Don't Pump the Brakes

During my senior year at Marist, I was very fortunate to receive great advice about life and leadership from many brilliant people. Taken with this, I developed a short list of important ideas and ideologies that I wrote down and kept in my desk as a sort of reminder. I read this list daily, and I strive to achieve all ten every single day. In addition to my  Three Laws of Success , I feel that this list will do just about anyone in just about any position vey well. I hope you enjoy. 1. Calm down and slow down! Rome wasn't built in a day. 2. Be a leader... today! 3. Keep a Positive Mental Attitude . 4. Doing what is popular is not always right; doing what is right is not always popular. 5. Do not take anything personal. 6. Do not ever let someone tell you that you cannot do something. Prove them wrong! 7. Play on your strengths; work on your weaknesses.  8. Embrace change. 9. Be Transformational: Worry about tomorrow more than today, today more than yesterday...

      Everyone has someone in their life that always cheers them up, no matter what kind of mood they are in. I am fortunate to have several people like that, but the story I want to share today is about my friend Steve Townsend . Steve is one of those people that can make your day, even when he is 300 miles away (literally). Steve offered me some great advice throughout my college career, but the best advice he gave was ironically written in a note taped under my desk. When Matt Lubrano was cleaning out his desk during my first day as SBP, Matt found a note from Steve written for a future Student Body President. It read:      Steve was right- time certainly did fly by. College went so fast, to be honest. But let’s focus on that last word for a second: Smile (We’ll save the “stay humble” line for another blog post).       I am happy that I had someone that would write a note under my desk and occasionally call and remind me to sm...