More Self Reflection...

This week has been a crazy week but another great one for learning! I really love how the things that are happening in real life can be applied to the things we are learning in our studies. I know that is not an accident.

This week in my life there has been some changes. First off, at work there has been some issues with moving paras around in the district, because I am the most recent hire, I am at the bottom for transferring. Here's the thing, I really love the school I am working at and can't really move because it would make my commute into work almost two hours. With all of this I have decided to apply for a one on one position with a student with extra needs so I can stay at the school. He is an adorable kid and I love working with him.  He will be a lot of work due to medical needs and his size. Along with that change has been some others, including my new calling as first councilor in the Relief Society which will add new adventure for sure. There have been other changes, challenges, and struggles.

Through the lessons of this week I have received reminders that I need to keep moving forward. Most of all, I need to trust the Lord and remember the wise words to put God first in all I do. I also need to apply the principles found in The Ministry of Business. I really loved that book and it's teachings. I loved the ideas of combining business and the principles of the gospel to ultimately find success. With all of the recent changes and some of my recent struggles I have been reminded through my reading of The Ministry of Business that all these things and hold backs are for a reason, though the reason may not be known right now. Sometime in the future I am sure there will be lessons and opportunities that will bring blessings, but only if I make the choice to learn.

I also really enjoyed the assignment to write a personal essay. It was a good reminder of who I am and what I working to become. Becoming was a big part of my mission. Our mission president often referred to us reaching our potential to become more. I sometimes feel stuck and I feel a re-awakening from these sorts of assignments and revelation that I am not alone and that I am not doing too bad.

A Formula for Happiness...

Another great week as I continue through class and the ongoing adventure of self discovery. This week was another great one full of great lessons and insights. There was lot's of talk on honesty and ethics. I especially love the life plan activities. They remind me of a sort of "Self Character Analysis." When I was in high school I took a lot of theatre and for every play I was in I would do a character analysis to better understand the character I was portraying. I got the idea when I was helping teach Shakespeare to make a "self character analysis." It is a long analysis that goes through different phases of self discovery. I am a firm believer that you cannot truly help change the world until you work on you. That is why the life plan activities speak to me. This weeks we made a code of conduct and a list of things we will always do and things will never do. Always a good check yourself activity.

There were a lot of other great things I pulled from this weeks activities. I really enjoyed the Launching Leaders video and the video with the top 10 list of things needed to start a business. My brain works really well in lists and steps. The Launching Leaders one is really fun because I had the incredible opportunity to hear a lot of those things in the lectures from Mr. Richie himself. I served the first part of my mission in Washington DC, South mission at the same time as he and his wife. I have seen how the principles taught in Launching Leaders are life changing. It was fascinating to learn those principles in a mission setting and then work to apply them in my own live and in the lives of those whom we were serving.

The formula for happiness that Elder Richie discusses is something what I heard early on in my mission and continue to strive to live today. It's six steps are simple and powerful.

1. Get up Early
2. Work hard
3. Get your education
4. "Find oil"
5. Make your mark
6. Prepare to serve/Give back

When you devote your time to these steps it truly can become a formula for happiness. I have seen times in my own life when I have worked to put this formula into practice and I have seen incredible results. Basically, this week was full of self discovery. That is how it needs to be, as my mission president always would say, "you need to check yo self, before you wreck yo self." We cannot fully reach potential and reach out to others unless we take the time to improve ourselves.

Keep Dreaming!

Oh boy, I am so on fire this week about all the learning and

principles taught. There was lots of items shared about finding

one’s calling in life, bucket lists, stars, and of course last

lectures. This has been an interesting week because of life events and how they match up with what we are learning. It is like the Lord plans it that way! In this entry I want to focus on three main things I learned aside from the items learned in the “Last Lecture.” One thing that hit me was from the talk by Jeffery Thompson entitled

“What is your Calling in Life?” I was moved by his opening

question about our own callings in life. I also was hit hard by the

assignment to make our top 50 bucket list and the revising of old

bucket lists and the items I have completed. Finally I learned a lot from the last lecture and his fulfilling of

childhood dreams.  

What is your calling? 

In the “What is your calling in life?” talk Brother Thompson

began with his own story of discovering his life calling and then asked the soul serving question… “What is your calling in life?” Not only did that strike a cord but he backed it up with some of my favorite historic examples, that pulled an extra chord on the heartstrings of this Colorado Cowgirl. It made me think a lot all week about my “calling” in life. This was an excellent week for such pondering. I don’t know the exact moment I felt my “calling”  but it seems to have stuck for quite sometime.  

When I think about my “calling” I think of my sincere desire and

passion to teach, care, and bring joy to the lives of others. It is

through teaching, serving, strengthening, and bringing joy that I

honestly feel my own joy increase. I would say that is why I love my

job so much, I currently work as a para-educator with severe needs

teens at a local high school and I love every minute. I love being

with the kids and learning from them and their unique perspectives. My "calling" has spouted dreams as well. Ever since I was little I wanted to start a school. Now that I am older that dream has turned to the desire to start a facility dedicated to teaching others how to be more self reliant, a “how to fish” education. I honestly feel that education is what will bring true strength and joy in our lives. After all, aren’t we here with the purpose to learn? That is what I want to do! I want to truly teach and inspire people, and I have been told I am not too bad at it either. I just need to work hard on improving my skills and not doubting the gifts given by my Heavenly Father.  

