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.