doing things in their head and wants everything go on with his plan and not have the officer make his or her position in his own way.
Another issue that I see is when an older leader in an organization tries to be an officer without a title.  A lot of times in F&S somebody who has been in an officer position before with a lot of power usually will feel in a place of power even though they have no title in an executive position.  Then the leaders tend to make his way into a place of power into a position that requires a lot of experience. This then makes the officer mad and decreases his moral and view of the chapter.

Elevation v.s. Transition

Looking how an officer in a fraternity works and tries to elevate while he is in the office and how an officer transitions to a new officer taking their role is like looking at a roller coaster that has a bunch of hills and drops.  First an officer takes the position and starts at a low point.  Usually they are overwhelmed or maybe confused on what to do.  However, after a few months they start to get into the swing of things and begin to get into a routine and now they can begin to process the position.  Unfortunately around this time elections occur and a new member is elected to replace the position before the position had enough time to fully progress.  Then the new officer wants to do things his own unique way and decides to start from scratch and performing his own ideas rather than continuing what the previous officer had began to develop.  To fix this upward and downward transition it is the officers duty to find a person to take their position and train them what they need to do and what needs to be done so that the position can continue to develop and progress to its fullest potential.  Also, the current officer should give his successor the opportunity to basically run the position before the transition officially happens so that the new officer will already be comfortable and qualified to start where the previous officer left off and begin at an elevation and keep the elevation at a consistent pace.

Does that make me crazy?

Being a leader who does not drink when others get wasted, or a leader who does not haze when others haze is not crazy.  A leader is a person who leads by example.  If the leader is doing everything the same as those he leads, then there is no way to distiguish him or her as a leader of the rest.  An outstanding leader can only be outstanding if he or she stands out from the rest of the crowd.  A leader makes the difference while those he leads follows and keeps the extraordinary from being just ordinary.    Without leaders there would be no growth, without growth there would be no future.  Leaders are the ones who spark the future and create a path to success within an organization.  

What does your membership mean to you?

My membership with Lambda Chi Alpha means being a part of something that is way bigger than me, yet I still play a huge part in the brotherhood just as much as every brother in the chapter.  My membership is only as good as the worst brother in the fraternity, and me as his brother has to perform my duty to bring him up to the standards and values that all brothers of Lambda Chi Alpha live for.

My last post!

I found that doing 60 of physical activity everyday for 30 days had good effects on my life. Going to the gym was a good way to meet new people and spend time with friends. It also made my mood better each day because I felt I had accomplished something that day rather than just staying focused with my academics in my dorm room. I also noticed a difference from how physically talented I was on day 1 from day 30. I played a lot of basketball in the past 30 days and my skills were improving. I finally beat Tommy and it felt really great. Iv also noticed that I can sleep better at night when I had done physical activity that day. My mental health grew significantly and motivated myself to do better at academics. All in all I think this experiment was successful and why stop when I got my whole life ahead of me!

Tip of the day: It's your turn to try immersing yourself in daily physical activity. Try it and mental and physical results will be noticed in no time.

3rd times a charm.

The past few days I have been trying to fin the best thing to do to have the healthiest day possible. It took me 3 days to finally get my drift but I finally got it. For lunch and dinner I had a chargrilled chicken sandwich with v8 juice, a banana, and red seedless grapes. I also walked for at least 40 minutes with a friend and I also made sure to do some sort of sport everyday. So I found that eating healthy and routinely getting into a system made it a lot easier to be fit.

Tip for the day: If you need to talk on the phone with somebody, take a walk while doing so. Also, for me, walking gives me time to think and let my brain clear.

Explore the world.

Today I took a 1 hour walk around Ball State with my friend. We both did and saw things that we never would have thought we would have seen. We got to know the belly dancing club, and we found places around campus that we have never been before. Then before bed I did some abdominal workouts.

Tip for the day: Walk around and go explore places you do not normally go. You may find something that could change your life.

2 birds with 1 stone.

Over the weekend the Indiana Hoosiers played in the NCAA tournament. So I decided to knock 2 birds with 1 stone by doing my workout throughout the whole game. I did mostly core work during the commercials. To my surprise the workout was easier and it went by faster.

Tip of the day: If there is an activity that doesn't require any physical activity at all then do a simple workout during that event.

Keeping it simple.

Basically all I did yesterday was play sand volleyball and basketball. I ha well over 60 minutes of physical activity.

Tip of the day: If the weather is nice take advantage of it the best you can.

I wanna walk!

Toady I felt like I walked around the world and back. I walked...and walked...and walked. Whether its was to work, to a meeting, or to class I walked enough to call it a great physically active day. I calculated approximately how many minutes and it was around 53 minutes. Do to make up for the 7 minutes I did not walk I did 10 minutes of planks and side planks.

Tip for the day: When you are walking try to keep track of how far or how long of a walk you take. This is where a lot of calories you burn and you don't even know it.

Planking is an exercise?

Yesterday, I did not have much time into my workout. However, if I added up the amount I walked, amount of stairs, the time dancing, the and the abdominal exercises I did it would add up to about an hour. I went to the Indianapolis Pacer game last night with some friends. We walked around Indy for about 10 minutes before the game. Then when we got to the game we decided to take the stairs to be healthy. Then during every timeout during the game we would dance for about 2 minutes so we could be on the jumbo tron. Dancing is really tiring after a while. Then when ingot home I did 5 minutes of planking to work my abdominal muscles. So yesterday was a very active day because I made sure all the fun I had was active.

