10 Lessons to Change the World

Happy New Year!  This is the perfect time to reflect on our purpose and impact we make in this world.  To be thankful for the Opportunties and the Challenges we have been given and to make our resolutions about how we can make the most of these in the coming months.

To that end I wanted to share this awesome video of a commencement address to the University of Texas in 2014 by the Admiral in charge of the Navy Seals.

Enjoy …  now I’ve got to go make my bed!

10 Lessons to Change the World

The Student Becomes the Master

Tags

Business, Leadership, Scouting

My oldest son Aiden has been in scouting since he was in second grade.  He started in Cub Scouts and continued up through Webelos and ultimately earned his Arrow of Light (the highest award in Cub Scouting).  Today he is completing his 1st year as a Boy Scout and last month was elected as the leader for his patrol by the boys (most of which are older) of his patrol.

Aiden’s first task was to organize a bowling night for the boys in the patrol, which he is doing a good job of with my Dad’s help.  On an email Aiden just sent to his patrol about the event, I noticed an unusual note he placed at the bottom … here is what it said …

Narwhal Patrol Leader,
Aiden Kovacs

P.S If I’m doing anything wrong let me know. Thank You!

How many of us who call ourselves leaders would benefit from the same openness?  “If I’m doing anything wrong let me know.  Thank You”  Instead, we may find ourselves believing that we were selected to be leaders because we know the right way to do things … but something as simple and innocent as an email from your son can remind you … boy do I have a lot to learn.

Life Lesson #4:  You Can Learn Something From Everyone

It’s Not What You Got, It’s What You Give

Part of my job at the Credit Union is to be an advocate for the Credit Union, our Members and the larger Credit Union Movement to elected officials that could fundamentally change our business with a single vote or the stroke of a pen.

This advocacy knows no party, so although my personal views are staunchly Libertarian I have to attend various political events for politicians for both parties.

This week Congressman David Price (D) visited Coastal to discuss efforts of Tax and Financial reform with our Senior Management Team and our Employees.  Congressman Price is not someone who shares a lot of my views but he showed himself to be someone who supports Credit Unions and our endeavors, although perhaps not enough to co-sponsor important legislation we are advocating for.  But nonetheless  we will take what we can get.

The topics we discussed covered much ground from Dodd Frank, to the Affordable Care Act and even Syria.  And of course there are many times when he would start in with “the opposition’s” unwillingness to give his party what they wanted.  As the discussion continued it occurred to me that too many of these political discussions begin and end with what the other party won’t do/give up.

I think we might be better served in Washington if we asked all of the members of Congress to write down on a piece of paper everything they are willing to give up, what positions are they willing to back off of.  If we started with that then we might have a fighting chance, but today, all to often the term bi-partisanship is cover for getting the other guy to give in what you want.  Politics has become a All or Nothing bloodsport and no one is winning.

C25K – Week 4

The beginning of week 4 was a potential turning point.  On the first workout of the week I was winded and my left knee hurt.  This was easily a point where that little voice in my head was saying “What are you doing to yourself”  “I told you this would happen” “Stop this nonsense”, but I powered through.

I spoke to some friends and started taking a supplement for my joints, Glucosamine and Chondroitin.  The guy at GNC also recommended Fish Oil which I already take on and off.  Guess I should make it more on.

The other two workouts were spectacular in fact I ended up extending both my other indoor and outdoor runs beyond the prescribed in the app.  I felt really good after both of those those.  My outdoor run on Saturday marks the half way point to running a 5K.

It feels really great to have invested a month in this and to have seen the results as quickly as I have.  It hasn’t all been easy, there were a few hills both physically and metaphorically that I could have given up on but I didn’t.

Weigh In:  1/18/13 – 273.8 – Lost 5.3 Pounds – 1.9%

Looking Back

Tags

Leadership

August 16, 2012 has given me a reason to look back at my career; a reason to look back at the people I got the great opportunity to work for; and an opportunity to reminisce about the incredible people I’ve gotten the chance to work with. And as I do I am overwhelmed by a sense of deep gratitude.

I’m thankful for the Managers who gave me a shot, challenged me, and pushed me to be better. Managers who pushed me to open my vision, to solve problems in new and unique ways and to never be satisfied. I could never highlight everything I’ve learned and who I learned it from.

“Time fades the pages in my book of memories.” – Axel Rose, Guns and Roses

I’ve benefited from a line of great mangers like Ernie LeMaitre at Navy Federal who taught me the power of thoughtful silence, the value of knowing your numbers, and invited me to be a part of a great team.

I’ve benefited from friends who held and sometimes kicked open doors me. Supervisors and Friends like Thai Nugyen and Mike Ferris who showed me the power of being willing to do ANYTHING for their employees, including dressing up like Michael Flatley! That still cracks me up.

I’m grateful to Supervisors like Loreice Jernigan who offered me a chance to join a credit union again after I detoured for a couple years. A detour that I will add was also extremely valuable to my development, thanks to Keith Calabrese.

I am the product of all the time and energy my Managers have invested in me since the first day I walked into Navy Federal in 1990.

I’m most thankful for the loving support and encouragement from my wife, Lauren. After all if she hadn’t pushed me for a promotion, I’d probably still be a Training Specialist … God I loved that job and I probably never would have left it but she was right it was “time to move on”.

