This week in class we have been learning about the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R Covey. In some ways it makes me feel energized and encouraged and in other ways it makes me feel depressed. It is one of those things where you are encouraged to do all the habits and become highly effective. But then you realized how far away from that type of person you are.
Here are the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People:
Habit 1: Be proactive
Habit 2: Begin with the end in mind
Habit 3: Put first things first
Habit 4: Think win/win.
Habit 5: Seek first to understand then to be understood
Habit 6: Synergize
Habit 7: Sharpen the saw
Covey says that these habits should be done in order. The first three are personal victories (ones you feel inside yourself) and the next three are public victories (those that affect others around you) and then finally the seventh habit is interdependence (where you use your independence to help others).
So based on this I believe the habit I need to work on the most right now is habit 1. I need to work in the important but not urgent quadrant. Meaning those maintenance type things that need to be done so that you don't have an urgent problem. (For instance, getting your oil change and maintenance on your car so that you car doesn't breakdown on the freeway.) I tend to be very reactionary. I handle the fire that is right in front of me and then waste away much of my other time. So I rarely take the time to prevent the fires in the first place. I need to focus on the preventative maintenance. That is the goal I want to work on this coming week. I will try to remember to report back next week.
Friday, October 28, 2016
Friday, October 21, 2016
Balance
This week in watching the videos for our class I have learned about balance. It is important for us to put the time and energy into our businesses, but it is more important for us to spend time with our family and putting the Lord first.
Last night we had a training meeting at church and one of the leaders asked us what things need to be done to increase our personal spirituality. The regular Sunday School lessons were stated, reading our scriptures, saying our prayers, attending church, going to the temple, and having Family Home Evening. Of course, I have heard all these many times over the course of my life so that was not new, nor was the leader's comment, however it struck me more this time than others. He said, "what is more important than taking the time to do these things?" I thought about how doing other things instead of these can jeopardize my salvation. Is that TV show or video game or whatever else it may be, more important than doing the things that bring me closer to God? Am I willing to risk it? What do I treasure? Is it wealth and fortune or is it family and God? If I truly treasure my family and God, then I need to put them first. I need to make sure that I spend time doing those things that bring me closer to them.
This past weekend (technically Wednesday through Sunday) we went to Vero Beach, FL and spent five days there. We went sight seeing and learning. It was an amazing vacation. It was wonderful to relax and get away from the craziness of school, work and daily household chores. I saw my son light up and take in so much information. He just kept talking about how much he learned and how much fun he was having. He answered questions that the instructor or tour guide would ask him and they were amazed with the knowledge he had. I came to realize that our son thrives in a hands on learning environment. He does horrible in a regular classroom setting where he has to sit still in a seat and listen to a teacher lecture. But if he is able to go and see and do, he absorbs everything!
I know it will take time to get our business going and have the income that will allow us to go to places like this often and have him learn from real life experiences and museums rather than learning history from a textbook. I am not saying those things are bad, but they just aren't right for my son. The more and more I think and pray about it, the more and more convinced I am that there is a better way for him. It is amazing what a few days away with your family will help you see. You realize what is important and how quickly time passes and if you don't stay connected and keep your life in balance. You can lose so much.
I am grateful for my family and for the gospel. I am grateful for the inspiration that I receive and that as I follow that inspiration, the blessings flow forth. I pray that as my family continues on this crazy journey full of changes every day (between trying to become debt free and paying cash for everything, to getting closer to quitting my part time job, to continuing to build our rental property business, to now this possibility of home schooling my son) that we will continue to be directed and continue to have an open mind. If we take the time to stop and really think about all the possibilities and not be so quick to make decisions, I believe that we will ultimately end up where we want to be, or at the very least, where the Lord wants us to be.
Last night we had a training meeting at church and one of the leaders asked us what things need to be done to increase our personal spirituality. The regular Sunday School lessons were stated, reading our scriptures, saying our prayers, attending church, going to the temple, and having Family Home Evening. Of course, I have heard all these many times over the course of my life so that was not new, nor was the leader's comment, however it struck me more this time than others. He said, "what is more important than taking the time to do these things?" I thought about how doing other things instead of these can jeopardize my salvation. Is that TV show or video game or whatever else it may be, more important than doing the things that bring me closer to God? Am I willing to risk it? What do I treasure? Is it wealth and fortune or is it family and God? If I truly treasure my family and God, then I need to put them first. I need to make sure that I spend time doing those things that bring me closer to them.
