Old Testament and More Laws of Leadership

Okay, I've pretty much listened to every General Conference talk from the last session at least three times now, and while I won't even begin to profess having learned and applied all that they contain, I want to read and study other gospel related material. Funny enough, two years ago (!) I made a goal to read through the whole Old Testament. Sadly, while I started off strong, about a third of the way through the year my wife and I had a new baby enter the family, and my reading got seriously derailed. The fact that I was in 1st Chronicles probably didn't help.

Since then, I've been slowly reading chapters on occasion, but I still haven't finished my complete reading of the Old Testament (OT). I figure for the next couple of weeks, I'm going to read at least a couple chapters each day and look for some good quotes for this blog during the reading. Rather than just reading, though, I'm going to first read from another book (e.g. 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership), and then I'm going to read from the OT and look for something in the reading that directly relates to one of the areas I was reading in the other book. Sound good?

Today's reading from the 21 Laws covered chapters 12 and 13 -- and if you're keeping track, you'll notice that I've read but didn't blog about chapters 6 through 11. I did read those last week, however, and for the sake of completeness I'm going to at least give the laws discussed if not a good quote -- which is sad, because there was some really good stuff in here! Actually, I do have a few good quotes, which I've inserted after the laws below, so this is going to be a bit lengthy.


The Law of Solid Ground: Trust Is the Foundation of Leadership: "No leader can break trust with his people and expect to keep influencing them." Maxwell discusses the lack of trust we now have for most politicians, and how in many ways Vietnam marked the transition. I'd say that for most of my life, I have not had a trusting attitude towards the President of the United States, and sadly I would say that Obama has continued a downward trend and currently is someone that I do not trust at all (witness Obamacare, which was ramrodded through despite objections from a majority of the constituents).

The Law of Respect: People Naturally Follow Leaders Stronger Than Themselves: Maxwell starts with a story of a woman that would not necessarily seem like someone you would respect at first, but then he goes on to show why people did respect her. However, "by the start of the Civil War, she had brought more people out of slavery than any other American in history -- black or white, male or female." That woman was Harriet Tubman.

The Law of Intuition: Leaders Evaluate Everything with a Leadership Bias: Maxwell talks about Steve Jobs and Apple, and the success Steve enjoyed during his life. (Interestingly, I was just listening to the Daily Mentor call about Steve Jobs today, and blogged about that elsewhere.) I didn't particularly care for Steve the man, but he was do doubt an amazing leader and had a great sense of intuition. "Steve Jobs' story is a reminder that leadership is really more art than science. The principles of leadership are constant, but the application changes with every leader and every situation. That's why it requires intuition. Without it, leaders get blindsided, and that's one of the worst things that can happen to a leader." I have to say, my boss (Anand Lal Shimpi) is definitely someone who is skilled in the Law of Intuition.

The Law of Magnetism: Who You Are Is Whom You Attract: Starts with the story of Lincoln and Robert E. Lee; Lincoln went on to become a great leader, but he didn't start that way. "If Lee had chosen to lead an army for the Union instead, many other good generals would have followed him north. As a result, the war probably would have been much shorter. Some speculate that it might have lasted two years instead of five -- and hundreds of thousands of lives would have been saved."

The Law of Connection: Leaders Touch a Heart Before They Ask for a Hand: Cheesy but true: "People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care." I've said this many times during my life. :-)

The Law of the Inner Circle: A Leader's Potential Is Determined by Those Closest to Him: Maxwell relates the story of Lance Armstrong and his seven consecutive Tour de France victories. I wonder how he might change his opinion of this in light of Lance's final admission to having doped, used HGH, etc. Regardless, Lance is still an amazing cyclist. "Leaders have to deliver. There is no substitute for performance. But without a good team, they often don't get the opportunity." Almost done!


The Law of Empowerment: Only Secure Leaders Give Power to Others: This time, we get a counter-example of empowerment and the problems that resulted. Henry Ford was way ahead of the game when he founded the Ford Motor Company and began mass producing the Model T. Within ten years, Ford was producing nearly 50 percent of all automobiles in the US, but after that initial success, Henry Ford couldn't stand the thought of others surpassing him. When presented with a prototype of an improved Model T as a surprise, he tore it apart with his bare hands. It wasn't until 1927 that he grudgingly agreed to offer a new car to the public, the Model A, but by that time Ford was far behind its competitors and in 1931 they were down to only 28% of the US automobile market. Henry Ford II eventually took over and at first did well with bringing in other leaders, but his own insecurities led to him pitting these leaders against each other and getting rid of his best people. I wonder where Ford could have been today had they not wasted fifty or so years with egotistical leaders that refused to let others rise up and embrace change.

The Law of the Picture: People Do What People See: The HBO series Band of Brothers is based on the story of Easy Company in World War II. There are instances of both good and bad leaders; thankfully, they had more of the latter than the former, which is what enabled them to become worthy of the books and shows based on their lives. "Good leaders are always conscious of the fact that they are setting the example and others are going to do what they do, for better or worse. In general, the better the leaders' actions, the better their people's."