Bucket list:  

(One of my favorite bucket list check off... Swimming with beluga whales).

I love bucket lists! I feel very passionately that we should all have a bucket list. We have to have experiences and we have to have goals if we want to grow and progress. A bucket list combines those

beautifully. It is goal list for creating experiences. During the

assignment to create a top 50 bucket list I felt the need to look at

past lists. It has been a while since I last reflected so it was fun

to see what I had put on in the past. I am overjoyed to report that I have knocked of more that I thought I had. As I looked through the

lists I recalled memories and things learned which was a precious

experience. 

The Last Lecture: 

Finally some thoughts on the last lecture. I love this so much, maybe because he worked with Disney, and it is very inspiring. I find it inspiring as he talked about his childhood and his dreams, and how he accomplished so many. I think he was able to accomplish so many because of a few different things. First off, his foundation. He talked about his family and his childhood and the love he had for both. He talked about how he was given freedom to dream and imagine, and write on the walls. Second thing, he worked. Dreams are nothing without some good hard work. We learn from the head dreamer Disney himself that these two principles of dreaming and hard work can go a long way.  

Reading about his childhood dreams coming true caused some great

reflection in my life (basically this was a week full of self

refection). I thought about my own childhood dreams and how many of

them have come true in some ways. I thought of my childhood dream to

be a Disney princess and live in Cinderella’s castle, no joke, in

third grade I dressed as a princess on career day. I never was chosen to actually portray a Disney princess but I basically worked and lived at Cinderella’s castle for two years and it was magical. I had many little girls look to me as a princess as I sent them on there way through “The Happiest Cruise that ever Sailed.” That for sure made

me feel like a princess. On a spiritual side, when I first went to

work at “It’s a Small World” It was my first time on my own and

the beginning of the adventure that would help my find more confidence in the knowledge that I was princess of my Heavenly Father. Another dream I had a child was to be an animal biologist. I would scout the backyard for critters and pretend I had my own TV show. I may never have been on television but I did work as an animal educator at both SeaWorld and Disney’s Animal Kingdom for a few years where people from all the world paid for my knowledge in tours and info. These are just a couple of the things I thought of as I reflected. What a comforting feeling to know that some of your dreams have come true and that there are always new ones for the future! I look forward to completing the rest of my childhood dreams, in one form or another. I also look forward to the new dreams that will unfold as I continue on this journey.  

It is such a blessing that we have a dreamer for a Heavenly Father. It is inherent for us to be dreamers. Without dreams there is no passion and no drive to move forward and progress. I firmly believe that dreams are a foundational part of our make up as children of God. Dreams are what propel us unto the future and remind us what we have to work for and look forward to. I will never forget the testimony I gained of dreaming when I worked at Disney World and watched the children enter in with their eyes and heart in pure wonder. Dreams are what keep us childlike. We know from the scriptures that children will inherit the kingdom of God and we cannot be like them unless we go out and dream a little! I hope that I will never lose my will and desire to dream!  

Keep dreaming and have a magical night! 

Let the Journey Begin...

I am the Colorado Cowgirl! Who is she really? Well, she is a small

town Colorado Cowgirl with big dreams of adventure, education, family, and bringing Joy to the whole world. When this cowgirl was about seven years old she watched and worked with her parents and siblings as they grew a speck of an idea into a HVAC/Portable Evaporative Cooling company that is top in its industry. You could literally say that our Colorado Cowgirl was raised in a warehouse. It was not an easy way of life but it has been one that this little cowgirl would never trade for anything. As I, the Colorado Cowgirl, continue into adulthood. I have decided on one thing, I want that life for myself and my future family.  

I am so excited to be writing this blog as I work to better myself

and hopefully fulfill my dream to bring Joy2theJourney to all those

that I may have opportunity to touch. I am looking forward to beginning an online entrepreneurship course where I plan to learn and discover more about myself and my mission in life, and how I may help others. This blog will serve as a journal for this adventure. I have a heritage of entrepreneurship and have seen the blessings, hardships, and passion that can come from such a lifestyle. I have already learned quite a bit and look forward to continuing.  

I have already learned so much as I have read through the material

of this course. There are many things that have stood out to me thus

far. One thing that is cool is how I have seen things open up in my

mind of how to move forward in my dreams. As I read through the

readings this week, I had names and faces of  individuals come to my

mind that may be able to help me in my endeavors. I also felt an

increase of responsibility to do everything to do my best, especially as I watched the talk from President Hinckley. I felt a need to reach up and reach out to fulfill my potential. I also liked in the readings where there was talk of failure. Recently I received great prompting of the importance of failure and how it is a key part of our purpose on earth. Without failure we cannot truly grow and we cannot truly learn and become better. I am a little nervous of the failures, but I hope by making the preparations I am now I will be able to learn from the failures instead of give up from them. 

This will be a fun and exciting semester and I look forward to the

continuation in lessons and applications.