Gratitude

I feel very blessed to be born at the time I was born to a wonderful family that supports me in everything that I do. I have been blessed with being taught the gospel of Jesus Christ at a young age. I have been blessed with every opportunity to succeed. I have been blessed with a an education. I have some many thing to be thankful for that I cannot number them.

Mosiah 2: 20-24

 20 I say unto you, my brethren, that if you should render all the thanks and praise which your whole soul has power to possess, to that God who has created you, and has kept and preserved you, and has caused that ye should rejoice, and has granted that ye should live in peace one with another—

 21 I say unto you that if ye should serve him who has created you from the beginning, and is preserving you from day to day, by lending you breath, that ye may live and move and do according to your own will, and even supporting you from one moment to another—I say, if ye should serve him with all your whole souls yet ye would be unprofitable servants.

 22 And behold, all that he requires of you is to keep his commandments; and he has promised you that if ye would keep his commandments ye should prosper in the land; and he never doth vary from that which he hath said; therefore, if ye do keep his commandments he doth bless you and prosper you.

 23 And now, in the first place, he hath created you, and granted unto you your lives, for which ye are indebted unto him.

 24 And secondly, he doth require that ye should do as he hath commanded you; for which if ye do, he doth immediately bless you; and therefore he hath paid you. And ye are still indebted unto him, and are, and will be, forever and ever; therefore, of what have ye to boast?

 I feel to be my charge that if I have been blessed with some much that I need to give back and serve others and help the succeed. I wish that every person could be given just as much opportunity that I have been given.

A Balanced Life

This might be one of the most important things that we can accomplish in our life. These can be hard decisions we will be faced with in our lives, the decision "of how much time do I put into this?" Making this decision can be as simple as being able to control and mange our time. In "the Ministry of Business" book there is a quote by Hyrum W. Smith that I have found very insightful, it says,"Controlling your life means controlling your time. By mastering this, you will have taken complete control of your own life, your own destiny, and you will have a right to this magnificent thing that no one can take away from you called inner peace." I believe that if one has control over their time they will have a happy balanced life. I know having control of my time will enable me to spend more time with my family in the future.

Becoming and Helping Others Become

 I came to understand more this week that life is not all about wins and loses but its about what we become in the long run. Realizing this can help one to cope with mishaps and tragic events that happen in their life. Dallin H. Oaks shared, "Jesus’ challenge shows that the conversion He required for those who would enter the kingdom of heaven (see Matt. 18:3) was far more than just being converted to testify to the truthfulness of the gospel. To testify is to know and to declare. The gospel challenges us to be “converted,” which requires us to do and to become." The world thinks that knowledge is really all one needs. Knowledge can be wasted if one does not act on that knowledge, reason why becoming more then what we were yesterday is so important in our progression in life.

Another way we can become more then what we are today is by helping those around us succeed. We need to be willing to share our knowledge with others and make connections with them. When we helps others we will be able to keep and have an increase of knowledge. We will find that there is greater joy in helping others.

Loyalty

I wanted to remember the story of the man who delivered "A Message to Garcia."

“there’s A Fellow by the name of Rowan...”

 

It was 1899. President William McKinley needed to deliver an urgent message to

General Calixto Garcia, the leader of the insurgents in America’s war against Spain.

But Garcia was lost somewhere deep inside the mountain vastness of Cuba.

“There’s a fellow by the name of Rowan who will find Garcia if anyone can,”

someone told the president. So McKinley summoned Colonel Andrew Rowan.

Rowan took McKinley’s letter, “sealed it in an oil-skin pouch, strapped it over his heart, in four days landed by night off the coast of Cuba from an open boat,

disappeared into the jungle and in three weeks came out on the other side of the island, having traversed a hostile country on foot, and delivered his letter to Garcia.” Notice that Rowan didn’t equivocate. He didn’t ask McKinley for detailed instructions. He didn’t hire a consultant or assemble a task force. He simply took the letter

and delivered it to Garcia. 

 

When I read this I contemplated how loyal am I? Am I loyal to my employer, friends, family, wife, church, and to God?  I want to become "Rowan" and want to be that person that doesn't ask question and just goes and do. I desire to be the one who can be depended upon. Most of all I hope that God does not have to ever question my loyalty. A question that could be asked on a daily basis is where does my heart lie?

Don't Be A Quitter

This week really opened my eyes to another new concept of understanding myself and my future. I understand that there will be Dips in anything really worth doing and instead of doing what I normally do when I'm confronted with a struggle or roadblock, I will push through and get through the Dip in order to be successful. I think by learning this concept, I was able to really see in myself that I have given up because of a Dip and I will be holding myself to a higher standard to push through or know to give up before too much of my valuable time is wasted.  I learned an important thing about myself is that a tendency of myself is to quit early rather than pursue the difficult course.
I found too that it's okay to quit. By that meaning that if I should quit things of worth that waste my talents, efforts or time.

Begin With the End in Mind

This week we went over the seven habits of Highly Effective people and the second habit has been on my mind lately. "Beginning with the end in mind," how does one do that? I find it hard at times to plan and set goals for the next month let a lone 30 years from now. I have always been shoot by the hip kind of person. I know goals are what can stretch us and help us achieve the unthinkable, or that's what I have been told. I guess what I am trying to say is that I flat out stink at setting goals period. Its a problem.

As I was sitting in class I pondered about the predicament I was in about the lack of direction in my life. It hit me and this concept became so clear to me now. "Begin with the end in mind" is like having a map with a clear destination on it. Even though this map does not have any clear roads or signs the destination is set. If I have a destination set and in place I can make my own road or path as long as I keep my eye on the prize.

I know this might seem like a no brainer, but it made some much more sense to me now. I now have a destination in mind. My first destination will be figuring out where I want to be 5 years from now. I thought it wise to discuss this with my wife because her opinion means everything to me and its pretty smart to involve your spouse when it comes to setting life goals.

Sound Advice

Every once and a while I will get that feeling of being lost within my own mind when it comes to what I'm going to do later on in life. This happens even if I already have an idea of what I want to be when I grow up. I will get really excited about an industry that I want to get into and I will learn a whole bunch about it, but then that certain feeling happens.

I currently have had a lot of interest in Real Estate and becoming a realtor and becoming a real estate investor. I feel excited and invigorated when I learn about things in that field of work and learning about real estate makes me want to learn more and more. About a week ago this all to familiar feeling of being lost came back to me. It was kind of annoying. Maybe apart of me doesn't want to settle with doing just one thing or having just one field of work. I want to be a web designer, a app developer, a videographer, one who works on start up businesses, and then a whole long list of a bunch of companies I would love to build. This is great thing, I've got a whole bunch of options, but its hard when you go to school and they are bushing you to be industry specific. How was I going to be able able to over come this feeling? The answer is mentors.

I was able to have very inspiring talks with a couple of my mentors this week. This is what has kept me grounded. I was able to learn more about the real estate industry and  possible job opportunities were presented to me. What I believe was the most sound advice of it all was the fact that I need to get my hands dirty. The best way I am going to accomplish this is to go do internships after internships. This will give me the best idea of what I really want to do in life and it will give me the hands on experience. It will ultimately put the learning that I am doing now at school into action. Building a network of support was one of the greatest things I could have done for myself. Now I can learn from other people that what I haven't learn myself.