Book Review: How Will You Measure Your Life?

How Will You Measure Your Life? is a New York Times Bestselling book by author, businessman, and professor, Clayton Christensen, along with James Allworth and Karen Dillon. In it, Christensen relates business theories and case studies to personal life to create a paradigmatic framework for how to live a successful life.

Favorite Parts:

• Theory. The use of broad theories and case studies to teach principles causes you to critically examine the ideas he proposes and to look for application to your own life instead of feeling disconnected because of ill-fitted advice.
• Balance. Life doesn't always work out how we planned. Christensen discusses how we can find the balance between making a plan for our life and following the serendipitous opportunities that present themselves.
• Strategy. We learn that what is truly important to use shows in how we allocate our resources (time, energy, etc.) and not what we merely say matters to us.
• Outsourcing. The reader is reminded that while outsourcing can be an effective business model, we loose opportunities to connect in the home when we outsource family responsibilities.
• Needs. Just as businesses must provide products that fulfill customer needs, it is not solely important that we serve others, we must ensure that what we provide to others is meeting their needs. This is how family relationships can be truly fulfilling.
• Experience. We see from the book how our experiences--both successes and failures--help qualify us for the future roles and responsibilities we will fill. 
• Integrity. Christensen not only explains why integrity is important, but shows the reader how to live a life of integrity.

Questions I am still pondering:

• How can I apply Christensen's advice about family to myself as a single person?
• What can I do today to prepare myself to have a happy and fulfilling family life in the future?
• How can I better assess the needs of others so that I can more fully meet those needs? How can I learn the needs of those who are not aware of their own needs or who struggle to clearly communicate their needs?
• How have my experiences--both of success and failure--uniquely prepared me for the future?

Excerpts:

"...how I have pursued my purpose has evolved, step by step. Sometimes unanticipated crises and opportunities have felt like a wind at my back as I have worked toward my purpose. At other times they have felt like a numbing wind in my face. I'm glad that I wasn't too rigid in how I would achieve my purpose."

"It's easier to hold to your principles 100 percent of the time than it is to hold to them 98 percent of the time."

"If you defer investing your time and energy until you see that you need to, chances are it will already be too late."

To learn more about the book, visit the website: http://www.measureyourlife.com/

Be cool.

Visit D.C.

Seriously, it's been pretty chilly here lately.

Change: An amazing gift

"Nothing is so unchanging, so inevitable as change itself." -Marvin J. Ashton

 

"When we're through changing, we're through." -Bruce Barton

While there were many years where I would have rather started out perfect in my every pursuit, I now love and cherish the changes in my heart and mind that I experience. I love that moment when your eyes are opened and you realize that you were wrong. Why? Because when it comes, despite the fact that I often have to humble myself and apologize to others, I can see both worlds. And in seeing both perspectives, I am better prepared to help others. My vision is expanded.

That is not to say that we should not strive to be our best every day, but rather that we should not be afraid to move forward in life even if we are not guaranteed perfection right away. Sometimes the challenges we face are bigger than our prior experiences and our previous capacities, but as we struggle and persevere, our abilities are strengthened and our understanding is increased. We are able to not just survive, but flourish!

Over the last few years I had some experiences where I felt like others took a snapshot of me, a dynamic and constantly-changing woman. Have we not all made a similar error to some degree or another? I felt like they used this snapshot to judge my past, present, and future. It hurt. Perhaps they did not know me well enough to know my deep commitment to improvement and progression. Maybe they did not know how far I had come and how hard I had worked to achieve that snapshot that they critiqued.

Let's commit ourselves to refrain from doing this to others and instead to understand others in context: as a product of their past with great potential ahead. If others put us in a box and do not allow us to change, let's recognize it for what it is--a misjudgment--and continue progressing in our lives.

We can remember: "The time to make up your mind about someone is never." The same holds for ourselves. If you have something that you know you need to change, change it! That is what I am working toward in 2014, being my best me.

I love you all, friends and family. If I ever fail to give you the opportunity to change, please let me know. I believe in you and I know that through the Atonement of Jesus Christ, all things are possible.