I'll say that of the above laws and chapters, the segments I struggled with the most are the Intuition, Inner Circle, and Magnetism areas. I liked most of the reading, but the actual application in my life of the principles involved is more difficult. That probably means those areas are all weaknesses for me, which isn't surprising. Anyway, time for a good quote from the Old Testament; as noted earlier, I'm currently reading in 2 Chronicles, which is a book that repeats much of what was already told in 1 and 2 Kings (and elsewhere). It's the story of both good and bad Israel, which is -- surprise! -- largely a reflection of their good and bad leaders.

I actually just finished 2 Chronicles today, which ends with the righteous reign of King Josiah who is followed by evil kings that reign (and are deposed) when Babylon destroys Jerusalem. Going with the above themes of leadership, I'm going to use a quote that shows the Law of the Picture in action. Hilkiah has found the book of the law in the Holy Temple, which has apparently been lost (intentionally, thanks to an earlier unrighteous king) for a long time and explains much of the idolatry that is present. When Josiah hears the words of the book of the law, he rends his clothing and inquires of the priests as to what the Lord would have him do. Then he does his best to help reform Israel, by leading the charge:

"And the king stood in his place, and made a covenant before the Lord, to walk after the Lord, and to keep his commandments, and his testimonies, and his statutes, with all his heart, and with all his soul, to perform the words of the covenant which are written in this book. And he caused all that were present in Jerusalem and Benjamin to stand to it. And the inhabitants of Jerusalem did according to the covenant of God, the God of their fathers. And Josiah took away all the abominations out of all the countries that pertained to the children of Israel, and made all that were present in Israel to serve, even to serve the Lord their God. And all his days they departed not from following the Lord, the God of their fathers." (2 Kings 34: 31-33)

I'm reminded of a similar principle taught in the Book of Mormon (slightly edited): "If it were possible that you could have just men to be your kings, who would establish the claws of God, and judge this people according to his commandments, yea, if ye could always have just men for your kings, then it would be expedient that ye should always have kings to rule over you. Now I say unto you, that because all men are not just it is not expedient that ye should have a king or kings to rule over you. For behold, how much iniquity doth one wicked king cause to be committed, yea, and what great destruction!" (Mosiah 29: 13, 16-17)

The Office: It's Done! (Okay, Almost)

Big news today: I spent the better part of four hours working on finishing up the paint job in my soon-to-be office. The result: all the painting is now complete! Well, except for the doors, which still need another coat or two. But I'm not even sure I'm going to put up the closet doors, so they don't really count, right? Anyway, I'm sure all three of my blog readers are eager to see pictures, and I'm not one to disappoint:

 

I don't know that the camera captures the colors all that well, but it's a light tan shade, maybe with a hint more yellow. The trim is "eggshell white", and the carpet is...in need of a serious cleaning. But that will come in due time. Next stage: removing the paint supplies, putting up the blinds, moving my desks into the office, and setting up my PCs and workbench. Fun! That should be done before the end of the week, I hope. And in case you missed it, here's what the office looked like at the beginning:

My quote for the day comes via President Eyring's talk, We Are One, where he's quoting from the Doctrine and Covenants: "And go ye out from among the wicked. Save yourselves. Be ye clean that bear the vessels of the Lord." My office may not be clean yet, but at least it's a lot nicer looking than before, and soon enough it will truly be clean...and then I'll clutter it up with computers and stuff.

Navigation, Attraction, and Four Titles

The Law of Navigation: Anyone Can Steer the Ship, but It Takes a Leader to Chart the Course

This chapter of The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership contains one of the great success stories of a leader, Roald Amundsen; it also contains the story of his contemporary failure, Robert Falcon Scott. Both men were trying to get to the South Pole; one team made it in and out with hardly any problems and the other team died in their attempt. What was the difference? Maxwell calls it the Law of Navigation: Amundsen looked to past experience, examined conditions before making commitments, listened to what other experts had to say, and had both faith and facts supporting his conclusion. In contrast, Scott seems to have had little other than the "Spirit of pluck and the power to endure." Amundsen's team beat him to the South Pole by over a month.

"Every past success and failure you've experienced can be a valuable source of information and wisdom -- if you allow it to be. Successes teach you what you're capable of doing and give you confidence. However, your failures often teach greater lessons. They reveal wrong assumptions, character flaws, errors in judgement, and poor working methods. Ironically, many people hate their failures so much that they quickly cover them up instead of analyzing them and learning from them."

The Law of Addition: Leaders Add Value by Serving Others

For this chapter, Maxwell gives an overview of one of the most unique CEOs around right now: Jim Sinegal, the CEO of Costco. Given the huge salaries and contracts most CEOs have, it's amazing that Jim takes just $350K in salary, and his contract is only one page long. After reading the introduction to this chapter that talks about Jim and Costco, I'm even more inclined to continue shopping there -- they treat their customers and employees right, and it shows!

"The whole idea of adding value to other people depends on the idea that you have something of value to add. You can't give what you do not possess. If you have skills, you gained them through study and practice. If you have opportunities to give, you acquired them through hard work. If you possess wisdom, you gained it by intentionally evaluating the experiences you've had. The more intentional you have been in growing personally, the more you have to offer. The more you continue to pursue personal growth, the more you will continue to have to offer."

