My Personal Past (Caleb)

In a college Leadership Class I just took, I was given an assignment to write out a Personal Leadership Plan. 

There are 6 parts to this Personal Leadership Plan. I'm not sure yet if I will post all of them here or not.

1. Knowing my Past
2. Knowing Myself
3. Vision & Mission
4. SMART Goals
5. Mentors
6. Skills I Need

The assignment was this:  - Knowing yourself: 

• Your Preferences
• Strengths
• Gifts
• Talents
• Tendencies
• Are examples provided to support your conclusions?

I do not mean to post these assignments to brag about who I am, but rather as a tool so that you all can better understand who I am. If you do not think this really represents who I am, I would ask that you please let me know how and why it does not clearly represent who I am.

Part 1: Strengths

My strongest strength would be in the area of Evaluating & Analyzing. Webster’s defines Evaluating as determining the significance, worth, or condition of, usually by careful appraisal and study & Analyzing studying or determining the nature and relationship of the parts of by analysis. An example of this strength in my life would be evaluation of whether or not to become a Certified Public Accountant or an Enrolled Agent or both about 4-5 years ago. I examined the average pay rates of both designations, the ability to do different jobs, the public status & recognition of the different titles, the public education needed, and many more tests. My results of the study were to first become a Certified Public Accountant and later in life become an Enrolled Agent.

            Another strong strength would be the ability to organize. Webster’s defines Organizing as setting up an administrative structure. Organizing is the collaboration of Systematizing, Collecting, & Organizing. An example of this strength in my life would be organizing information for presentations (PowerPoint’s, Handouts, Articles, etc.) for the past 3 years or so. I enjoy collecting the different sources of information and organizing it into the best attraction to the eye and in the most logical order.

Part 2: Talents

            My strongest Talent would be in the area of Logic & Math. I love to sort, categorize, and characterize. An example of this in my life would be in the area of my vocation. I started in the Accounting / Tax arena about 4 years ago. I have loved every bit of the adventure. I love working with the calculations in Tax & Accounting, and love fixing a complicated problem. I love the thrill of solving and balancing the books while working on corporate & personal tax returns.

            Another strong Talent in my life would be the intelligence of self. I would say that this talent is linked to one of my spiritual gifts of Serving. I love to serve quietly by myself where nobody notices. An example of strong characteristics of Self in my life would be spending my spare time typing out devotionals or talks or books or possibly chapters of the bible. I love to do this in the early morning and the late evening when no one else is around. I also love to listen to sermons when I am alone. How I would classify this as serving others would be that this prepares me to be better equipped to know how to relate to someone else, or to give them counsel in that given topic, or to lead them to the scriptures in a Biblical Study. I can recall many different sermons or different topics and apply that to my life and others lives to whatever situation they or I might be facing.

Part 3: Spiritual Gifts

            My strongest Spiritual Gifts would be Giving & Serving. Looking back over my life, I don’t think I can truly separate the gifts of Giving and Serving. I think that they each compliment the other gift to the point that if you remove one of them the other loses most of its significance. I serve an individual by giving to them. This is done by giving of my resources (time, treasures, talent, etc), and many other ways, including, giving of my experience and knowledge to bless someone make correct decisions in life (decisions about – Life Purpose, Life Goals, Education, Marriage, Children, Vocation, Calling, etc.). The reverse of that is that I give to individuals by serving them. I serve them by finding joy in doing the small things in life that others may not notice or enjoy doing that will bless them in a very certain way.

I believe that the cycle you can see with the children of Israel of: God’s Blessing on them, turning the blessing into materialism, turning the materialism into Idolism, God’s Judgment on Idolism, the Children of Israel’s Repentance of their Idolism & Materialism, God’s Blessing on them, over & over again is also a pattern in Church History as well as our Individual Lives. I believe that the way that this cycle is stopped is by realizing that God’s Blessing is not meant to be turned into Materialism but rather to be used to bless others for his kingdom, for his glory, for his honor & praise!

When I look at the gift of serving, I believe that it is displayed through finding Joy in doing the smallest tasks however menial & tedious they are. I have heard a lot of people say that the people, who have the gift of service, are usually not the most efficient at what they do. I don’t believe that is completely true, especially in my life. When I find something small/tedious to do that would be of a benefit to others, I usually find myself asking this question, “Is there a faster way to do this task that would be more efficient and produce greater quality or quantity?”

An example of how I served by Giving is: Through this last year I have found many ways to give to people & projects that I believe was truly serving them with my time & resources. It is truly such a blessing to give and not expect a return, which will always lead to a blessing from God. He may not & usually does not bless in the exact way that you gave though. For example; if you give away your money, he may bless you with time, or stronger relationships, or better health, or more money back.

An example of how I have given by Serving is: Every month a ministry that I am actively involved in called LAMB Services, Inc. has an evening for the community to come together and pack different things to bless others around the world with. The first in the cycle is a food pack, the second is a clothes pack, and the third is usually an assortment of projects. One of the events is a Pack of Good & Evil Books for Prisoners in CA. It has been my privilege to set up and manage some of the systems that are in place for this project. One of the main systems that I manage is a program that was built in excel for easy entering of the inmates information (address, ID#, Cell#, etc), & easy label printing. During this process, I have realized how much of a Joy & a service it is to do the small & tedious things when they are a service to God.

Check out my new blog about my College Life here - http://calebjenkins-collegeplus.blogspot.com/