Through the eight weeks of this course we were called to practice short times of silence each day. These times of silence were meant to help focus on listening to self, to build deeper understanding of who we are and what we are feeling and experiencing. These times of silence are actually something that have been part of my life for years prior to this course but this time during the eight weeks helped reignite a passion for giving myself that time each day.

One piece of content that really impacted me in this course was a short video by Tom Peters on asking the simple question “How can I be of service today”. Since watching that video, I have set a daily reminder on my phone that simply says Be of Service. This has been a daily reminder for me to look for ways that I can be of service to those I lead and interact with. Most of the time it results in just a simple redirecting of my thought processes on a situation, or a change in perspective. Overall it has proven to be a very helpful and impactful practice.

In What’s Your Decision, Sparough et al state, “Discernment is for people who have committed themselves to pursuing the good. It’s not for people who are deceiving family and friends, entangled in petty crime, engaged in malicious behavior, or otherwise walking on the dark side. Ignatian discernment is useful for making choices between two or more good alternatives. It’s irrelevant (or even harmful) for people who aren’t sure whether they want the good at all” (p. 47).

It is usually easy to determine good from evil, however, the real challenge as a leader comes when we need to discern between multiple choices that all seem to have good results. The process of trying to forecast the outcome of each decision to find the pathway that can bring the greatest outcome can be really challenging. This idea of discerning between good vs good really challenged me as a leader to be listening clearly to myself and others in order to aid my discernment in these situations.