Personal Mastery Essay

Family Happiness: My family is by far the most important part of my life. I am extremely fortunate to have grown up with two loving parents who would do anything for me, and constantly show me endless amounts of love and support. Whenever I am having a rough time, my parents are the first people I call for guidance, and I am very thankful for that.  

        As a family, we have had many ups and downs, but we have remained strong! I have one younger brother who I care about very much, even though I do not always show it. Throughout High School, my brother struggled with severe drug addictions.  For several years, he put my parents through hell, and I witnessed first-hand the torturous effects that drug addiction can have on a family’s well-being and happiness. I watched my parents go to the ends of the earth and make so many sacrifices to try and get Logan on the right track, but no matter what they did, he never seemed to respond. My brother’s horrible addiction got so bad that it almost took our family to the brink of collapse. For me personally, it was so hard to see my parents go through that, and I started to resent my brother. I thought he was selfish, ignorant, and an embarrassment to our entire family. I felt this way because at that time I did not truly understand addiction. I have forgiven Logan for what he put our family though, and am very happy that he is beginning to show positive signs of maturity. However, some of his life choices continue to disappoint me, and I am hopeful that one day he will mature into a man so we can have a healthy relationship again. Ever since that rough time, my family’s happiness has always been something that I value greatly.

        In order to maintain the values that will preserve my Personal Mastery, I have generated a Personal Board of Directors.  Each individual (director) will be appointed to each value with the objective of establishing a parallel between my values and my personal and professional direction. I found it rather difficult to select my personal board because I have so many inspirational people in my life. My Personal Board of Directors are outlines below.

• Douglas Ganim Sr.: Director of Achievement: My father is someone whom I have always had the utmost respect and admiration for. He is the most hardworking, selfless, and inspiring individual that I will ever know, and I am truly grateful to have him in my life. I could write an eighteen-page paper solely on his many life achievements, both in the business world and as a professional athlete. From an athletic perspective, he was the number one Racquetball player in the world, a five time doubles world champion, and a Pan-American games gold medalist. Not only was he the best in the world in his prime years (During the late 80s and early 90s, when there were quadruple the amount of players worldwide than there are today), he is considered one of the greatest to ever play the sport of racquetball. He is also a very successful entrepreneur, in real-estate, rental property, and consulting. Moreover, he is the founder and director of the U.S. Open Racquetball Championships, the world’s largest and most prestigious Racquetball tournament. Along with an eighteen-page paper of his accomplishments, I could also write another paper about all of the life lessons he has taught me. There is not another person in the world I can trust more to oversee my “Achievement” value than my Father.

• Marybeth Ganim: Chief Supporting Officer: My mother was a very successful athlete, earning a full scholarship to Kent State University for gymnastics. She was also very successful in the corporate world herself. Through her successes, she has passed down countless life lessons to me. However, the most important element my mother has brought into my life is her compassionate personality. Her ability to put others needs before her own is, and continues to be an incredible inspiration to me. She is one of those people who cannot say no to anyone, in a good way.

        My mother really demonstrated her selflessness during my brother’s rough times. When Logan was losing control, she responded with endless amounts of love and compassion, even when he gave her so many reasons to give up. Personally, I have had some difficult experiences during my undergraduate years, not the least of which was breaking up with my girlfriend of three years. During this challenging time, I knew I could look to my mother for support. My mother is just an amazing person whose thoughtfulness and kindness brings our whole family limitless amounts of joy. For these reasons, my mother will superintend my “Family Happiness” value.

• Rich Naumoff: Competitive Facilitator:  Throughout my Tennis Career I have accomplished a great deal, I was a top ranked junior tennis player in the nation, and qualified for the Ohio High school Division One State Tennis Championships. Although, I decided to play tennis in division three so I could focus more on my academics, my need for further tennis achievement continued into my college years. Unfortunately, my freshman year at Baldwin Wallace University came as a disappointment to me athletically. As a freshman, I played 5th singles and had a .500 record on the season. Mentally something was off, I felt like my competitive drive was fading. While home for the summer, I was introduced to coach Rich, a fierce competitor and a tremendous personal coach. Meeting Rich could not have come at a better time in my athletic career. He had experience competing on the biggest stage tennis has to offer, and he was the perfect voice to bring my fire back. His metaphors, tactics, and spirit motivated me to work harder on my game than I have ever worked before. My sophomore and junior year, I was one of the top college players in the Ohio and Midwest region, playing number 2 and 3 singles, and propelled my team to the conference finals both years. By my senior year, I established myself as one of the top student-athletes in the entire country earning All-America status. There is absolutely no way I could have improved so much without Rich. After college, Rich and I remain close friends, and he acts as a great mentor to me for more than just tennis. Rich will oversee my “Competitiveness” department.

• William McCague: Self-Respect Development Coordinator:  There are many ways I can describe Bill McCague, a tremendous athlete (Noticing a trend?), extremely warmhearted, my best friend. Through all of the tough times, and great times, Bill has been a loyal friend to me for much of my life. Even when we were hours apart during college, we have remained close. He’s the kind of guy you just always want to be around; his personality makes everyone around him joyful. Bill is one of my only friends who I know genuinely cares about my well-being and wants me to have a lot of respect for myself. Whenever my name comes up in conversation, he has so many positive things to say, and it is a magnificent feeling knowing that someone thinks so highly of me. I will always cherish having a partner in crime like Bill, and feel very comfortable assigning him the value of “Self-Respect”.

• Steve Cook: Personal Health Inspector: Although my work experience is limited because I am only 22 years old, Steve has been the most influential person within my professional career. I currently conduct social media marketing using Instagram for various companies including fitness brands. Steve Cook contacted me to help further his fitness and nutrition brand and upon meeting, we quickly became great business partners. Steve not only works hard in business, he also works tirelessly on his physique, and currently competes in international bodybuilding competitions. Although we no longer do business together, Steve is the one who got me interested in health and fitness and constantly provides me with insight into how I can continue to improve my overall health. Accordingly, Steve will manage my “Health” value.

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My Personality Style

Recognizing the contrast of how you see yourself versus others’ perception allows us to better understand who we are and how we can contribute to life where all personality types exist.  The results of my Meyers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) assessment categorized my personality as Introverted Sensing Thinking Perceiving (ISTP).  My personality type can be interpreted as someone who generally internalizes and energizes myself independently, tends to make decisions based on logic and enjoys living life spontaneously.  However, to the outside world, I may be perceived as disinterested and disorganized.  

Digging into the MBTI results further, the preference clarity index (PCI) for each dimension of my personality type is interesting.  My PCI ratings are as follows:  Introversion, 8; Sensing, 1; Thinking, 7; and Perceiving, 8. In other words, my Sensing/Intuition dimension is ambiguous, and while I have slight preferences, the other personality dichotomies are neutral and adaptable.  My flexibility is both a source strength and cognitive dissonance I will continue to explore.

The ISTP type is fairly reflective of my personality; however, the Introverted Intuition Thinking Perceiving (INTP) personality may be a better categorization.  This claim is supported by the way I take in information dichotomy where my PCI score was 1 or slight towards the sensing preference.   Also, the self-selection of preferences exercise to develop a proxy of the MBTI placed my personality into the INTP grouping.  Furthermore, the results of an MBTI assessment I submitted a year ago also categorized my type as INTP.  However, given the scores on each dimension on the most recent test are relatively neutral, I would not be surprised if I shift between personality preferences as I continue to develop with the highest probability of change being located in the sensing/intuition and thinking/feeling dimensions.