Educating Young People on the Value of IMPACT

One of the benefits of working for yourself is the ability to quickly adjust direction or I guess it is more like choosing to take a different pathway to your destination. I love sharing the power of IMPACT with various organizations and companies to help them recognize the value but also the understanding that what they do and how they do it matters.

But being able to adapt this to reach student athletes in high school and college hits to the core of who I am. I have begun speaking to athletic teams in hopes of moving the individuals from a self-centric focus to an external-centric impact.

The Power & Price of IMPACT
This interactive talk is designed to inspire athletes to uncover the Power of making a positive IMPACT and recognize the Price when the IMPACT is negative. Through stories, reflection, and practical strategies, athletes will be challenged to embrace their role in shaping themselves, their team, and their community.

This isn’t a lecture, but an open discussion on who and what is impacting them as well as using the team engagement to uncover impact areas that were previously hidden or ignored. I use a workshop format to create understanding and awareness so that the team members can align and build a greater connection. 

My Day of IMPACT
I begin by sharing my personal story of the day my heart stopped beating, and the resulting gratitude fuels a life committed to positive IMPACT.
 
The IMPACT You Have
Interactive reflection on how athletes influence themselves, their teammates, and the game—celebrating positives while confronting negatives. We then expand the discussion to create the understanding that IMPACT reaches beyond the team to the program, school, fans, and community. Creating awareness that what you do matters and understanding what that IMPACT looks like. 
 
The IMPACT on You
After the recognition of all the ways we can impact others, we begin exploring who and what influences our performance, while learning to manage the Circle of Control, Influence, and Concern. This is where it can get uncomfortable as we confront our own biases, fears, and insecurities to step away from the blame game, so that we can focus on moving ourselves forward.
 
The IMPACT Challenge
Athletes find it easy to work on skill-development, but the mental aspect is often overlooked and simply avoided. We will identify barriers that keep athletes from maximizing their IMPACT and creating focus on self-development for greater external influence. We will create an internal focus for external IMPACT.
 
Be Better Today (BBT)
Closing with an action plan. We answer the IMPACT Challenge by using the BBT Tool to help them identify focus areas and list out specific actions the athletes commit to, in order to create a greater IMPACT.
 
It’s great to be able to pull together the 3 Pillars of IMPACT that I have used for business as well as for athletics and turn it into an hour-long discussion. It lays the foundation for future workshops where teams can be transformed into IMPACT Teams as they can build on this work to create greater awareness and respect for the roles that each other play for the team to be successful.
 
For young athletes who are so used to being the center of attention in their own social media bubble, stepping out to create awareness of their potential for IMPACT can be transformative for them. Coming to grips with how their actions have the power to positively or negatively impact others, is the price they pay to lead a life of IMPACT, Beyond Today.

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