Ways I changed in 2013:

• I accept non-closure regarding race and class disparities in the world. Legacies of injusticies are complicated. While I continue to strive to do my best to make this world more just and to support the under-represented and forgotten of the world, I give up judging the motivations of others. I drop my feelings of prejudice toward and my judgment of those (including myself) who benefit from unfair systems.
• I'm a teacher. I chose this profession. We're underpaid and underappreciated. Asi es. Shoganai. We also have many opportunities to make a meaningful and positive difference in the world. 
• I can now say that I like California, Utah, Idaho, and Texas and the people who live there. I would be willing to live in those states and happy to raise my children in any one of them.
• I cannot change others and I relinquish the desire to. Sometimes others give you the courtesy of explaining their hurtful actions and other times they do not or cannot. I accept that.
• My classroom attitude shifted from resembling: "And there was nothing save it was exceeding harshness, preaching and prophesying of wars, and contentions, and destructions, and continually reminding them of death, and the duration of eternity, and the judgments and the power of God, and all these things--stirring them up continually to keep them in the fear of the Lord. I say there was nothing short of these things, and exceedingly great plainness of speech, would keep them from going down speedily to destruction." to: "No power or influence can or ought to be maintained by virtue of the priesthood, only be persuasion, by long-suffering, by gentleness and meekness, and by love unfeigned;"

Questions to consider regarding change in your own life:

• How is change a gift?
• How did you change in 2013?
• Have you ever felt put in a box or that others did not allow you to change? How did you get out of that situation?
• What progress do you look forward to making in 2014?

I would love to read your answers to these questions in the comments below. Happy 2014!

Faith, baptism, and the path of discipleship

V was baptized today. It was wonderful to see his smiling face as he came out of the water. Here are some thoughts from the talk he asked me to give at the service.

What is faith? 
We know that to have faith is to "hope for things which are not seen, which are true." (Alma 32:21, Hebrews 11:1) We also know that faith is "more than a belief, since true faith always moves its possessor to some kind of physical and mental action." (Bible Dictionary: Faith) By definition, in order for us to exercise faith we cannot see the end from the beginning. It requires that we act without knowing exactly what will happen, but believing that it will be for our good and the good of others.

How can we keep our faith active?
Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf in the October 2013 General Conference answered the question, Why would anyone want to join such a church as ours? One reason is the opportunity to have an active faith.

"Believing in God is commendable, but most people want to do more than listen to inspirational sermons or dream of their mansions above. They want to put their faith into practice. They want to roll up their sleeves and become engaged in this great cause. Ant that is what happens when they join us--they have many opportunities to transform their talents, compassion, and time into good works...Sometimes we volunteer; sometimes we are 'volunteered.' We see assignments not as burdens but as opportunities to fulfill covenants we gladly make to serve God and His children."

What are the blessings of exercising our faith?
As we live our life by faith we come to see that living by faith, repenting of our wrongs, keeping the covenants we made with God, and seeking to have the Spirit of God with us "are the way to the abundant life, we will appreciate that these principles help answer any question and fill any need." (Preach My Gospel, pg. 108)

What does faith mean to you?

Where can I turn for peace?

Here is a recording of my brother and I practicing the LDS Hymn Where Can I Turn for Peace?

If you like the hymn and want to learn more,

• Here is information about the history of the hymn: http://www.mormonchannel.org/history-of-hymns/18

• My favorite book about peace: A Quiet Heart by Patricia T. Holland
• Here is a talk titled Where Can I Turn for Peace? by Paul V. Johnson 

The Meanest Teacher

K: "You're the meanest teacher."

Me: "Yes, but I'm your favorite mean teacher."

K, of course, had nothing to say to that. Why? Because I am her favorite teacher. :-P

(Disclaimer: I was not actually being mean to her. I think I told her something like it was time to throw our lunches away so we could get started on homework help time.)

Craftapalooza!

I have always felt self conscious about my crafting abilities. You know that girl that makes a nice craft and then wants to add just one more dot, one more swirl, one more petal. And that one little thing goes just a little too far and ends up ruining the craft. Well that has always been me... until today!

A big thanks to the Kinghorn/Ransom/Spurlock/Gutierrez/Shank women for inspiring my inner crafty girl!