Becoming the Best Me

"I had a cousin who accomplished an amazing string of interesting things. She once told me the key was preparing so that life could work in mysterious ways. “If you want your ship to come in, you must build a dock,” she said. Thanks to my list, I’m working on some big docks." -50 Things To Do Before I Die from The Washington Post by Wendy Swallow Williams 1997 February Reader’s Digest I had the opportunity this week to read: “True Blue, Through and Through” by Sheri L. Dew, Brigham Young University–Idaho Devotional, March 16, 2004 I wanted to memorize the entire devotional, but the excerpts below are pieces that struck to my core. “Helaman’s stripling warriors performed  “every word of command with exactness”  and  “were  true  at all times in whatsoever thing they were entrusted”  (Alma 57:21; 53:20). In other words, they kept their covenants with precision. They were true blue, through and through. They clearly understood that a half-hearted ...

1/15/18 It was really neat to review the lecture given by Randy Pausch.  My husband had shown me a portion of this lecture before and it was wonderful to have access to the whole thing.  I think I read almost all of it! I think Randy was able to achieve so many of his childhood dreams because of two main factors.  First, he was willing to put in the work and time.  He didn't expect that his dreams would come true overnight. Second, he kept them at the top of his priority list and didn't give up.  He was focused on them.  He worked towards them and he didn't take no for an answer.  He took no as: find another way! Dreaming is so important!  Without them, we just would maintain the status quo of life.  There would be no reason to challenge the normal day to day.  Dreams help us envision the impossible and make the implausible reality. One of my childhood dreams was to have a "professional job".  I wanted to have a job where...

1/13/18  “What is important to you? Why do you get out of bed in the morning? What do you want to have accomplished by the time you are seventy?” Stars & Steppingstones: Some choices only come around once. By Jeff Sandefer I want to train and inspire people.  I want to increase their ability to find joy and fulfillment in their job.  I want to help them have their interactions more meaningful and productive.  I want to help them see that they can be excited to come to work; show them that they help people with their job. "Visualize yourself at age seventy (or one hundred if you are an optimist). The setting can be an awards dinner, or if your tastes are slightly more morbid, your own funeral. Which role from your life do you want the speaker to mention first? Second? Third? What do you want them to say? How do you feel about the areas that have been left out? In this exercise are the sparks of a calling." Stars & Steppingstones: Some choices only c...

To    set down such choice experiences that my own writings may inspire me and at last I may make wholes of parts . . . Each thought that is welcomed and recorded is a nest egg, by the side of which more will be laid . — Henry David Thoreau, journal entry for January 22, 1852 What better start to my own journal than this entry from Henry David Thoreau.  It is the perfect definition of what I want this to be for myself. 1/12/2018 "Begin by focusing on your most precious talent, your rarest gift, that task you do better than anyone else.  Sometimes you have to ask others to help you identify it, because it’s often something that comes so naturally to you that you don’t even realize it’s something you’re good at. And search for clues to your gifts while you’re in “flow” states, those timeless, in-the-zone moments that engulf you when you are consumed by a task you love.  Look for times when you practiced for the sake of practice alone or ...