E + R = O
The night of October 29, 2021, I got my first ever varsity win for football. For my football fans out there, you probably realize there were a lot of games played before that night. My sophomore year, I got to start on the offensive line. I was ecstatic, only to come up 1-10 on the year.
After these events, my coaches decided they needed a way to inspire not only our football program, but the school as a whole. They wanted a way to further develop leaders on and off the field. So they created a new program called Climb Academy (we were the mountaineers, get it?). The premise of the group was to have coach and student-led inspirations to motivate our students. One of the first lessons I remember learning was E + R = O.
Event + Response = Outcome
For those of you who have had events in your lives go awry or even go perfect, you can see how this applies. However, I have a substitute for the equation: Event + Response = Opportunity.
As FFA members, most of us will take the opportunity to compete in CDEs and LDEs. I think I speak for everyone who has participated in a career or leadership development event when I say they do not always go the way you want. Every time you compete, you will have an outcome, and that outcome will always generate an opportunity. The opportunity may be to continue to prove yourself, to learn from your mistakes for the next time or even fall short of your goals and move on to the next. As you continue to go throughout the next year, look for the events in your life that stand out. Do your best to give a good response. Look for the opportunities opened to you and take them while you have them. If you do that, you’re likely to have a good outcome.