Tip for the day: Try taking the healthier approach on things throughout the day. For example, take the stairs rather than the elevator to burn more calories.

There is an app for that.

This morning I woke up and downloaded an app on my iPhone called "My fitness pal". What it does is it tracks all of the calorie intake you record and all of the physical activity you record and tells you how much your daily goal for calorie intake is base on your hight and weight. This app made it easy to keep track of my physical activity and helped me have a better understanding on how the foods I eat effect my physical fitness.
Today I played basketball for 90 minutes with a friend. Then I did about 30 minutes of various abdominal workouts. Every time I either ate food it did any sort of physical activity I reported it to my app.

Tip Of the day: By reporting your eating habits and your physical activity, it may help with seeing improvements and may also provide motivation to continue to proceed with staying physically fit.

Back from a break!

Well the entire spring break I did as much physical activity I could. The amount of physical activity depended on the weather. Lucky the weather was nice for the most part so I played about a total of 4 hours of basketball with some friends.
Today I came back and played an hour and a half of basketball followed by some minor weight lifting. Gonna take things slow and easy to get back into the swing of things.

Tip of the day: If you cannot accomplish doing the physical activity for the day then try to eat healthy to make up for it.

The storm.

Yesterday I was going home and it was reported that my hometown had a tornado touchdown. When I got home I found my friends house was gone along with many other residences around the area. I took the day off today with my workout to ensure my family and friends were ok. My house was fine. All that happened to my house was a power outage. It's gonna be hard to do keep up with my workouts with all of the destruction around me, but I'll do my best!

Tip of the day: Keep your friends close, and your family closer...but keep and eye on sky and pray.

Day 4....volleyball!

Yesterday I ate really light with just a bologna sandwich and cheese. The only physical activity I did was play volleyball for 2 hours with some friends. It was fun and I got to know some new people. I had never really played volleyball before yesterday and I found it to be a really fun sport to play with friends. One of the people I was playing with said I was pretty good for playing for the first time. So volleyball
would be a great way to spend my 60 minutes of activity, because time flies when you are having fun!

Tip of the day: Use your physical activity as an excuse to meet new people. You never know who you might meet.

Day 3

Yesterday I ran to the gym with some of my friends. When we got there
we decided to workout arms and shoulders.
-3 sets of pull ups until failure
-3 sets of shoulder shrugs increasing the weight after 10 sets.
-3 sets of free weights increasing the weight after 10 sets

Then we worked on cardio. First we jogged a mile. Then we did a brisk walk for about 2 minutes. The we sprinted for 30 seconds followed by 60 seconds of walking. We repeated this 4 times then we cooled down with another mile jog.

Tip of the day: Doing sprints followed by brisk walking will train you to better control your heart rate.

Day 2...and I lost.

Day 2 was light because day 1 was kind of vigorous.  So all I did today was play basketball with Tommy today.  We started with horse...and I lost.  Then we played a game of around the world...and I lost.  Then we played two 30 minute hard games of 21...I lost both of them.  I am not a great basketball player, and I observed that neither Tommy or myself was in the best of shape.  However, Tommy played basketball in high shcool so he would obviously have more knowledge about basketball.  So I have decided to create a long term goal for myself: Beat Tommy in horse, around the world, and 21 in the same day.  This is a fun and easy way to fit in my 60 minutes of physical activity every Tuesday and Thursday. 

Tip for the day:  Try to have fun with the physical activity you do.  Make it a game, or a feat you have to overcome.  Make a workout fun to keep you coming back.       

Workout Day 1

Yesterday started my long road to being physically fit. My weight yesterday day was was 160 pounds. The first thing I decided I was going to do was eat more healthy. Then would also do 60 minutes of physical activity a day. Now physical activity doesnt only have to be working out, but it also consists of playing sports or even running or walking to class.
1. Lunch an dinner I had a bologna sandwich with cheese, some grapes, and a water. I found that after I ate it I felt less nasty and I felt more healthy just after one day of eating healthy.
2. For my first workout I ran to the gym instead of asking for a ride or walking. Then when got to the gym I met some people I knew so we could work out together. We did the following:
-3 sets of 10 reps of multiple chest strengthening exercises increasing the weight each time to where the final set of ten is difficult to achieve.
-3 sets of 10 reps of multiple leg strengthening exercises increasing he weight each time to where the final set of 10 is difficult to achieve.
-3 sets of 10 reps of multiple abdominal exercises until failure.

After I worked out I ran back to my dorm and began a well restful night followed my a good night sleep. Today I don't really feel very sore at all. I also have noticed it was easier wake up this morning for class.

Tip of the day: Run to the gym instead of walking or asking for a ride. It helps you stay warm better and you are also in the cold for a shorter amount of time. Cardio before a workout will help getting the blood flow going and also keep your muscles loose so you won't be as tight or sore the next day.

First blog! February 27th. Intro

Hi, I'm John Renschler.  Starting today I will be doing 30 days of physical activity for at least 60 minutes a day every day.  The reason I am doing this is because I want to see if physical activity and academics can be balanced.  I will be taking on this task to prove to myself and my audience that you can be a college student and still be in shape and physically active.  My short term goals may change depending if I find balancing academics and physical activity.  However, there are some long term goals to achieve.  Such as doing at least 60 minutes of physical activity every day, documenting my experience, and seeing obvious improvement in my physical fitness and mental health.  I hope all of my readers take this 30 day ride with me and hopefully you will see a new version of me in 30 days!

-John Renschler