This
week’s topics and assignments at first felt pretty daunting to me. I have a lot
of ambitions floating around in my head all of the time, but now I was being
asked to put them on paper with an organized plan. It left me pretty
overwhelmed, as I began to write though, I felt like years of ideas were just
spilling out and it was easier than I had originally imagined.
Jeff Sandefer said in his
article entitled Stars and Steppingstones Some choices only come around once:
“The
objective is not to craft a perfect plan—life and circumstances change too much
for that. You can, however, chart a course toward a meaningful star, set
philosophical guardrails to mark the path, and lay steppingstones to mark each
step in the right direction. After all, it would be a shame to wander aimlessly
through a journey we will all take only once.”
I
felt time pressing in on me as I laid a path to my dreams during this
assignment. At 37, and currently working on my degree to be completed in the
next 4 years puts me at 41 when I begin my pursuit. Or, almost 18 years behind
the average Joe coming out of college. I cannot let this stop my dream. If
anything, it will be a driving force behind my working harder and doing more
than my counterparts.
I
really enjoyed learning about the way the concept of work has evolved over time
and its association with divinity. I agreed with John Calvin in his belief that
your social status in life shouldn’t dictate our career, and that we should seek
to discover our God given talents and then use them to service others. All of
this was part of one of the best talks that I have ever heard on work by Thompson
from a BYU Devotional. He covered the worlds heresies on work, and even though
the talk was given in 2010 all of his ideas held true today. Early in his talk
he said, “The Lord hasn’t just told you to pursue good causes, he has equipped you
with the power to do so. You are full of divine capacities!” It reminded me again
that we all have a purpose here on earth and it is our responsibility to do
something with the strengths and gifts we have been blessed with.
I
also really enjoyed hearing the talk by Bob Kelley about treating life like an
experiment as well. “Take risks and be willing to fail, just fail forward.” I
love that! Failure is part of the game and he gave specific examples of several
innovators who had to fail thousands of times to get to their star. Dyson,
Edison, the inventors of WD-40. Great examples of remaining diligent. In
addition to all of these great speeches, we read and listened to a summary of
Randy Pausch’s last lecture.
I believe that Randy Pausch was able to achieve
so many of his childhood dreams for several different reasons. One that stuck
out to me was that he had parents that supported him early on in his dreaming.
The let him be “a master of his own domain.” They never shot down his
aspirations. They enabled and encouraged him to do whatever his heart desired,
even to the point of letting him paint his room like a submarine. He had
tenacity for life and kicked against the pricks who told him that he couldn’t-shouldn’t-
wouldn’t be able to do the things he dreamed about. He was resilient and the
epitome of one of my favorite slogans “Where there is a will, there is a way.” When
he was denied the opportunity out of school after applying by Disney to become
an Imagineer he never gave up on that dream and later helped them to design a
roller coaster at a Disney Park. That
was just one of many dreams he made true. He said that “Experience is what you
get when you don’t get what you want.” He lived a truly full life and was and
still is an inspiration to many.
Dreaming
is important. It keeps us reaching, growing, and working towards something
better. I believe our dreams are inspired and they lead us to the purposes that
God intends for us. As a child I dreamed of someday teaching children in
Africa. When I look back now I cannot fathom why that was that dream of an
awkward Mormon girl being raised in suburban South Florida. That dream though,
still follows me. In High School I was really interested in joining the Peace
Corp, but I ended up making different choices. Someday though, it is my dream that
I will be able to go on a humanitarian mission to Africa and work with African
children. The thought of it still makes me happy inside. I am sure that I can
make this dream of mine come true. I must be a good steward over my finances
and take care of myself so that I am in good health when I am able to serve in
that capacity.
Overall, this week’s assignments helped me see more clearly the direction I would like to see my life go in. I need to plan, aim for, and work like a mad man to reach my goals. I have a lot of work ahead of me, but I have faith in my purpose and the strength of God with me. I can serve in great capacities later if I sacrifice today.
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