Four Titles, by President Uchtdorf

My scriptural study today continues with the General Conference talks, and this time with President Uchtdorf's Priesthood Session talk. I love President Uchtdorf, probably in part because my mom is German and has instilled a love for the Germans into my heart, but also because he radiates joy, love, and happiness. He also has an awesome accent! In his talk, he gives four titles that we all should wear -- and while he applies these specifically to priesthood bearers, they can easily cover anyone that wants to be serve and find happiness in so doing. The titles: Son/Daughter of Heavenly Father, Disciple of Jesus Christ, Healer of Souls, Heir of Eternal Life.

"In the great Composer’s symphony, you have your own particular part to play -- your own notes to sing. Fail to perform them, and with certainty the symphony will go on. But if you rise up and join the chorus and allow the power of God to work through you, you will see “the windows of heaven” open, and He will 'pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.' Rise up to your true potential as a [child] of God, and you can be a force for good in your family, your home, your community, your nation, and indeed in the world."

Leadership and the Priesthood

I didn't get a chance to post this yesterday, as I was busy getting ready for the Fathers and Sons camp-out in the afternoon, but after finishing The Richest Man in Babylon, I've moved on to the next book in my doTERRA Book of the Month list, The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership. Interestingly, there are a few different versions of the book floating around; the original was written over ten years ago, in fact it's closer to 15 years back -- my copy is an updated and revised 10th anniversary edition from 2007, and in fact it's the 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership Workbook. That last word apparently means there is some space added for you to write stuff down, and the book could be used in a classroom setting; I don't know if anything was cut in the process or it it's simply a slightly longer version of the book, but looking at the information from Amazon it does appear that there are a few minor differences in the text from the regular book. But I digress....

Unlike the last book that was filled with typos and other errors and relied on allegories, this book is written for the modern world and uses real stories. That's a good thing in my opinion -- not that Babylon doesn't have useful information, but the style just feels rather dated and silly, like something written by the actual Babylonians! In fact, it's a collection of stories distributed in the 1920s and bound into book from in 1926, which might explain something of it's old style of writing. Anyway, I'm still off track, so let's get on to talking about the 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership!

The book begins with a short overview of "the Laws" and then moves on to a self evaluation section of the 21 Laws. Each Law has three areas where you can rate yourself 0 to 3, with 0 being the worst. I tried to be honest, and came up with scores ranging from 3 to as high as 7 in the various areas, which means I could use improvement in every aspect of leadership -- not really surprising to me. After that, we get into the meat of the 21 Laws, and since I've read through the first three now I thought I'd post them here with a short quote from each that I liked:

The Law of the Lid: Leadership Ability Determines a Person's Level of Effectiveness

Maxwell begins with a story of two brothers, Dick and Maurice, and their story of moderate success. They saw an opportunity and started up a restaurant, then improved upon it and became more efficient, but their attempts to build a franchise didn't do very well at all. "Dick and Maurice were good single-restaurant owners. They understood how to run a business, make their systems efficient, cut costs, and increase profits. They were efficient managers. But they were not leaders. Their thinking patterns clamped a lid down on what they could do and become. At the height of their success, Dick and Maurice found themselves smack-dab up against the Law of the Lid."

Then they brought in a business partner (who had supplied their milkshake machines), and he ended up buying out their shares of the company for $2.7 million before taking it on to worldwide success. The name of the business partner was Ray Kroc, and the restaurant: McDonald's. The "Lid" on the leadership ability of the two brothers was substantially lower than Kroc's lid, which was virtually unlimited as a leader.

The Law of Influence: The True Measure of Leadership Is Influence

The short synopsis is that if you're leading but no one is following, you're not really leading. Maxwell gives five myths regarding leadership: the Management Myth (management and leadership are not the same), Entrepreneur Myth (all entrepreneurs are leaders), Knowledge Myth (knowledge and intelligence make you a leader), Pioneer Myth (anyone first out in front of a crowd is a leader), and Position Myth ("It's not the position that makes the leader; it's the leader that makes the position.").

"I love the leadership proverb that says, 'He who thinks he leads, but has no followers, is only taking a walk.' If you can't influence people, then they will not follow you. And if people won't follow, you are not a leader. That's the Law of Influence. No matter what anybody else may tell you, remember that leadership is influence -- nothing more, nothing less."

The Law of Process: Leadership Develops Daily, Not in a Day

Out of all the Laws listed, I think this is the one where I'm currently doing the best -- not because I'm there, but because right now I'm doing the things that will eventually get me where I want to be. Leadership is a skill that can be learned, but it's learned in the same way that one learns to become a great athlete: hour after hour, day after day, of practice and self-improvement. Stop exercising, and you will quickly revert to a less than impressive physique.

Maxwell talks a lot about Theodore Roosevelt in this chapter, as a man who became an amazing leader through process -- and a man who started out as a timid, weak, nearsighted, puny, asthmatic boy whom his parents thought might not live. Yet he became one of the most dynamic and powerful leaders of the United State, with numerous other accomplishments besides. I'm reminded of the story of Gattica, in which science reaches the point where our genes can help people predict quite accurately how long a person will live and what sort of problems they might have. The main character rejects such notions and becomes an astronaut, through painstaking effort and diligence. I'd guess part of the idea for the movie came from the life of Theodore Roosevelt.

