December 6, 2012

I'm feeling quite a bit better today, which is good because I have a ton to do! Of course, this is written after-the-fact, but whatever. The landlord was supposed to come over at noon to look at the place, and Becky spent a lot of time last night cleaning up. This morning, I went out into the yard to finish raking up leaves, trimming trees, and in general trying to make it look like we haven't totally neglected that part of the property. I think I spent about 2.5 hours outside in the rain, trying to clear off 1000 pounds of wet, nasty leaves and moss. If I have a relapse, I'm blaming the yard work -- and thankfully, the new yard should be a lot less painful to maintain, since it's both smaller and has less gigantic trees around the property.

Besides the yard work, I wrote a bunch of emails for work today, and wrote up a short blog. I also did some more computer testing, and while I had hopes of getting the Acer S7 wrapped up today I ended up delaying that as Anand posted his iPad 4 review. Want to know why people like Apple products? That's a good place to start; personally, I'd rather go for an Android tablet like the Nexus 10 (mostly because it's about $100 cheaper, but also because I prefer Google's "open" attitude to Apple's "close mindedness" -- plus iTunes sucks!)

Other activities for the day included taking Alana to her first 10-year-old Activity Days (I read while she did her thing), cleaning up the office some, and the usual assortment of work stuff. For my reading, I finished off King Benjamin's talk today, along with getting to the start of the account of the people of Zeniff. There's a good scripture mastery in the King Benjamin address, but I also wanted to include a couple other scriptures that stood out to me. The first is a Slight Edge principle:

Mosiah 4:27: "And see that all these things are done in wisdom and order; for it is not requisite that a man should run faster than he has strength. And again, it is expedient that he should be diligent, that thereby he might win the prize; therefore, all things must be done in order." (The Book of Mormon, pp. 157)

Isn't that so true? It's not about doing everything we need accomplish all at once; it's about small, daily disciplines that help us improve and become better. I've noticed this with my readings, doTERRA calls, and other areas: steady wins the race. The second scripture is about change and repentance, which is another good principle -- it's never too late! Here we're talking about the people of Zeniff/Limhi who are in physical bondage, but the same applies to our spiritual bondage and addictions:

Mosiah 7:33: "But if ye will turn to the Lord with full purpose of heart, and put your trust in him, and serve him with all diligence of mind, if ye do this, he will, according to his own will and pleasure, deliver you out of bondage." (The Book of Mormon, pp. 162)

The third scripture is a comparison between man and God; it's about what happens to those who won't follow the correct teachings they are given:

Mosiah 8: 20-21: "O how marvelous are the works of the Lord, and how long doth he suffer with his people; yea, and how blind and impenetrable are the understandings of the children of men; for they will not seek wisdom, neither do they desire that she should rule over them! Yea, they are as a wild flock which fleeth from the shepherd, and scattereth, and are driven, and are devoured by the beasts of the forest." (The Book of Mormon, pp. 164)

For my secular reading ;-), Put First Things First is about scheduling, prioritizing, mission statements, goals, and that sort of thing. To give the quotes context, we need the following image:

"You have to be proactive to work on Quadrant II because Quadrants I and III work on you. To say 'yes' to important Quadrant II priorities, you have to learn to say 'no' to other activities, sometimes apparently urgent things.... We say 'yes' or 'no' to things daily, usually many times a day. A center of correct principles and a focus on our personal mission empowers us with wisdom to make those judgements effectively." (The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Chapter 5: Put First Things First, pp. 156-157)

Daily Check Up:
1) Scripture study: Yes (15 pages per day through the end of the year: Enos, Jarom, Omni, Words of Mormon, Mosiah 3-9, pp. 151-165)
2) Morning and evening prayers: Yes
3) 15+ minutes good book: Yes (The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, chapter 5, pp. 156-170)
4) 15 minutes of parenting/relationships/children book: Yes (Discussed above with wife)
5) Exercise for 30 minutes or more: Yes (Two hours raking heavy, wet leaves in the hard -- yuck!)
6) One doTERRA blog post: Yes (Aroma Ace)
7) Use doTERRA oils for something: Yes
8) doTERRA Leadership and Mentor calls (Mon-Fri): Yes
9) Talk to two people about doTERRA: One (Jason)
10) 15 minutes organizing office area: Yes! (Desk is in the garage now)
11) Solid 8 hours (M-F) working at my job: No, but close
12) Early to bed, early to rise: No (2:00AM to 8:30AM)
13) One AnandTech pipeline or article: Yes (Mushkin)