Week 9

A couple of weeks ago I was at a stake conference and one of the speakers said something that really stood out to me. “Goals aren't started with maybe's and there are no spots on your calendar for sometime.”

I often find myself saying maybe ill do that, or I will find sometime to get that one thing done. These words only hold me back and don’t let me progress. I am my own worst enemy, Elder Oaks in his talk The Challenge to Become said, “In contrast to the institutions of the world, which teach us to know something, the gospel of Jesus Christ challenges us to become something.”

http://www.lds.org/ensign/2000/11/the-challenge-to-become

I learned that I need to challenge myself. I tend to under estimate my abilities and think that I wont be able to do it and end up failing, but the thought occurred to me that if I don’t try I have already failed! Taylor Richards emphasized this in the video “Think Big”. http://vimeo.com/27928168

I made a goal this week to at least get through 2 of my art projects that have been sitting around on my desk for the past year. Giving myself a timeline and then sticking to it helped. I found that my problem all along was time management. Something I was good at while I was in the work force. At home… not so much.

Week 8

Loyalty and Leadership

This week were assigned to read a talk by President Kim B. Clark called

Leadership with a Small "L".

President Clark said “To you mothers and fathers and prospective mothers and fathers, the very most important thing you can do for your children is to love each other and support each other and help each other become everything Heavenly Father wants you to be.  You stand before God and your children as husband and wife, father and mother, equal partners in the sacred responsibility of creating an eternal family.

Lead by example.”

How true is this principle in family life but also in the business world?

A while ago I had a customer service job that you had to answer the phone as the calls came in. There were 4 girls in the office (it was a small company), there were some days the phone would ring three times and we would all look at each other and see who would pick it up. I was new and still afraid of running into problems with the callers so I would hesitate and not answer and let someone else take the call. As with customer service jobs there is a high turn over rate. I remember one girl coming in a few days after I was hired that would always be the first to answer the phone and just take charge. She didn’t know all the answers but she took charge and tried. Soon after I saw a difference in the office. I no longer saw anyone hesitate to answer the phones. With her example the office productivity changed in a good way. She led by example, and she is what I call a doer personality, she got things done.

Since thing I have tried to follow her example. I have seen what a difference it can make in an office environment when you are willing to go just a bit over the call of duty. Managers notice it and other employees as well, not to mention it can be contagious.

I try to live my life as an example. “Woody Allen said that 90% of life is “just showing up.” If so, the most important 10% of life is execution. Far too few people do either consistently. But if the ability to execute is so valuable, why is it so rare?”

Overcoming Challenges - Week 7

This week we were assigned to read a talk by Elder Jeffrey Holland, An High Priest of Good Things to Come.

http://www.lds.org/ensign/1999/11/an-high-priest-of-good-things-to-come

Elder Holland said, “Some blessings come soon, some come late, and some don’t come until heaven; but for those who embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ, they come.”

This week has been tough on me. I want to be done with my degree but there is so much left to do still. Right now I have this great opportunity to be a stay-at-home mom and still have help from my family to pay for school. It must be the pregnancy hormones or something but I got this overwhelming depressed feeling that school will never end. I know this isn’t true but that is how I was feeling at the time when I read Elder Holland’s talk.

I took much comfort from this quote. “Every one of us has times when we need to know things will get better. Moroni spoke of it in the Book of Mormon as “hope for a better world.” For emotional health and spiritual stamina, everyone needs to be able to look forward to some respite, to something pleasant and renewing and hopeful, whether that blessing be near at hand or still some distance ahead. It is enough just to know we can get there, that however measured or far away, there is the promise of “good things to come.”

School is a challenge for me. I have to work hard because it doesn’t come naturally. My husband is a genius when it comes to writing papers. For me on the other hand I get stuck writing introductions to my essays for hours at a time! I have faith that I can overcome my challenges and that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Eventually my son will be born and I will graduate with my degree. Till then I have to wait and work hard.

Week 6

Asking questions… When you learn something new or try something new we are taught from a young age to ask questions. It is a simple thing, but it is something I struggle with. I often try to figure things out on my own instead of taking the time to ask a question. This is probably something I should work on if I want to start my own business. In one of the videos assigned this week, Carly Fiorina talks about three things you need for leadership. Capability, Collaboration and Character. http://ecorner.stanford.edu/authorMaterialInfo.html?mid=1719

She goes on to talk about learning. She says to always keep learning and trying new things that it will keep you vibrant.

