"Do what you love, you'll be better at it!"

I am not a business major, but I have thoroughly enjoyed the business classes that I have taken during my schooling. I get to read some amazing articles, talks, and devotionals and watch inspiring videos. I love that they stretch my mind and cause me to think about my life in a different way. This week we read an article written by Clayton M. Christensen called “How Will You Measure Your Life?” It’s in the Harvard Business Review and I recommend it to anyone trying to find meaning and purpose in their life. (It can be found here: https://content.byui.edu/file/dd80f8fa-65c9-4ad9-a4f1-6102534a911c/1/R1007Bp2.pdf)

The article focuses on finding purpose in your life in order to help you stay happy in your career, keep your honesty and integrity (stay out of jail), and “be sure that [your] relationships with [your] spouse and [your] family become an enduring source of happiness”. My favorite line in the article states: “As I think about my former classmates who inadvertently invested for lives of hollow unhappiness, I can’t help believing that their troubles relate right back to a short-term perspective.” Having an eternal perspective is something that I always strive for in my life. My daily life may be long and hard at times, but with an eternal perspective, I know that my Heavenly Father is with me always and that much can be learned through my trials. I’m working on finding my purpose in life so that I can benefit myself and my family the best I can. 

In a video we watched this week, we also learned about finding our purpose in life. We can't choose a career doing something solely because of the money or because we're good at it because if we don't love what we do, we won't be happy. "Do what you love, you'll be better at it!" So, here's to finding something we love to do so we can all be happy, healthy, honest people! 

Making a Living and a Life

This week we read a devotional called "Making a Living and a Life" given by Elder Lynn G. Robbins (http://www2.byui.edu/Presentations/Transcripts/Devotionals/2010_10_12_Robbins.htm)

In this devotional, Elder Robbins is comparing grades A-F with our dealings in life as students, professionals, citizens in our communities and Disciples of Christ. I’m sure that most people don’t start off as F-level people and employees, but instead get caught up in the lies and love of money provided to us straight from Satan. Satan thrives on feeding us opportunities to be competitive, prideful and envious. While it may not be easy to start and stay at an A-level, we should all try our very best. It is in our best interest to put our Heavenly Father and fellowmen first and our income and money second. Our world would be a much happier place if more businessmen and community members were honest, A-level people. My husband is pretty close to graduating and we both have committed to finding him a job at a company that we feel is honest in their dealings. We also want to find a community to live in where we can feel safe, at home and surrounded by trustworthy, loving neighbors. The challenging part about the world today is that appearances are very deceiving. It is hard to know good from bad, better from worse. The only thing we know to do is to pray to our loving Heavenly Father for guidance and trust that he will lead us where we are meant to go. We will make mistakes along the way, but we will not be afraid to stand up for our beliefs and choose another path if we need to. I pray that we can all work on being A-level and know that even if we stumble, we can always work our way back up to the top. 

Creating a life of meaning

In my opinion, life is so much more meaningful if we work as hard as we can to succeed and serve others. Our Heavenly Father sent us here to learn and grow and we have the choice to do that with a positive or negative attitude. It may seem easier to do things our own way, but we will quickly learn that Heavenly Father has a plan for each an every one of us. I have a quote in my house as a reminder of this. Neal A. Maxwell said "Faith in God includes faith in His timing". This is sometimes hard, but we will be be blessed if we remember that He truly wants the best for us. There is also a nod at this in the book "The Ministry of Business" by Steven A. Hitz.

In trying times in our lives, we can remember that it is part of His plan for us and use it as a learning experience. We must get back on our feet and try again, refusing to give up. In Randy Pausch's Last Lecture, he says "brick walls are there for a reason: they let us prove how badly we want things". I thought this was a great perspective to have because trials in life are inevitable, but how we get past these trials, or brick walls, is our choice. If we want something bad enough, we can work harder and make it happen!

Why do you think Randy Pausch was able to achieve so many of his childhood dreams?

To start, I love that Randy talked about how much he appreciated that his parents allowed him to be creative. I'm sure that played a huge part in his confidence and ability to succeed. As I already quoted above, he obviously believed in learning from your trials and setbacks and choosing to not giving up. With that kind of perspective, achieving your dreams is both challenging and fun. Randy wanted to build something for Disney after a trip to Disneyland as a child and even after being denied a job, he kept pushing until they ultimately said yes. 

Do you feel that dreaming is important? Why or why not?

Dreaming is definitely important. Settling goals based on our deepest dreams keeps life fun and keeps our progress moving forward instead of backwards (even if it feels like we are moving backwards sometimes!). If we are always working towards a dream, we have motive to keep going and to do well. 

One of my childhood dreams was to have a large family. I loved the idea of organized chaos, more love than I knew what to do with and always having something going on. Now that I'm an adult and married with three kids, I still have that dream and it still feels attainable. While the reality of how exhausting and expensive raising children is has sunk in, it will always be a priority of mine. The sacrifices I make for my family are worth the time and effort and I know I'm doing important work.  

Your Whole Souls As an Offering Unto Him

This week we read a talk by Elder David A. Bednar called "Your Whole Souls As an Offering Unto Him" 
(the talk can be found here: www2.byui.edu/Presentations/transcripts/devotionals/1999_01_05_bednar.htm)


This devotional was inspiring and had a message that everyone can benefit from. Throughout our lives we will constantly be learning, relearning, and applying new skills to our lives. While we are in college it is so important to remember to balance our time between school and our faith. It is very easy to fall into the mindset of just “getting through” rather than taking this time to actually learn, grow and apply the knowledge we have learned. Since becoming a student here I have learned firsthand how different of an experience it is compared to other colleges. I love that we can have discussions in class that relate both to our interests and our beliefs. I have often found myself emotional because I am so grateful for this experience. As a newer member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, I can honestly say I feel the difference and know that I am actually about to learn and apply almost everything to my life directly. What a blessing that has been for my family to benefit from what I am learning while at school. In one of my classes last term we wrote an essay on the school’s learning model and mission statement. I’ve read it many times, but until I had to read it and write about it in depth I never really applied it to my life. I love how in this devotional it breaks it down to show you that the first part relates to faithfulness, the second and third parts relate to competence and the fourth relates to both faithfulness and competence. At this point in my life, being married with children, I truly see the importance of having both in your life as a student and as a citizen, community member, and professional. We should all strive to have a lifetime of learning which includes the thirst to learn and the desire and commitment to apply it to our everyday lives.