This past weekend (technically Wednesday through Sunday) we went to Vero Beach, FL and spent five days there. We went sight seeing and learning. It was an amazing vacation. It was wonderful to relax and get away from the craziness of school, work and daily household chores. I saw my son light up and take in so much information. He just kept talking about how much he learned and how much fun he was having. He answered questions that the instructor or tour guide would ask him and they were amazed with the knowledge he had. I came to realize that our son thrives in a hands on learning environment. He does horrible in a regular classroom setting where he has to sit still in a seat and listen to a teacher lecture. But if he is able to go and see and do, he absorbs everything!
I know it will take time to get our business going and have the income that will allow us to go to places like this often and have him learn from real life experiences and museums rather than learning history from a textbook. I am not saying those things are bad, but they just aren't right for my son. The more and more I think and pray about it, the more and more convinced I am that there is a better way for him. It is amazing what a few days away with your family will help you see. You realize what is important and how quickly time passes and if you don't stay connected and keep your life in balance. You can lose so much.
I am grateful for my family and for the gospel. I am grateful for the inspiration that I receive and that as I follow that inspiration, the blessings flow forth. I pray that as my family continues on this crazy journey full of changes every day (between trying to become debt free and paying cash for everything, to getting closer to quitting my part time job, to continuing to build our rental property business, to now this possibility of home schooling my son) that we will continue to be directed and continue to have an open mind. If we take the time to stop and really think about all the possibilities and not be so quick to make decisions, I believe that we will ultimately end up where we want to be, or at the very least, where the Lord wants us to be.
Monday, October 17, 2016
A Hero's Journey
This week we were asked to watch a talk given by Jeff Sandefer called "The Hero's Journey". He speaks about the mission we have on this earth and what is truly most important at the end of our life. Surprisingly, it isn't being famous or wealthy.
He says, "I believe that you have a very special mission on this earth. A mission that will succeed beyond your wildest dreams. But only if you have the faith and the courage to find that entrepreneurial calling." Each of us can succeed in our lives. If we find our calling, that which we were put on the earth to do, and follow that calling with faith and courage. It isn't easy to be an entrepreneur. In one of the other videos we watched it said that 99% of people who are entrepreneurs don't receive rock star status. However, if we are following our calling, I believe it can be exceedingly rewarding.
Sandefer says that the three missions of the school he began and teaches at are:
He says, "I believe that you have a very special mission on this earth. A mission that will succeed beyond your wildest dreams. But only if you have the faith and the courage to find that entrepreneurial calling." Each of us can succeed in our lives. If we find our calling, that which we were put on the earth to do, and follow that calling with faith and courage. It isn't easy to be an entrepreneur. In one of the other videos we watched it said that 99% of people who are entrepreneurs don't receive rock star status. However, if we are following our calling, I believe it can be exceedingly rewarding.
Sandefer says that the three missions of the school he began and teaches at are:
- Learn how to learn.
- Learn how to make money.
- Learn how to live a life of meaning.
He says that most people come to the school for number 2, but leave feeling number 1 is the most important thing they learned. He says that number 3 is where we find the most reward. As I said, once we find what we are meant to do and we actually are doing it, we will find the most joy and be the most fulfilled.
At his school, one of the assignments is to interview 10 people they admire. They have to have at least 3 people over the age of 60. He said that the common theme of people over the age of 60 are summed up in three questions:
- Have I contributed something meaningful?
- Was I a good person?
- Who did I love and who loved me?
As we reflect on these questions and think about our eternal journey, these truly are the most important things we can accomplish in this life. It won't matter to Heavenly Father what our salary was or how big our house was or what kind of car we drove. He won't care if we were famous or if we started a company at all. He will care about how we treated others, did we do something worthy with our life and who (and what) was important to us. If we can answer in the affirmative to these questions and have a long list of people we loved and who love us (not for our fame or fortune, but who we truly were every moment of the day), then we can stand at the judgment seat and know we have accomplished all that we have been asked to do in this life. At that moment we will be welcomed into the eternities with a simple statement, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant... enter thou into the joy of thy lord." (Matthew 25:21) If this is not our goal and not the reason why we are placed here on this earth, then why are we here? This is just a time for us to prepare for eternity, this is not our final resting spot. We must be engaged in a worthy cause, trying to contribute something worthwhile and doing good works. God expects this of us. Are we doing our best to fulfill our potential, our calling?