"In a study of ninety top leaders from a variety of fields, leadership experts Warren Bennis and Burt Nanus made a discovery about the relationship between growth and leadership: 'It is the capacity to develop and improve their skills that distinguishes leaders from their followers.' Successful leaders are learners. And the learning process is ongoing, a result of self-discipline and perseverance. The goal each day must be to get a little better, to build on the previous day's progress."


Priesthood Leadership

After all that talk about leadership, I think it only fitting to end with a quote from a talk on the priesthood by Elder Tad R. Callister: The Power of the Priesthood in the Boy. Several of the points he makes in his talk are basically the spiritual applications of leadership principles discussed in 21 Laws. I like this part a lot, and it makes me want to be a better father to my children and a better husband to my wife:

"You leaders lift these deacons quorum presidents best when you let them lead out and you step back from the spotlight. You have magnified your calling best not when you give a great lesson but when you help them give a great lesson, not when you rescue the one but when you help them do so. There is an old saying: do not die with your music still in you. In like manner I would say to you adult leaders, do not get released with your leadership skills still in you. Teach our youth at every opportunity; teach them how to prepare an agenda, how to conduct meetings with dignity and warmth, how to rescue the one, how to prepare and give an inspired lesson, and how to receive revelation. This will be the measure of your success—the legacy of leadership and spirituality you leave ingrained in the hearts and minds of these young men."

The Office: Stay on target!

It's been a while since we moved, and the painting of the house (well, four rooms really) has not gone as quickly as planned. Part of that is our fault, part of that is the difficulty involved in painting the "murder room". The good news is that the murder room is now well and truly dead -- if you walk in there today, you won't be able to see any evidence of the red paint splatters that were once there. As for my office, it languished for a while with no progress while we worked on making the murder room inhabitable -- the children were sleeping on the floor in the office. With their beds now properly set up, however, we're working on the office and I'm happy to report that I'm about one coat of paint away from being finished. That coat of paint should come tomorrow.

Here are pictures of my progress today. The "before" shots are with the walls and trim all coated with primer, and the "after" shots are with the tan paint on all the walls and ceiling. We'll do the trim and doors properly with white paint once the walls and ceiling are complete, and then I can move most of my work into the office and hopefully become more productive. It will also enable us to make the living room more of a place where people can come and visit us (and we can do doTERRA classes). And with that out of the way, here are the pictures:

Before Painting (Primer Done)

After Painting (One Coat Done)

Tomorrow, I've got some help coming courtesy of the missionaries, and maybe I can actually be done with the whole place! Cross your fingers and say a prayer for my office....

The End of Babylon, Personal Peace

I've mentioned that The Richest Man in Babylon is a bit of an odd book for me. After all, I'm a religious man and Babylon is not exactly highly looked upon by Christ. On the other hand, when you look at the history of Babylon you can see why it would come to symbolize worldliness, and why someone seeking to become financially independent might want to learn from the "lessons" of Babylon. The final portion of the book gives yet another repetition of the principles, this time is a slightly different fashion: now it's about paying off debt. Here's the plan:

1) Pay yourself 10% for savings (and invest it wisely when appropriate).
2) Live off of 70% or less of your total income. This may require serious changes to your budget.
3) Pay your debtors out of the remaining 20%.

Again, these are good principles, and hopefully you're in a position where you can make such a plan work -- or even better, hopefully your not so far in debt that you need to use 20% of your income to pay that down! (Don't we all wish that was the case?) If you don't feel that you can implement "The Plan", then make the changes necessary, whether that be moving to a smaller place, taking a second job, or something else. I do get a chuckle out of the final sentence in the book, which I want to quote as well:

"The eons of time have crumbled to dust the proud walls of its temples, but the wisdom of Babylon endureth."

The above statement is a wonderful contrast to one of the talks I listened to while painting my office this morning (more on that in a separate post). Elder Cook's talk, Personal Peace: The Reward of Righteousness, is much more in line with what I think of when it comes to wisdom that endures. It's not the money I earn or the words I write  that will be around in another 100 years (though potentially these words will still be around long after I'm gone -- not that I expect many to read them). About the only things I can truly leave behind are my legacy and my posterity, and hopefully both of those will be things that will make the world a better place. Here's a few good quotes to ponder:

"What are the sources of peace? Many search for peace in worldly ways, which never have and never will succeed. Peace is not found by attaining great wealth, power, or prominence. Peace is not found in the pursuit of pleasure, entertainment, or leisure. None of these can, even when attained in abundance, create any lasting happiness or peace.... Peace is not just safety or lack of war, violence, conflict, and contention. Peace comes from knowing that the Savior knows who we are and knows that we have faith in Him, love Him, and keep His commandments, even and especially amid life’s devastating trials and tragedies."

I admit that I arranged the above quotes slightly differently from where they appear in the talk, and as always I commend the whole talk to anyone that reads this. It's not that we should avoid wealth, power, or prominence in life; in fact, being "provident providers" for our families is a topic we have heard many times from the pulpit over the years. However, we should make sure we first seek God's will, and then if we seek these other things it will be for the intent to do good.

Have a great day, and may peace be with you all!

