February 22nd week 7

Elder Holland is so great.  It was fun to hear so much from him.  The Mormon message about the car breaking down is one of my favorites.  It gives so much hope.  Whenever I feel down or like I'm not going to make it out of a challenge or trial, I just have to think about that video.  "Don't you quit, you keep walking, you keep trying.  There is help and happiness ahead."  That is going to be very helpful to me in any future businesses I try to do, and even just in my every day life.  Right now because I am a piano teacher sometimes my students hit a plateau and get discouraged.  It is helpful for them to remind them that they will get it, it is just around the corner.  So what I learned this week really doesn help in every aspect in life.  Not just business.  I am excited to learn more about values and qualities and skills needed to be a entrepreneur.  I'm excited to learn from the interview how to best become one.  And how to be someone that people can trust.  I learned this week that I can accomplish anything I want to if I really want to and put my mind to it.  I don't have to get discouraged, though sometimes I might.  I just gotta keep going.

February 20th Week 6

I really enjoyed this week's readings and especially videos.  In Guy Kawasaki's video he mentioned focusing on passion more than money.  I have always agreed with that statement.  While money is important the the welfare of our future families and whether we will starve or not (extreme) enjoying life is more important.  I have never thought about the career I want to do with my first interest being how much money I will earn from it.  My thought process about what careers I want to choose has been, "What do I enjoy doing most? What am I good at?"  And recently I've added, "What could I lose track of time doing?  And what would be the most fulfilling career for me?"
So far what I have come up with are piano and photography.  I started a piano teaching business and every time I teach I feel fulfilled because I am helping someone learn what I love.  I also love teaching because it is so much fun to see my students grasp a musical concept.  It's the same with photography, though that is more of a hobby.  I can lose track of time taking pictures of flowers, landscapes, and even people I am discovering.  Even though those aren't the most money making careers out there I will be happier pursuing what I love and not what gains the most money.  My job doesn't feel like a job, it feels like I'm going to play.  That's a good feeling.

February 9th Week 5

This week and last week’s reading of the Mastery book have been very inspiring to me.  I have found the book very interesting, and very beneficial to me.  It has helped me realize that I really need to work on some areas in my life that are not being controlled by me, but by the natural man.  (One of which is sleeping in too much).  While reading the talks and articles this week I have been learning how to best achieve self-mastery, and I have become excited to do so.

In N. Eldon Tanner’s talk, “Success is Gauged by Self-Mastery” He quoted Plato: “The first and best victory is to conquer self; to be conquered by self is, of all things, the most shameful and vile.”  I totally agree with this statement.  And after reading and watching all the articles, book, and videos I have gained a stronger opinion of that statement.  “That natural man is an enemy to God” Mosiah 3:19.

In the next couple days (since it takes sometimes a long time to master things) I am going to pick three things I need to master.  One will be spiritual, one will be physical, and one will be mental.  I am going to work on these three things until I feel they are mastered.  In order to accomplish my goal I am going to ask my husband to help me come up with things I need to improve on, and I am going to try and find a mentor for each aspect.  Hopefully I won’t be a dabbler, obsessive, or a hacker, and can actually master all three.

February 6th Week 4

I really enjoyed the case study this week.  It made me think about my business and what I am going to do when my baby comes this summer and my family grows and is going to need more of my time.  I have a piano teaching business, and a photography business.  They don’t take up every hour of my day, but they take up the same amount of time a part time job would (plus some extra thinking and stewing over keeping track of income, and what I could do to find more people).  Plus I have school full time.  In a couple months I am going to have to sacrifice something and I don’t know what that is going to be.  Whether it be some piano students, or some school credits, or my whole photography business.  I’m kind of in Mills’ position.  Though I’m not really thinking about making my businesses much bigger, just a few more customers.  I want to have a few more customers, but if I do that will I just need to down size later?  This case study helped me think about that, and it helped me realize how important my family is to me.  So I will probably wait to find more clients until my family is a little older.  Then I can start again.  For now I am just content until I start spending more time with my piano students than with my kids. 

I  really liked the Hero’s journey video.  It was very inspiring.  I liked the learning how to learn part.  My mom and I have always been believers of love of learning.  If you don’t love learning you won’t learn anything.  But I think learning how to learn adds to that as well.  If you love to learn, but don’t really know how to learn, you aren’t going to learn anything.  Or if you do it will be harder.  I think that is something I need to work on.  I still and learning how to learn.