Another talk that assigned to be read this week was a talk given by President Gordon B. Hinckley Stand True and Faithful.

http://www.lds.org/general-conference/1996/04/stand-true-and-faithful

What I most enjoyed about his talk that he tells women to continue learning. Often times in the church I see women give up on their education to start families. Don’t get me wrong having a family is very important. One of my top of my priorities even. However, just like Carly Fiorina said we have to continue learning to be effective leaders. I want my children to be able to come to me to learn new things. To make this possible I have to constantly adapt and learn new things. Just like I would in my (hopefully) future business.

So You Want to Be an Entrepreneur?

While watching the Rich Grad Lesson #5 video when he talks about being financially illiterate. He goes through the key terms that you need to know to becoming financially literate. He shows how poor people go from income to expense (basically living paycheck to paycheck). He back tracks and says he was poor once but being poor is a state a mind. I am not saying you can magically decide to have more money but you can choose to pity yourself when you are living paycheck to paycheck and barely making ends meet. We all have a choice. In the BYU Marriott School of Personal Finance webpage,  http://personalfinance.byu.edu/?q=node/12

I found a quote that really stood out to me. “The submission of one’s will is really the only uniquely personal thing we have to place on God’s altar. The many other things we “give,” brothers and sisters, are actually the things He has already given or loaned to us. However, when you and I finally submit ourselves, by letting our individual wills be swallowed up in God’s will, then we are really giving something to Him! It is the only possession which is truly ours to give! (Neal A. Maxwell, “Swallowed Up in the Will of the Father,” Ensign, Nov. 1995, 22).”

We have our agency that was given to us and we get to decide what to do with it. We can choose to be happy or sad with our personal finances, we can choose to go to church and live righteous lives. We get to decide.

Perseverance

I like to think of myself as a determined person. I work hard and I know I can do certain things really well. There is one thing that I fail consistently with; I have this bad habit of quitting things when it gets too hard.

I took a military fitness class just to say that I could. It was at 6:00 am that was three times a week in the middle of winter. I remember after the first week I was ready to be done with the class. I kept thinking to myself when my alarm went off, if I don’t get up will regret it later. Like reading my scriptures I felt good about myself when I would got to crazy workout of a class. I felt like a better person for sticking it out and I even got most improved at the end of the semester.

This was one of the first things that was really difficult for me that I saw through to the end.  

The underlying theme that I read about in this weeks reading was perseverance. I find it interesting how something like sticking it through to the end could relate to the business world and to personal everyday life.

The most successful people I know worked hard and kept working hard even when they didn’t have to work as hard anymore. I don’t believe it was easy for them or that they succeed on their first couple of tries. However, that is what set them apart as being successful… is that they persevered.

Honesty and Business Ethics

What does a cow drink? First thought that jumps in my head is MILK. I promise I am not dumb, let me explain my answer…

In the Rich Grad Video #3 – (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXv_hg-PdEM)

The speaker had us focusing on the color white and when he asked the question, “What do cows drink?” the first thing that came to my mind was milk, because of the association  I had just made with the color white. I know that cows drink WATER, but it was interesting to see how he had just conditioned my mind to believe that it was milk.

The speaker then said, “You have to be mindful of your beliefs. Your beliefs will create your reality.” My life is composed of what I believe in, from where I live to how I spend my money. To get out of the “rat race,” as the speaker puts it, you have to change your beliefs. I don’t think this is necessarily a bad thing but if you ever have to compromise your integrity that is when I see a problem.

In the talk given by Elder Lynn G. Robbins, Making a Living and a Life he says,

“Working in this world to make a living was part of the Lord’s plan for His children, not just to survive, but to see how we would get along with others in making that living – to see if we would be honest in our dealings with our fellowmen.   Satan quickly recognized the work environment as a strategic setting to stir up all manner of sin, including covetousness, jealousies, self-indulgence, living beyond one’s means, anger, contention in marriages, infidelity, greed and envy, selfishness, even theft and murder.”

I believe that sometimes we have to change our way of thinking to get ahead in life, but on the same turn we have to be careful to not let others change our perspective and how we view things.

Rule #1 from Rich Grad, “Money is not the most important thing in life, however the most important things in life require money.” Where we live, where we go to school, what we eat, these are very important things in my life that require money. To be able to pay for them I have to have money… well that is a given.

It is easy, when listening to men of the world to become conditioned to the world view that they have. If money becomes our primary objective, we may lose sight of the truly important things.  I never want to get to the point where someone asks me what is the most important thing to me and I instinctively say “my career.” Just as I know cows drink water, I know that my family is and will always be most important to me – no matter what the world conditions me to believe.