A Wonderful Journey and Wise Investments

Two quick quotes for the night, first from President Uchtdorf's talk at the Young Women Conference, Our Wonderful Journey Home (modified slightly to apply to all). Besides, who doesn't love a conference talk that references Bilbo Baggins?

"Sometimes we become impatient with where we are in our journey, don’t we? There will always be things to complain about—things that don’t seem to go quite right. You can spend your days feeling sad, alone, misunderstood, or unwanted. But that isn’t the journey you had hoped for, and it’s not the journey Heavenly Father sent you to take. Yes, the road has bumps and detours and even some hazards. But don’t focus on them. Look for the happiness your Father in Heaven has prepared for you in every step of your journey. Happiness is the destination, but it’s also the path. 'Peace in this world, and eternal life in the world to come' is what He promises."

I've just about finished reading The Richest Man in Babylon. There are some decent stories, but I have to say it's quite repetitive. First we start with an allegory of the richest man in Babylon, then we hear his rules for becoming wealthy, then we meet him again through a different story, then again through a story of his son, etc. And all the typos and grammatical errors are still really bothering me. Regardless, the idea of saving money now and investing it wisely is good counsel, so here's a quote on that subject:

"Money loaned out wisely can double itself with interest before we grow old. If you risk losing it you risk losing all that it would earn as well. Therefore, be not swayed by the fantastic plans of impractical men who think they see ways to force money to make unusually large earnings. Such plans are the creations of dreamers unskilled in the safe and dependable laws of trade. Be conservative in what you expect to earn so that you can keep your money. To loan it with a promise of usurious rates of return is to invite loss. Associate with men and enterprises whose success is established so that you can earn a generous return under their skillful use and be guarded by their wisdom and experience."

The Richest Man in Babylon and Faith

Ha! How's that for a heading? You're probably wondering what on earth faith and Babylon might have to do with each other. Well, I'll tell you.

After finishing Seven Habits yesterday, I turned to doTERRA's Book of the Month reading list. Back in November last year I purchased the first four books on the list, and I quickly finished the first two (Making the First Circle Work and The Slight Edge). I enjoyed both books, but so quickly did I finish them that I found myself ahead of schedule, and I thought I'd branch out into reading other good books like Seven Habits. It was a sound idea, but unfortunately I got off track and now instead of being ahead on my reading, I'm several books behind -- books which I already own! And thus, I decided I would now work on catching up, so I started reading The Richest Man in Babylon today.

First, let me say that I recognize that there's plenty of irony in a blog that's devoted to inspirational quotes to start talking about Babylon (aka The World, Evil, Wickedness, etc.) The focus of the book is financial -- keys to acquiring wealth and good practices that will help you to do so. Interestingly, at least the version I have is written in pseudo-Olde English (e.g. thee, thou, thy, thine, dost, doth, etc.), but there's a problem: there are a ton of typos!

I'm an editor/writer by trade these days, and I can't believe how many major errors there are. I hope there's a better version of the book that fixes the errors, and in truth I'd be happy if they just ditched the Olde English stuff and spoke straight modern English -- this book isn't scripture, so the use of such language just feels really forced and at times silly. So any quotes that I take from the book are going to be translated by me into modern English. And despite the name of the book, there are still many good principles to discuss. The first key to becoming wealthy is simply this:

"A part of all you earn is yours to keep."

That might seem obvious, so this principle is best illustrated with the following exchange between a poor man and the richest man in Babylon:

---

"But all I earn is mine to keep, is it not?"

"Far from it. Do you not pay the garment-maker and the sandal-maker? Do you not pay for the things you eat? Can you live in Babylon without spending money? What have you to show of your earning of the past month, the past year? Fool! You pay everyone but yourself. You labor for others. You could just as well be a slave and take what your master gives you to eat and wear. If you kept one-tenth of all you earned for yourself, how much would you have in ten years?"

"As much as I earn in one year."

"You speak but half the truth, for every gold piece you save is a slave to work for you. Every copper it earns is its child that can also earn for you. If you would become wealthy, then what you save must earn, and its children must earn, and its children's children must earn, that all may help to give to you the abundance you crave. A part of all you earn is yours to keep. It should not be less than a tenth, no matter how little you earn. It can be as much more as you can afford. Pay yourself first."

---

Basically, the book has an allegory of the richest man in Babylon, and it teaches financial principles using this man as an example. There are seven steps given to becoming wealthy, which translated into our language and modern world are this:

1. Start saving now, at least 10% of your income.
2. Budget appropriately, and eliminate unnecessary expenses so that you can live on 90% of what you earn.
3. Invest your savings in interest bearing accounts and similar items.
4. Invest in steady and safe ventures rather than big risk, big reward schemes.
5. Own your own home!
6. Get life insurance and plan for your retirement.
7. Improve yourself and gain additional knowledge.

There's nothing really mind-blowing in that list. If you're like me, you've heard all of this before, but let me ask you this: have you actually done these things? I know I haven't done most of them, at least not as well as I could, but I'm working on the first and third, and I plan on doing the sixth as soon as we're in a good position to do so. If you haven't made plans for how to do any/all of the above, start now!

