Weekly Challenge – Role-Model Roundtable
February 22, 2009The Challenge:
This week we will do our first IMAGINATION challenge, these challenges at times will seem kind of “out-there” but they do help with various mindset principles. This week’s challenge re-develops a skill that many of us lost as we grew older – the ability to play “make believe.” Let’s create our role-model roundtable, imagine you could have sitting at your round table anyone from the past or present, alive or deceased, someone you know or someone famous. Write in your notebook the names of the people you have sitting at your round table and list the personality traits you want to acquire from them. For example, perhaps you want honesty from Abe Lincoln. The last part of this challenge is to take 15-minutes and imagine yourself having a conversation with your round table.
This task is worth 20-points on your scorecards.
Thought Provoking Questions:
What was the topic of discussion at your round table?
Did any of your role models suggest something specific to enact in your life?
The Lesson:
It is important to have role models in your life, these are people we want to learn from or perhaps acquire pieces of their personalities. Often times, we only look to people around us to be our role models, which it is very important to have in-person role-models as well. However, there are no rules as to whom you can choose to influence your life. Get creative and include influential people from the past or present. That is the beauty of using your imagination to support the other aspects of your mind, there are no limitations. Once you identify the people sitting at your role-model roundtable, read about them to gain further insight of how they lived their lives.
This task is one that should be used frequently, the more often you have discussions with your roundtable the more you will learn about yourself. Don’t be afraid to talk out loud to your imaginary role models, just as you did when you were a child. Slowly you will acquire the traits you want, the attitude you want and the life you want if you can enact what your role-model roundtable suggests. Hint – keep your round table to a reasonably small group so you can focus on the specific traits and attitudes more easily.
“Assume a virtue, if you have it not.” – William Shakespeare