**A 7 Minute Read, By Anthony (Tony) J. D’Angelo, founder of Collegiate Empowerment Posted May 1, 2020**

The world remains uncertain. As we continue to be in our homes, as we face new challenges, and as our social calendars remain empty, it is tempting to feel stagnant. While you are unsure of the future, you may also feel unsure of your purpose. At Collegiate Empowerment, our mission is to help you get what you want and need, to help you get that clarity and purpose. In a time when things feel monotonous and stale, the most powerful thing you can do for yourself and for the world is to do something new.

People are feeling disoriented and confused. The question is, what can you do to help? What capabilities do you already have that you can utilize? What new capabilities can you develop for your own personal benefit, and for the benefit of the people around you? We want to encourage you to find that clarity and purpose every day by asking yourself, “How can I be really useful to the world?” We can choose to make this about ourselves and sit at home binging Netflix. Or, we push ourselves to be better, to grow, and to connect.

At Collegiate Empowerment, we are using the capabilities of our coaching program to provide support to our Higher Ed professionals, as you give yourselves the grace to focus on personal development during this time. Our next series of articles will focus on our coaching tools. In this post, we introduce The X-Factor Question and The CEC Conversation.

THE X-FACTOR QUESTION:

At Collegiate Empowerment we have a mantra: “We always make our future bigger than our past” and “We always make our future bigger than our present.” In all the confusion we are facing, this mantra is even more relevant. Think about a future that is bigger than the current COVID reality.

Look Forward. For now, don’t think about one-year goals. We know that we set goals in January, but now it’s May and we haven’t done half of the things we planned. You don’t have unrealistic goals, just an unrealistic timeline. Allow yourself to think in the terms of four years. Think about your vision for that bigger picture. Visualize the date May 1st, 2024. And ask The X-Factor Question, “What must happen in the next four years for you to feel happy and successful about your progress?” Think about how old you’re going to be. If you have children, how old will your children be? What do you want for your family life? What are the goals you hope to accomplish? Where do you want to be four years from now, professionally and personally? As you get clear on your vision, your brain is going to come up with doubts, worries, and fears. That’s only natural. Don’t give them too much energy. We’ll address them later. For now, dream like a 7 year old.

Look Back. Now look back. If you have doubts about the credibility of the X-Factor Question, look at your own experience. Think back to 2016, four years ago from today. Where you are, who you are, where you work, where you live, has likely transformed since 2016. Use that transformation as fuel to help you get out of the gravitational pull of the chaos of the COVID crisis. Understand, this crisis is temporary and limited, yet your vision is ongoing and exponential. Your current reality is bigger than your past. Know that this will be true of your future as well. You will transform again.

THE C.E.C. CONVERSATION:

You’re probably wondering, what does the “CEC” stand for. It stands for “Concern, Excitement, and Confidence.” This is a template to allow people the space to share their truth. We acknowledge that there are positive and negative energies in the world. With the CEC Conversation, we honor both of those energies, yet we intentionally explore one negative and two positives. We want to balance out that negative energy. Before you can look at the good news, however, you must deal with the bad news and get in touch with how you’re really feeling.

Concerns: It’s okay to feel a little broken, especially right now. Start with your concerns. What are your worries, doubts, and fears? Identify your concerns and write them down on paper. You probably have a lot, so give yourself some focus. What are the top three concerns? Those top three concerns can then be broken down into two categories: “immediate concerns” and “future concerns”. You have concerns that are impacting your day to day living, but those same concerns are going to impact you long-term as well. Finances is a powerful example. Many people are experiencing immediate concerns about finances, but they’re also worried about their financial future. Acknowledging your concerns allows you to build strategies, tools, and concepts to help mitigate and even eliminate those concerns.

Excitement: Then, shift to a positive energy: Excitement! Yes, even in this, there is excitement. Think about your future. What are you excited about? What are the opportunities arising because of this crisis? What are you looking forward to? For Collegiate Empowerment, we’re excited about the opportunity of our Digital Engagement. We are excited for how much deeper and richer our relationships are becoming with our internal team, our clients, our campus partners, and the students we serve. What improvements in your own life are you seeing as a result of this time?

Confidence: The final piece here is that last “C”, and that's your confidence. Your confidence comes from knowing first and foremost: you are guided, you are grounded, and you are blessed. We have the privilege to be alive here in the 21st century. Can you imagine what it would be like living through the Spanish Flu and not having the ability to interact with other human beings by phone or by Zoom? The ability that we have to engage our students’ lives in a different way is incredibly profound.

If you find yourself in that purposeless headspace, remind yourself of this: you are valued, and you are needed. Your confidence comes from knowing you have amazing assets to bring to the table. Your confidence is going to fuel your daily decisions and actions.

Know that you’ve been through tough times in the past, and you can get through this too. Not only can you get through it, but you can thrive to become stronger, smarter, and wiser. Confidence comes from the Latin “con” meaning “with” and “fido, fidelis” meaning faith. This is a grounding, fundamental faith, that everything's going to be alright. You're still doing your Good Work. You're doing Great Work, and you can move into that space of doing your God's Work.

THE POWER OF COMMUNITY COACHING

In all our free community coaching sessions, we don’t just think about this stuff, we ink it! We take the time to write out your vision and acknowledge all the fears that accompany it. So please give yourself the Grace to write down your concerns, both for the present and the future. Tune into the opportunities that are coming your way and get excited for them. Assure yourself of your confidence. Ground your faith in the belief that you have so much to offer and that we will get through this. After you write down your goals and insights, take them to your community. Share your goals with your family and colleagues. Not only are we all in this together, but there is power in speaking your intentions. In a community, there is hope, understanding, and accountability. And remember, the word “Community” means “With” + “Unity”.

So please share this article with five people you love and care about, whether they work in Higher Ed or not. Have The X-Factor conversation with them and take them through The CEC conversation. The purpose of this is to draw out who you both are, who you’re becoming, and what you want to give back to the world. As we all continue our journeys, community cultivates mutual empowerment. Community creates “common unity”. What matters right now is the intention and the energy that you tap into your own capabilities and be ridiculously useful to somebody else in this world.

This is how we become the “X” in the “X-Factor Question”. This is not about being an X in the terms of an unknown, but of being a multiplication factor. When you take time to lead yourself, when you give yourself the space and the grace to do the work you're doing right now, what you become is a multiplication factor in the lives of others. This exponential impact is what Collegiate Empowerment is all about and we welcome you to be a part of our CE Community.

Click Here To Take The Next Step To Join Our Free CE Community Coaching Program.

CLICK HERE TO ACCESS THE COMPANION PODCAST TO THIS ARTICLE.

Anthony (Tony) J. D’Angelo, is founder & Chief Visionary Officer of Collegiate Empowerment, a educational production company dedicated to serving the US Higher Education Industry. Since 1995, Tony has served as a coach and strategic consultant to thousands of Higher Education Professionals and University Executives from over 2,500 US colleges. Learn more @ www.Collegiate-Empowerment.org or Follow: @TonyDAngelo on Twitter.

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Enhancing Educational Impact In US Higher Ed Since 1995

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The X-Factor Question & The C.E.C. Conversation