Faith

So what does all of the above have to do with Faith? Two things: first, I have faith in the principles outlined above, and you don't have to use those principles with the sole intent of amassing great wealth. Five and six can easily be focused more on your family than on wealth, and all of the process can be with the goal of becoming unburdened from debt so that you can help others. The second aspect of faith is that I listened to Elder Holland's talk again, Lord, I Believe.

I love Elder Holland's talks, and this one is no exception; I used it for my home teaching spiritual thought tonight. After discussing the scriptural passage in which the man tells Christ, "Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief" Elder Holland provides these three points to ponder. I'll end with these as well:

1. When facing the challenge of faith, the father asserts his strength first and only then acknowledges his limitation.
2. When problems come and questions arise, do not start your quest for faith by saying how much you do not have, leading as it were with your “unbelief.”
3. When doubt or difficulty come, do not be afraid to ask for help.

Finishing the Seven Habits, and the Need for Virtue

Today marks a great milestone: just shy of five months after first starting the book, I have finally made it to the end of The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. I'm not sure why I got so bogged down and off track, but the past week or so went well enough and there's lots of great information in the book, so if you've never read it I would encourage you to do so. Don't let my failure to read it more quickly stop you from doing better! So let's finish off the book with a great quote, shall we?

"Achieving unity--oneness--with ourselves, our loved ones, with our friends and working associates, is the highest and best and most delicious fruit of the Seven Habits. Most of us have tasted this fruit of true unity from time to time in the past, as we have also tasted the bitter, lovely fruit of disunity--and we know how precious and fragile unity is. Obviously building a character of total integrity and living the life of love and service that creates such unity isn't easy. It isn't quick fix. But it's possible. It begins with the desire to center our lives on correct principles, to break out of the paradigms created by other centers and the comfort zones of unworthy habits.... Again, I quote Emerson: 'That which we persist in doing becomes easier--not that the nature of the task has changed, but our ability to do has increased.'"

And here's one final parting word from the author at the end. This is really a deep book and in reading it one can feel overwhelmed--is doing all of the stuff Covey lists even possible given the number of hours in a day!? What I like is that he admits the complexity and difficulty of the task, and just because it might take time and energy and it isn't easy definitely doesn't mean the task isn't worth doing.

"I believe that there are parts to human nature that cannot be reached by either legislation or education, but require the power of God to deal with. I believe that as human beings, we cannot perfect ourselves. To the degree to which we align ourselves with correct principles, diving endowments will be released within our nature in enabling us to fulfill the measure of our creation.... I personally struggle with much of what I have shared in this book. But the struggle is worthwhile and fulfilling. It gives meaning to my life and enables me to love, to sever, and to try again."

For my scripture study, I listened to Sister Elaine S. Dalton's talk from Conference, We Are Daughters of Our Heavenly Father. It shouldn't require too much creativity to take her statements and apply them to all children of God, so even though I'm a man I can find plenty of use in her advice and counsel. And of course, virtue can be expanded to include other correct principles that we were just discussing above.

"What would the world be like if virtue—a pattern of thought and behavior based on high moral standards, including chastity—were reinstated in our society as a most highly prized value? If immorality, pornography, and abuse decreased, would there be fewer broken marriages, broken lives, and broken hearts? Would media ennoble and enable rather than objectify and degrade God’s precious daughters? If all humanity really understood the importance of the statement 'We are daughters of our Heavenly Father,' how would women be regarded and treated?"

Tolerance as a Vice, Agency, and Experience

From President Boyd K. Packer's talk, These Things I Know, which is worth listening to if you haven't already (and worth listening to again if you have). I feel every conference like President Packer may not be around for the next, but he continues to surprise me, and I'm glad he's still here.

"Tolerance is a virtue, but like all virtues, when exaggerated, it transforms itself into a vice. We need to be careful of the “tolerance trap” so that we are not swallowed up in it. The permissiveness afforded by the weakening of the laws of the land to tolerate legalized acts of immorality does not reduce the serious spiritual consequence that is the result of the violation of God’s law of chastity."

The recent information coming out about the abortion clinics and the pure evil that has been done at some of them, all in the name of "helping" people, is absolutely horrific. It's another form of the "tolerance trap", where in trying to take the middle road and allow others to live and let live, we have traveled far down a slippery slope. As someone that lost a baby at seven months of pregnancy (my wife did, but it was my child), I can't even fathom a mother going in and willingly having a baby killed. The things people tell themselves to make it all "okay" simply fly in the face of reason.

I'm not saying we can logistically outlaw all abortions or that we even should, but while the women getting abortions are free to make that choice and the workers involved in carrying out the procedures are able to choose to do so, they are not free from the consequences. Again, from President Packer's talk: "We are free to choose what we will and to pick and choose our acts, but we are not free to choose the consequences. They come as they will come."

My heart goes out to anyone that has made that sort of decision and now regrets it. I know many wonderful people that would have loved to adopt a child that wait, year after year  for the opportunity. Likewise, I know I have made many wrong decisions that I regret. Thankfully we have the Savior and the Atonement, and all the things we've gone through in life get us to where we are. I hope that when I reach a ripe old age like President Packer, I too can say:

"If I could now turn back the years,
If that were mine to choose,
I would not barter age for youth,
I’d have too much to lose.
I am quite content to move ahead,
To yield my youth, however grand.
The thing I’d lose if I went back
Is what I understand."

