W01 - The Excitement of New Beginnings

Excitement is a strong word…I'd be lying if I didn't say I was excited about writing more. I'd also be lying if I said I like "journaling". Either way, I do like the idea of regularly capturing lessons, ideas, quotes, and ideas for this class. As someone that lives in his OneNote app and has been following a similar practice for the last 5-6 years, I really appreciate this assignment.

Full disclosure… I didn’t take this class to learn how to start a business. I’ve already done that. Although I think learning new, different, and better ways to start and run a business would be a good experience. I do plan of starting new businesses in the future, but not for a few years.

I really took this class because the description talks about planning and goals, something I really enjoy learning and sharing with other people. I love the different methods and tools available in the personal productivity space. I also love that I’ll be able to study some of these principles through a gospel lens. I didn’t get my first degree from a church school and I have really loved my classes at BYU-I for that reason.

A couple of things stood out to me from the reading:

1.     1. In “Your Whole Souls as an Offering Unto Him” by Elder Bednar, he restated a scripture from Section four of the Doctrine and Covenants. He reworded “Heart, Might, Mind, and Strength” to “a mighty heart and a strong mind”.  I really liked this because it helped me think “Am I approaching my academic endeavors with the right mind set?”

2.     2. Also, in Elder Bednar’s remarks, he speaks of sacrifice and consecration, and that the act of learning is a way of consecrating our efforts and our minds to the Lord. I don’t actually believe that is limited to learning. As a member of the High Council in my Stake, I spend more than a few Sundays and weeknights away from my family. We are often thanked for our sacrifice by the Stake Presidency. But Elder Bednar’s comment made me look at that time away from my family as more than just a sacrifice, but a way of consecrating my efforts and time to the Lord.

3.    3.  In Jim Ritchie’s video from Launching Leaders he talks about the importance of great friends and learning from them. Jim has an unorthodox view on what a friendship is. He considers authors and successful people his friends because he values their opinions and beliefs. I hope to employ that attitude to further develop my personal and professional network.

Overall, I am excited about this class and the focus on both personal and professional development. I work for a very large and respected international manufacturing company and I’ve had a fair degree of success. But my wife and I have plans for what we call “life 2.0”. We want to be in a position to take more control of our time and finances in the next 8-10 years. By then, the kids will be on missions, or close to it, and our situation will have changed. I’m looking forward to planning how to be ready when the time comes.