You might be asking yourself why am I being so nostalgic, well today is a waypoint in my career… It happens to be my 20th Anniversary working in Credit Unions. I call it a waypoint because this journey is nowhere near being over and I’m as excited today about going to work as I was that first day.

Tonight I’m flying home after spending 5 days in California at a Credit Union School on Financial Management and I had an intense but invigorating experience working with a new group of friends drawn from credit unions all over the country. The thing that has sustained me throughout my career has been the people. Credit Unions and the people who make them up are special, they balance the need to make sustainable decisions with the needs of their members in ways that can be inspiring.

And the best part … I’ve got another 27 years till retirement; Man I can’t wait to get back in the office tomorrow!

 

Did Lewis and Clark Complain?

It was just a little over 200 years ago that Lewis and Clark set out from St. Louis following the Louisiana Purchase to find the Northwest Passage. The journey would take more than two years and force the Corps of Exploration to endure two harsh winters. Eventually finding the Pacific Ocean near present day Portland, Oregon.

By contrast, today I find myself following nearly the same path … of course I’m jetting from Raleigh, North Carolina to Seattle, Washington in less then 6 hours, while enjoying movies and internet access at 30,000. I wonder if Lewis and Clark complained as much as we might be inclined to about the hardships for our trip? Of course they had to contend with unforgiving weather and hostile native peoples, but come on we’re dealing with crying babies, spilled drinks, slow internet connections and the occasionally un-friendly stewartesses. So what’s become of us? Has our ability to endure been so diminished?

I mean we can post new blog messages from 30,000 as I’m doing right now. What do we have to complain about? We should be amazed at what we can do!

Blogging from 30,000 Feet, K

WEBELOS Secret Code Exercise

Tags

Scouting

For the Communicator Activity Badge Webelos Scouts need to use and create a their own secret code.

I’ve created a package that can be used to facilitate this Den Meeting.  On the first page, the scouts will find a coded message that when translated using the key on the second page turns out to the Boy Scout Law.  On the third page they can create their own unique den code and then use that new code to create a message on page 4.

The package can be found here:  WEBELOS Secret Code Exercise.  Please feel free to use with your Den.

1000 Days As A Lion

“It is better to live one day as a lion, than a thousand days as a lamb. ” – Roman Proverb

1000 Days as a Lion

When I was considering restarting the 101 Things in 1001 Days Challenge around the first of the year, I didn’t realize that a very important milestone was coming up in my life.  As I was considering when to begin this challenge, I knew I wanted to start it sometime in January and I then realized that January 16th, TODAY, is 1000 days away from my 40th birthday.

So I made the decision to officially start the challenge on January 15th,  yesterday, and today starts the countdown to my 40th Birthday, a fact a still find a little hard to believe.

To be clear, I’m not overly worried about turning 40 … 1000 days from now, I’ve never really cared about how old I was as long I still got a chance to see one more birthday.  But I find markers like this are a great opportunity to take measure of who I am and the person I’m still trying to become.   Instead of worrying about getting older, I’ll use this countdown and the 101 Things Project to attack the 1000 days and make the absolutely most of them.

The 101 Things are included on their own page and just as last time I’ve got to commit to coming up with the 101 Items, I’m such as slacker … something else to work on 😛

Renewing Kofacts.com for 2012!

So I began writing this blog in February 2007 and since then I’ve posted about everything.  I’ve posted pictures and misic videos that I was obsessed with at the time, to political essays and acticities for my scout den.  But at I sit in my home office almost 5 years later there are really two things that have stood out for me using this medium.  And for 2012, I’m going revive one of them and do away with the other.

First, it was the list of 101 Things to Do in 1001 Days.  This was great fun first defining 101 things I wanted to do and them tracking my progress toward complete over the next 1001 days.  I did things that I never would have done had I not put it on the list and regularly had to review it and ask myself, “Why Haven’t you Done That Yet?”  I even took multiple things and combined them like “Taking the Boys to A Yankee Game” and “Take the Boys on a Train” which turned out to be so much fun.

Boys in Times Square

 

So for 2012, I’ll be brining the second chapter of Kris’ 101 Things in 1001 Days, but this time I’ll only give myself 30 days to come up with the 101 Things!  I’ll be adding a page to the site to track the items and be making posts as I complete each one.

 

Secondly, my blog has had 38,811 views since it went online … and before you ask that does not count my views.  And that is roughly 669 views a month.  Not bad, and thank you for reading!

 

But of those 29,069 views were for one story which is still to this day the most popular story on my blog.  IT was written Jan 8, 2009 and it was my story of having discovered and then attempts to deal with my Facebook account having been taken over.  Appearently if you search google for “someone hacked my facebook account” this story is the very first one that comes up.   

 

Visual Evidence 😉

While this story gets sooo many views and it helps the over all view stats for Kofacts.com  It also masks how much or how little progress I’m going to make in creating content that people will actually want to read so I’m going to do the unthinkable, I’m going to remove that entry from my blog.  That’s right I’m going to take the entry that generates 75% of the traffic on my site and I’m going to delete.  I have a thought of making another Blog only about the topic but we will see where that goes. 

So always thank you for reading my blog, I’m excited about everything that 2012 has in store for us and I’ll be writing about it all right here!

Sunset over the 15th Tee