Integrity, Security, and Inside Out

I'm nearly done with reading the Seven Habits now, and the last few pages I've been reading have been very good. Here are several quotes from Habit 7 (Sharpen the Saw), along with the introductory quote to the final chapter (Inside Out Again). First, on peace of mind:

"I believe that a life of integrity is the most fundamental source of personal worth. I do not agree with the popular success literature that says that self-esteem is primarily a matter of mind set, of attitude -- that you can psych yourself into peace of mind. Peace of mind comes when your life is in harmony with true principles and values and in no other way." (Covey, pp 298)

The second is a great quote because as I've mentioned before I'm working with doTERRA and that's really what got me started on this whole process of the Slight Edge. I read that book, then started looking for other books to read and ended up with Seven Habits. I'm also looking for ways to improve my life, the life of our family, the lives of those around us, etc. and this statement on security rings true for anyone looking to do the same:

"Your economic security does not lie in your job; it lies in your own power to produce -- to think, to learn, to create, to adapt. That's true financial independence. It's not having wealth; it's having the power to produce wealth. It's intrinsic." (Covey, pp 304)

The third quote is actually from President Ezra Taft Benson, so it covers the scriptural side of things nicely but applies to other areas of life as well:

"The Lord works from the inside out. The world works from the outside in. The world would take people out of the slums. Christ takes the slums out of people, and then they take themselves out of the slums. The world would mold men by changing their environment. Christ changes men, who then change their environment. The world would shape human behavior, but Christ can change human nature." (Benson, Born of God, 1985)

As a final parting thought, Elder Enrique R. Falabella was one of the talks I listened to (again) today while painting. He mentions his wife's motto, and I hope someday I can truly be like her: "In order to contend, you need two people, and I will never be one of them." (The Home: The School of Life)

Sharpening the Saw and Following the Savior

The topics of my readings today consist of two ideas that might at first seem unrelated. First is from Seven Habits, where I'm now in the final two chapters. Habit Seven is "Sharpen the Saw", which applies to all areas of our lives: physical, mental, spiritual, and social/emotional. Covey begins with a short story: imagine you come upon a man sweating as he tries to saw down a tree. You say to him, "You look exhausted!" to which he replies, "I've been at this for hours and I'm only half-way done!" You invite him to take a break and note that the saw looks rather dull and it might help to spend a few minutes sharpening it, but he responds, "I can't -- I'm too busy sawing!"

The point of course is that we often get so caught up in what we're doing that we can't be bothered to stop and examine our tools and equipment to see if they're all working properly. I read the first three aspects of sharpening the saw today (physical, spiritual, and mental), so let me share a short quote from each part that I liked.

Physical: "Most of us think we don't have enough time to exercise. What a distorted paradigm! We don't have time not to. We're talking about three to six hours a week -- or a minimum of thirty minutes a day, every other day. That hardly seems an inordinate amount of time considering the tremendous benefits in terms of the impact on the other 162-165 hours of the week."

Spiritual: "Religious leader David O. McKay taught, 'The greatest battles of life are fought out daily in the silent chambers of the soul.' If you win the battles there, if you settle the issues that inwardly conflict, you feel a sense of peace, a sense of knowing what you're about. And you'll find that the public victories -- where you tend to think cooperatively, to promote the welfare and good of other people, and to be genuinely happy for other people's successes -- will follow naturally."

Mental: "There's no better way to inform and expand your mind on a regular basis than to get into the habit of reading good literature. That's another high leverage Quadrant II activity. You can get into the best minds that are now or that have ever been in the world. I highly recommend starting with a goal of a book a month, then a book every two weeks, the a book a week. 'The person who doesn't read is no better off than the person who can't read.'"

Summing up the first three disciplines, Covey states, "Sharpening the saw in the first three dimensions -- the physical, the spiritual, and the mental -- is a practice I call the 'Daily Private Victory.' And I commend to you the simple practice of spending one hour a day every day doing it -- one hour a day for the rest of your life. There's no other way you could spend an hour that would begin to compare in terms of value and results. It will affect every decision, every relationship  It will greatly improve the quality, the effectiveness, of every other hour of the day, including the depth and restfulness of your sleep. It will build the long-term physical, spiritual, and mental strength to enable you to handle difficult challenges in life."

Moving on to the spiritual side of my reading (though the above certainly has spiritual implications as well), today I read the talk from General Conference by Elder Dallin H. Oaks, Followers of Christ. In it, he focuses on passages of scripture from the Bible that help us to better understand what it means to follow Jesus Christ -- which is sharpening of the spiritual saw of the highest form in my book. While going through some of the various teachings of Christ, Elder Oaks encapsulates much of what I feel with the following:

"Jesus’s teachings were not meant to be theoretical. Always they were to be acted upon. Jesus taught, 'Whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man' (Matthew 7:24; see also Luke 11:28) and 'Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing' (Matthew 24:46).

