Be True to Your Best Self

Quote of the week.

"To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment."
Ralph Waldo Emerson

This week I learned about 7 steps I can take to become a highly effective person.  Each step is about deliberate actions I can take that will optimize success in life and in business. Steven R. Covey developed this formula to help people become the best they can be.

Highly Effective People:

• Be Proactive
• Begin with the End in Mind
• Put First things First
• Think Win Win
• Seek first to Understand, then to be Understood
• Synergy
• Sharpen the Saw

 President Hinckley's address was to the women and young women of the Church and helped us to understand the vital principles relating to being true to your best self.  If you know who you are and never veer from that you will never compromise the things that matter most.  He taught that virtue, cleanliness, honesty and integrity are all necessary in righteous living.  We are each born with a conscience and know right from wrong and continually choosing right with ultimately lead to continued happiness

President Gorden B. Hinckley Stand True and Faithful

•  Be true to your faith
• Be true to yourselves 
• Be true to your associates
• Be true to your parents
• Be true to your heritage
• Be true to the Church
• Be true to God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ

Quote Of The Week.
"Nature never pays an unearned account and she never fails to pay one that has been earned. If you wish to achieve financial success, if you wish to be happy, if you wish to be healthy, if you would be morally clean, if you wish to find religious peace of mind, there is only one sure way, and that is the straight and narrow path—the way of honor, the way of industry, of moderation, simplicity, and virtue." N Eldon Tanner

“Mastery”

by Geroge Leonard

“the mysterious process during which what is at first difficult becomes progressively easier and more pleasurable through practice”

Ralph Waldo Emerson put in similarly when he said: “That which we persist in doing becomes easier for us to do—not that the nature of the thing is changed, but that our power to do is increased.”

Mastery – It resists definition yet can be instantly recognized.  It comes in many varieties, yet follows certain unchanging laws.  It brings rich rewards, yet is not really a gal or a destination but rather a process, a journey

·      Starts with baby steps

·      Requires practice

·      Requires patience

Loving the Plateau

“the real juice of life, whether it be sweet or bitter, is to be found not nearly so much in the products of our efforts as in the process of living itself, in how it feels to be alive” and “If our life is a good one, a life of mastery, most of it will be spent on the plateau”

The Five Master Keys

·      Instruction

o   The best thing you can do is to arrange for first-rate instruction

o   It comes in many forms: master teacher; books; films; tapes; computer; group instructions; class room; knowledgeable friends; counselors; business associates and even “street”

·      Practice

o   Practice is this sense implies something separate from the rest of your life

o   The people we know as Masters don’t devote themselves to their particular skill just to get better at it.  The truth is, they love to practice

·      Surrender

o   The courage of a master is measured by his or her willingness to surrender, surrendering to your teacher

·      Intentionality

o   The power of the mental game

·      The Edge

o   Those we know as masters are dedicated to the fundamentals of their calling

o   They are zealots of practice

o   Connoisseurs of the small, incremental step

Quote of the Week
Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn our, and loudly proclaiming, “Wow what a ride!”   Marjorie Pay Hinckley 

A Hero's Journey
Take Aways

Live every moment of your life like it matters.
Live as if you have an important mission.
See struggles as adventures and struggles as lessons.
It's not the prize at the end that matters, but how the hero is changed in the process.

Making money is hard but not complicated, learning how to learn is the most important skill to master.  Learning how to listen, ask questions and not necessarily be the smartest person in the room.
After one learns how to learn one must learn how to live a life of meaning.


Only 3 questions matter at the end of life.
1.  Have I contributed something meaningful?
2.  Am I a good person?
3.  Who did I love and who loved me?


Never give up your search for your calling in life.

Ask 5 people that you know well what you do better than anyone else in the world. Press for specifics and examples. You'll find that your God given gifts come easy to you and not to others.

Your calling MUST serve others.


It's not about you...it's all about you.

 

The Ministry of Business

Quote of the Week:
"One of the most consistently meaningful ideas conveyed to students is the concept that not only is it possible to become successful financially while still remaining a spiritually-grounded and loving individual, but that these two goals actually work together in complete symbiosis."

My Fears

Worst Case Scenario:

My worst-case scenario is to borrow money from friends or family to start a business, fail at my chosen start up business and file for bankruptcy. This scenario would wreak havoc on all of my stable relationships and ultimately I would feel guilty and like a failure.

My Fears

1.     Borrowing money and not being able to pay it back.

2.     Putting everything into my business and having it fail.

3.     Putting a strain on relationships of people who believed in me.

4.     Not understanding the risks involved before I make life-changing decisions.

5.     Living with failure.

Deconstructing My Fears

1.     I need to remember that many of people have borrowed money to start business and they bombed.  Bankruptcy didn’t kill them, most people I know have rebounded, somehow, some way they didn’t stop working and turned things around.

2.     If I’m not willing to put everything into my business it will most definitely fail.  Not giving it everything I’ve got is not really an option.  I’m really afraid of failure, I need to remember that failure is part of life.

3.     Relationships are important to me and I don’t want to be the cause of their failure.  I need to trust that the people who love me and believe in me do it knowing my strengths and weaknesses and they won’t give up on me in both successes and failures.

4.     I sometimes act before I think, I need to make sure I have done my homework, crossed my t’s and dotted my I’s before I leap

5.     People fail all the time, it’s how they learn, it’s how they grow, it’s how they change so they don’t fail the next time.  Failure is ok, quitting is not!

Ways Back to Status Quo

1.     If I borrowed money I would just need to work forever until it was paid back, even if that means paying a little every month.

2.     Putting everything into what ever it is I’m doing is part of life, part of who I am.  What ever it is I choose to do I can always give it my all and I might fail.

3.     Relationships with people I care about will always be something I am constantly trying to strengthen, I can communicate my sorrow and regret and my plan to make things right, if I fail.

4.     I will continue to educate myself before I make decisions.  I can always learn more and become more and more prepared. 

5.     Never give up, try, try again. Don’t quit.  

Personal Constitutions

What a concept to have a personal constitution as you go throughout your life making decisions that will not only affect you but your family and those you love.  I loved making my own personal constitution about the principles I hold near and dear to my heart and incorporating them into our business . They actually go hand in hand and seem like a no fail system in pursuing my dreams as an entrepreneur, wife, mother and grandmother.