Go After Your Dreams--Entry 2

This week has been very enlightening for me.  I was able to study some wonderful lectures about finding my calling, following my dreams, and even created my fifty item bucket list.  There were a few things that stood out to me during my videos and readings to study this week.  One was from the talk by Jeffrey A. Thompson called, What is Your Calling in Life, “Think back on your childhood.  It may bring to mind something that you are good at.  To help you find your spiritual gifts.”  This stuck out to me because when I heard it I immediately started to think of the things that I realized I was good at as a kid.  Some examples of these were: I was good at bossing my siblings around, I was and still am a quick learner in hands on work, I loved and still do love to read, and I loved to make up stories.  When I thought of these things, it helped me reevaluate what I want to do with my life.

Another thing that popped out to me was from the eCorner video with Tom Kelley called, “Using Your Whole Brain” and he spoke about the Tortoise Brain.  I liked this a lot because it helped explain to me why I have the strangest dreams with amazing ideas coming out of them frequently.  I’m sure there is more going on than my “tortoise brain” working in the background of my mind and revealing things in story form in a dream.  However, this really enticed me to look again at the dreams I have kept record of and decide if there are any that are worthy ideas for a story of some sort for my dream of becoming an author. 

The last thing that I really think helped me is a reaffirmation of failing and being willing to fail.  I’ve heard of people who have framed their first failed business license or their first rejection letter from an agent or publisher because it helps them to remember that failure is only one step into achieving their dreams.  In the eCorner video with Tom Kelley called, “Treating Life as an Experiment”, he says, “You have to be prepared for some stuff to fail.”  This is my reaffirmation that it is always okay to fail at things in life.  I don’t want to be a failure at everything I try, but I really am willing to fail or be rejected in some things because I can learn what I did wrong.  As I start to work on my bucket list of fifty items, I know that some of those things will possibly end in many failures.  I will just have to get up, dust off, and move through the failure to succeed.

Video Clips: What is Your Calling in Life? by Jeffrey Thompson
                      Treat Life as an Experiment by Tom Kelley
                     Using Your Whole Brain by Tom Kelley

What Is An Entrepreneur?--Entry 1

Studying to be an entrepreneur was never something I planned on doing or studying.  After so many years of trying to figure out what I want to be when I grow up, I learned that an entrepreneur can do and be so many things.  As a college student, in my current course, I have the opportunity to watch videos of entrepreneurs, read up on some insightful (almost like a major pep talk) literature, and study cases of possible scenarios in which I may end up finding myself one day. 

This week I had the opportunity to watch a couple of wonderful videos of Guy Kawasaki and President Gordon B. Hinckley.  While watching them, they really put me in the spirit in starting to find myself as an entrepreneur.  The big thing that stuck out to me from Guy Kawasaki’s video, "Do What You Love and the Money Will Follow" was this, “You should really truly study and do what you love.”  I hear this all the time from people when I first tell them about myself.  My reply is always this, “I try to.”  One of the things I really love doing is writing.  I’ve always loved stories and how the really good ones can whisk us away from reality.  Take us away from our own stresses and worries in our daily lives, and help us to live as a fly on a wall or inside the mind of someone else. This is what I want to be and truly have always wanted to be.  However, I say “I try to” do these things is because I’m first and foremost the best entrepreneur job there is.  I’m a mother. 

Guy Kawasaki said this in another video, "Ideas: What Makes Them Successful", I watched. “It’s interesting as you go through your life, how your life changes and what’s important.”  As a mother, putting me first is never a question anymore.  My children come first.  No questions about it.  I am also changing and improving myself every day as a parent.  There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t learn something new about an illness that may be affecting my children, or how to do an activity that I've never done before, and even learning how my children learn changes every day. 

The video of President Hinckley made me cry at first because I miss that man.  He truly was and still is an inspiration to me.  One thing he said that I can definitely tie in with being a mother entrepreneur is this, “The world will look to you as the years pass.” (BYU-Idaho Hinckley Building Dedication)  My children are my world, and I know they look up to me. 

The readings are both addresses that Elder David A. Bednar gave at BYU-Idaho.  The first is about how the school is a Disciple Preparation Center.  This is a true statement.  Ever since I started my online study with BYU-Idaho, I have learned some traits that I never thought would occur to me to actually have within my life.  These are: discipline, faith, courage, and humility.  I know that through the reading, Elder Bednar speaks of temple and temples of learning.  BYU-Idaho has been my temple of learning.  I do love the temple, and the peace I feel there.  Although in the midst of my studies, I feel the same peace, and it helps me to know that what I am doing is right.  The other reading from Elder Bednar is that about faith.  He spoke about how to have a strong mind and a mighty heart to build up our faith and competence. 

This week has been really insightful already as to what an entrepreneur is, can be, and will be.  This week I’ve also learned that whatever I want to be needs to be something that I can put faith in myself and the Lord.  It needs to be something I love doing.  It needs to be something I have the courage to put myself out there to learn to do better.  It needs and will always be something that I will continue to grow and change and be a better person from doing it.

Video Clips: BYU-Idaho Hinckley Building Dedication with President Gordon B. Hinckley

                       Do What You Love and the Money Will Follow with Guy Kawasaki

                       Ideas: What Makes Them Successful with Guy Kawasaki

Readings: “A Disciple Learning Center” by Elder David A. Bednar

                   “Your Whole Souls as an Offering Unto Him” by Elder David A. Bednar