Friday, October 7, 2016
Fears
This week in our class we have learned about how our fears can prevent us from achieving our goals and not allow us to follow our calling. It also can cause us to not reach our star or not use our stepping stones.
We were asked to address our fears. I have a lot of fears of being an entrepreneur. For our rental property business it seems that one fear leads into the other and the next and the next. So the first fear, while it is minor and in the long run not that significant is that we don't have a tenant or that our tenant doesn't pay the rent. Second, if the tenant misses several months, how will we pay the mortgage payment. Then, if we don't pay the mortgage payment, will we lose the rental property via foreclosure? If we lose the property, how will that affect our credit? Will we be able to purchase additional properties in the future or will that ruin our credit permanently? Finally, if we lose multiple tenants, multiple months of rent and ultimately multiple houses to foreclosure, how will we meet our personal monthly obligations? Will we end up having to file bankruptcy? How will my family respond to a bankruptcy, will my marriage survive? Will we lose our own home and be homeless?
Another set of fears is having more repairs that need to be done than money that is available. If there is a major repair that needs to be done, will we be able to afford to do it? Or will it be too much and we will be taking a loss on our rental property business? If that is the case, how will we handle it? How will it affect our personal lives, especially if I have quit my part-time job, my husband has quit his job and am relying only on this for our income?
Finally, what will happen if the property catches on fire and is completely destroyed? Again, how we will pay the mortgage on the property if there is no rental income?
In going through this exercise, it seemed that the majority of my fears were mitigated by savings and budgeting. If we begin now to save one, two, three month's and eventually a year's worth of rental income/expenses, then when a tenant moves out, it will be okay if we don't get paid rent for one or two or three months as we have the money in reserve until we get a new tenant. We need to make sure as we are budgeting and spending for repairs and expenses on the rental properties that we do not use every bit of money each month but put aside a reserve for these cases. The other portion of it, is making sure that personally we are getting out of debt, saving for expenses instead of using debt to purchase things, and living within our means. If we are living within our means without the rental property income and using the rental property income to purchase additional rental properties (reinvest into the business). Then we will not have to worry about the majority of these fears. Eventually, we will get to a point where the rental property is generating enough cash flow for my husband to quit his full time job and we can live covering all of our expenses and the rental properties expenses and continue to build the business. Then we will be financially self-reliant.
We were asked to address our fears. I have a lot of fears of being an entrepreneur. For our rental property business it seems that one fear leads into the other and the next and the next. So the first fear, while it is minor and in the long run not that significant is that we don't have a tenant or that our tenant doesn't pay the rent. Second, if the tenant misses several months, how will we pay the mortgage payment. Then, if we don't pay the mortgage payment, will we lose the rental property via foreclosure? If we lose the property, how will that affect our credit? Will we be able to purchase additional properties in the future or will that ruin our credit permanently? Finally, if we lose multiple tenants, multiple months of rent and ultimately multiple houses to foreclosure, how will we meet our personal monthly obligations? Will we end up having to file bankruptcy? How will my family respond to a bankruptcy, will my marriage survive? Will we lose our own home and be homeless?
Another set of fears is having more repairs that need to be done than money that is available. If there is a major repair that needs to be done, will we be able to afford to do it? Or will it be too much and we will be taking a loss on our rental property business? If that is the case, how will we handle it? How will it affect our personal lives, especially if I have quit my part-time job, my husband has quit his job and am relying only on this for our income?
Finally, what will happen if the property catches on fire and is completely destroyed? Again, how we will pay the mortgage on the property if there is no rental income?
In going through this exercise, it seemed that the majority of my fears were mitigated by savings and budgeting. If we begin now to save one, two, three month's and eventually a year's worth of rental income/expenses, then when a tenant moves out, it will be okay if we don't get paid rent for one or two or three months as we have the money in reserve until we get a new tenant. We need to make sure as we are budgeting and spending for repairs and expenses on the rental properties that we do not use every bit of money each month but put aside a reserve for these cases. The other portion of it, is making sure that personally we are getting out of debt, saving for expenses instead of using debt to purchase things, and living within our means. If we are living within our means without the rental property income and using the rental property income to purchase additional rental properties (reinvest into the business). Then we will not have to worry about the majority of these fears. Eventually, we will get to a point where the rental property is generating enough cash flow for my husband to quit his full time job and we can live covering all of our expenses and the rental properties expenses and continue to build the business. Then we will be financially self-reliant.
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