Boundaries

I am a stay-at-home mom of four kids. With that title I wear a lot of hats and do a lot of different things. Let’s add the titles of student, small business owner, teacher. May is the busiest month of the year (I used to think it was December, then I had kids in school). The kids are finishing up the school year with concerts, awards ceremonies, basketball games (yes, basketball in May, weird) and graduation. My family is my top priority and there must be some give and take among the different responsibilities. I only get my daughter for a few more short months before she goes off to college and the next phase of her life.

My study for the week has revolved around developing boundaries for each part of life. One example given was a man that built his business around his kid’s schedule. There was family dinner, bedtime stories and one on one time. He worked on his business while they were at school and after bedtime. They never felt like business came before them. This is what I am striving for.

Something that I love about attending Brigham Young University Idaho is the way that the instructors incorporate a spiritual side of whatever topic you are studying. This week, we were reminded to not forget the Lord in our day-to-day activities. If we decline serving others because all our time is going toward building a business, the Lord knows where our heart is.

Since I went back to school, setting boundaries has been a hard thing for me. I have been squeezing schoolwork in wherever it fits in the schedule. I have been guilty of “not having time to serve.” Funny thing is though, the Lord makes up the difference when I serve anyway.

Boundaries are important!

Passion and Perseverance

This week we covered a few topics that caused me to ponder. One was the concept of finding your passion. Many ask, well how do I find my passion? I don’t think there is a right or wrong way to find it. I have had a few years to work on this and I feel like I have found my passion. I have tried many things over the years, but I always come back to sewing. My thoughts are constantly filled with beautiful fabrics, the next project or how to accomplish something I am stuck on. I lose track of time when I sit with my sewing machine and I get giddy when a project is coming together smoothly and beautifully. I have been caught staging photos of my projects in strange places, sometimes just to embarrass my children. It is something I am good at.

Finding your passion and using it in your work is a common thread each week in my class. When your work is your passion, it doesn’t feel like you are working. It isn’t hard to give back to the community when you are doing what you love.

I have also pondered the characteristic of perseverance. Perseverance is being persistent when “doing something despite difficulty or delay in achieving success.” There are many examples of perseverance in my life, my grandmother being one of them. This grandmother passed away before I was born and I have heard many stories from her life. She is someone that I look forward to meeting when my time on earth is finished. Grandma and Grandpa Stark had many struggles in their marriage. Grandpa experienced several injuries that made it hard for him to work. With eight children and limited work, they had very little money. The church building was in a neighboring town and the meetings were spread throughout the week, not the block schedule we have now. Grandpa didn’t go to church with Grandma very often and it was difficult to get eight children there. She and her children were faithfully in attendance each week.

Her example of perseverance is powerful in my life. Just as she did, I can do hard things.

The Formula

 

I spent this week finishing the book “Launching Leaders: An Empowering Journey for a New Generation.” I think the intended audience for this book is in their twenties and thirties. I am on the tail end of that age group and found that many of the concepts taught are things that I try to implement in my life already. After guiding the reader through the journey of taking control of life through the Cycle of Spirituality, the author, Steven A. Hitz, presented “the Formula.” The formula comes from the guidance of two of his treasured mentors, blended together. Living these six steps will provide a “joyful and abundant life.”

They are:

• Get up early                         • Work hard

• Get your education             • Find your oil

• Make your mark                  • Give back

Applying these steps to your life can empower you to be successful in living your life intentionally. Hitz shares an example of how these steps helped a handful of students. An instructor, with permission from the principal of a local school, took five students and conducted a semester-long experiment. This instructor spent one hour a week with these students, helping them apply the formula in their lives. In the end, those five students “went on to win all of the school’s academic awards and were instrumental in their school becoming the highest scoring in the nation on that year’s standardized exams.” Apparently, it really works.

If you know me personally, you know that I am not a morning person. Waking up early is one of the hardest things for me. So, when I learned that this was the first step in Hitz’s formula, I cringed. I want to apply the things I am learning and I want to be successful at it, but getting up early and I don’t get along. I am determined to try. Here’s to my adventure in striving to live “the formula.”

Learning from the Journey

     This week our class highlighted Magdalena Yasil. Magdalena is a successful entrepreneur in the engineering field. I found her story very intriguing. She grew up in Turkey and came the United States to go to college in the early 1970s. When she was young she developed a love for the engineering world. The field was predominantly filled with men which potentially could have created a problem for her. She was determined to study engineering, so she did. She felt strongly that she could do anything despite the cultural beliefs around her. She took each opportunity given her as a learning experience to fill her toolbox of skills. She is a very successful woman.

    What I admire about her and her story is her dedication to get what she wanted. She was willing to work hard and do well. She was able to look past the stigmas of gender and follow her passion. I am sure that she heard many negative comments regarding her gender and her chosen field. She continued to work hard and progress. Learning from her example, I can persevere through the challenges of building a successful career. I am starting this journey much later in life than Magdalena did.

    As I am finishing up the book Launching Leaders, I love the reference of airplanes mentioned. In this case the reference is about charting your course, having the end goal in mind with checkpoints along the way. It reminded me of Elder Uchtdorf teaching about the same thing. Elder Uchtdorf warned that if we are just a single degree off in the beginning, we will never make it to the correct destination. That degree grows over the course of the journey. The book adds to this concept that having checkpoints along the way keep us on the correct path to arrive at the end goal. Recently I found myself at a checkpoint, evaluating my end goal and if I was on the right path to get there (I was a few degrees off). 

A truly inspired concept.