Lynette's Life Starting Now

This week we read an article called "Attitude on Money." My attitude towards money isn't so great or healthy, most days. Ever since my husband was laid off and out of work for almost a year between 2008-2009, I'm terrified the same thing will happen again. School has been a big blessing for me for two reasons. The first is that I'm getting an education so that I can get a good job and secondly, it takes up a lot of brain power that used to be used in obsessing over the budget. Not that I don't still obsess over the budget, but I feel like I have more control over it now. This view of money can be really debilitating. For a long time our quality of life wasn't what it could be because I wouldn't let us spend money on anything fun or frivolous. While there are thing that can be improved in our money managing skills and decision making, I think that we are finally coming to a good point where we make smart decisions, but still have some fun things in our ...

This lesson's reading and videos were kind of disjointed and didn't have a coherent theme, in my opinion. The lesson title is "Dream Big Dreams"  but I didn't feel like any of the material really dove into that concept. This is a shame because dreaming big is NOT my forte. I was really hoping for some inspiration on the subject. The launching leaders video was really out in left field. It talked about a book and program for emotional fingerprints but the class doesn't give any information on getting the program and why would that video be there if using the program isn't part of the class? It just made no sense to me. Anyway, I found it hard to take much away from the lesson when I couldn't feel a theme and just didn't feel inspired by any of the materials. I guess the biggest lesson learned is that not everything is meant for you and sometimes you just have to move on and find inspiration elsewhere. On a more positive note, I led a meeting for m...

This lesson was a bit dull for me because I had already read a couple of the talks in several other classes. They are great talks but I feel like they may be a bit overused by BYU-I. Anyway, I did like learning about the concepts from the book Good to Great . It is currently on my to read list, so I enjoyed getting a summarized version of it. One thing that I am hoping to take away from this lesson is learning how to build people up and bringing everyone to a higher level. I have just been given a new calling at church and I think it will give me an opportunity to practice some of these skills. I know that as a mom, these skills can come in handy but I really want to work on this in a "professional" area and my calling is the only place I really have an opportunity to do that. Even my job is hard because I work with kids and work in a different place every day. It's hard to see any long term effects from my actions. This past week I did my entrepreneurial mentor intervi...

I really appreciated the readings and videos for this lesson. They were all focused on moving forward in the future and not giving up when things get hard. I've been feeling very stressed with some things in life that I have no immediate control over. I was almost to the point where I wanted to drop my classes for fall and start working full time. I go over this every few months and my husband is always the first to tell me that I need to stay in school and stay focused. I really appreciated having this reaffirmed through the materials in this lesson. Not making as much money as I could right now and spending money on tuition can be so hard. I know that I will be blessed in so many ways if I just keep going. Our finances will be fine. Everything will be fine. I just need to keep working and moving forward. I have been chanting this to myself a lot over the past couple days and I need to keep remembering it. The sacrifices that I make today will make me a better person, will help me...

For this lesson, we read a summary of the 7 Habits for Highly Effective People . I really learned a lot just from the summary so I checked the book out so that I can read it in its entirety. The habit that resonated with me the most and that I want to work on for myself is habit #5: seek first to understand, then to be understood. I feel like this is often where my communication with people breaks down. I'm so worried about them understanding where I'm coming from and what I want, I don't stop to think that maybe I'm not getting what they are saying. This is something I'm going to work on and I hope to get some better ideas while reading the book.  In a previous journal entry, I made the goal to read The Richest Man in Babylon . I have nearly completed the book and I'm glad I read it. It hasn't really said anything that I haven't read in any other personal finance self-help books, but it has inspired to rework my finances. These kinds of books can be ...

I am really enjoying this class so far. I've had some really good moments of insight and clarity into what I want in life and some first steps to get there. I have enjoyed some of the assignments like the bucket list and the board of advisors. I ended up having some great conversations with some friends of mine over both these assignments. Not only is this class helping me but has gotten some of my friends to explore what they want out of their lives as well. With all that being said, I struggled with the readings for this particular lesson. I didn't find them helpful to my particular situation and they were very long and unhelpful. I guess there is a lesson to be learned here. Sometimes even the best class has things that don't inspire you or help you. Maybe if I read those things at some other time, they would be helpful but at this particular time, they weren't. So now I move on and will treat the next lesson as a new beginning instead of being soured by the lesson b...

The "Hero's Journey" speech that we watched for this lesson was very interesting. I liked watching a speech given at BYU-Idaho that wasn't given by a Mormon. It was kind of nice hearing things from someone who was aware of who he was speaking to and tried to cater his talk to Mormon's but had his own spin to put on things and was coming from different life experiences than a typical Mormon. I really appreciated his story about the ex CEO of Enron. It was a huge eye opener that no one wakes up one day and decides to be "evil." We usually make decision after decision until we find our self mired in a horrible situation. And if we are truly weak, we may find our selves in a position that we see where we are going but don't have the courage to stand up and make things right.  I truly hope that I can keep myself on the straight and narrow in all aspects of my life so that I never end up in such a position. One thing that I had mentioned that I wanted to...

I've really enjoyed the readings from this lesson or maybe no even so much enjoyed reading them, as I have enjoyed thinking about how I can apply their lessons to my life. I've been thinking more about how to use my time more effectively and how much time I waste. I also have to remind myself about how much time I don't waste. I realized that as I start listing ways that I waste time, I was somehow lumping in the time I work on my school work as wasted time. It certainly is not! Instead I need to focus on using the computer less for trivial time-sucks and working on hobbies that can help me improve instead of just drain my time. I have decided to start practicing the piano more. I haven't regularly practiced the piano since I stopped taking lessons when I was 18. I've forgotten more about piano and music than most people know, so I would like to revive that talent for more than just playing hymns on Sunday. I also want to start working on my 10-key, which is a goal ...

Lessons Learned One of the lessons that I learned (or rather, relearned) this week is that we need to trust answers received from the Holy Ghost and when you are given the answer, that is the answer! I have been feeling like I should maybe look for a different job. My current job has very little to do with what I'm majoring in or what I hope to do when college is over. I know I will have to work on some internships soon, so I've been thinking about getting a job with more relevance to my chosen field. I've always prayed about it and the answer has been "wait for spring." After doing lots of readings for this class, I felt like I really, really want to get on with it and get a new job. I decided I would pray about it again and take that as my final answer. The answer hit me so strong. I think that Heavenly Father was tired of being asked. I should know how He feels, I'm a mom, I often tell my kids not to ask me the same question twice. The answer said "I...

Thoughts on Randy Pausch's Last Lecture I really enjoyed Randy Pausch's last lecture. Instead of skimming the transcript, I went and found the full lecture on Youtube and watched the full thing. I think that Pausch was able to achieve so many of his childhood dreams because he never took no for an answer. No never really meant no, it just meant not right now. He had unique ways of thinking that enabled him to climb over the brick wall, to use his metaphor. I think that dreaming is important because it inspires us to be better than we are now and gives us purpose in this life. As Pausch pointed out, even those dreams he didn't actually achieve, helped him to be so much more. Reaching for them made him a better person or even put him on paths he may have never gone down otherwise. One of my childhood dreams was to own a Steinway grand piano, preferably a 9 foot. When I was a teen, I played one in a show room and it costs $90,000. I just looked it up and they now cost about $...