If we were to put it into modern slang, it would be something like, "If you're going to talk the talk, make sure to walk the walk." There are few things that bother me more than hypocrisy; hopefully none of what I've been writing on here comes across as hypocritical, as these are all things that I most definitely need to work on. Going back to Covey, he mentions the value of writing as well in the mental dimension of saw sharpening. I like that, as obviously I spend more than my fair share of time in front of a keyboard writing. If it can help some of you out there as well, so much the better. :-)

Synergy and Working Together

My "good book" reading today was from Covey's Seven Habits of Highly Effective People -- a book that I still haven't quite finished, though I'm now on the final two chapters! It's actually a really good book, but I got bogged down with moving and painting in the midst of reading. Now that I'm back on the Slight Edge horse, I'm going to finish Seven Habits before heading back to some doTERRA Book of the Month offerings. I just finished the chapter on Synergy today, and it's about how to work together rather than against each other, more or less. I like this quote at the end:

"When you see only two alternatives -- yours and the "wrong" one -- you can look for a synergistic third alternative. There's almost always a third alternative, and if you work with a Win/Win philosophy and really seek to understand, you usually can find a solution that will be better for everyone concerned." --Stephen R. Covey

Most of us usually deal with people from a Win/Lose paradigm (in order for me to get what I want, you have to give in), or from a Compromise paradigm (neither of us is entirely happy, but we didn't force our way on someone else). Synergy is when you recognize that someone else has a valid view of things and if you can understand them and work together, and if they can understand you and work together, you can accomplish more together than you could alone. 1 + 1 = 4 (or more!)

For my scripture study today, I was listening to some of the General Conference talks that I didn't hear too well or maybe didn't pay close attention to what was being said. One of the talks I ended up listening to this morning was directly related to the above, Elder L. Whitney Clayton's talk, Marriage: Watch and Learn. It's definitely an area where I need to learn to do better -- just ask my wife!

"Humility is the essence of repentance. Humility is selfless, not selfish. It doesn't demand its own way or speak with moral superiority. Instead, humility answers softly and listens kindly for understanding, not vindication. Humility recognizes that no one can change someone else, but with faith, effort, and the help of God, we can undergo our own mighty change of heart."

Mostly what caught my attention was the part about not demanding to get my own way or speaking with moral superiority. I don't usually think of myself as doing either of those, but what I think and how my wife interprets things are not the same. It usually ends up with me apologizing for being a "dumb guy" (more or less). Thankfully, my wife still loves me and stays by me, even when I eat all the leftovers and she has to find something else to eat. Love you honey!

And if you don't follow my other Skeptical Homeopath blog but want to see how the progress is going on my new office, I posted pictures over there today. Go check 'em out! My goal to get the office finished by the end of the week is still on track!

Reboot! What is Character?

Ha! Here I am again -- you thought this blog was dead, didn't you? But I'm getting back on the wagon, with some modifications. I'm going to focus down a bit on what this blog covers, specifically I will be looking to post useful quotes from the doTERRA Leadership and Mentor calls, scripture study, and my reading from other "good books". I'll also link in any blog posts or articles I write, keeping a running total for my own records.

Today is day one, so while you can see the previous posts let's not worry about those for now. At a minimum I will be carrying through with this until the end of the just restarted Daily Mentor program (60 days). So let's start off with a quote for the day from Hyrum Smith (of Franklin Covey fame):

“Character is the ability to carry out a worthy decision after the emotion of making that decision has passed. Character simply stated is doing what you said you were going to do. If you develop a reputation for that, do you have any idea the effect that has on self-perception? Its immense, just immense. The Savior was a man of character. He did everything he said he was going to do.”

You get to be the judge of whether or not I make the grade for having character. I've perhaps fallen short of the mark set in the above quote lately, but there's a difference between missing the mark and quitting. Or put another way, the past attempts failed, but I'm here and I'm still trying, which is better than giving up! And that's all part of following the Slight Edge philosophy.

Just to fill in a few other blanks from the past several months, our house took longer than expected to paint -- one room in particular (the "murder room") took way more effort than we had anticipated. We ended up doing the following:

Three coats of primer (Hmm...the drips are totally showing through).
Sand down most of the wall to remove drips (hey, look! They have painted this room at least three times in seven years!)
Two more layers of primer (the drips are still visible as vertical lines, ugh)
Try some spray on texture (useless and expensive at $15 per can -- we would have needed 20 or so)
Rent a texture sprayer from Home Depot (finally some progress, though messy)
Start to paint again (oh no! We can still see drips!)
Buy a texture roller and do the walls again with a heavy texture (I think we're done...)
Cover with two coats of paint (finally!)

Yeah, it took that much to get things fixed to the state where if you walk in the room now, you wouldn't notice anything odd about the walls. There's only one room left to paint, which will be my new office when it's done. My goal for the week is to have that completed by Saturday, making some progress each day. Today's goal: sand a few areas and put on a layer of primer.

The other big news is that I was called as the Ward Mission Leader about a month ago. Let me tell you, that was a surprise and it's one of those callings that requires a lot of work and is really important -- it's not just something where you sit on the sidelines biding your time. So part of this blog is now a way for me to at least make some small effort to share something related to the Gospel each day.

General Conference was also last weekend, and let me tell you, I'm not sure I've ever heard so many talks related to missionary work. I felt that on Saturday, no less than three talks were basically saying, "Okay, Jarred, this talk is for you." If you're interested, the talks are: Elder John B. Dickson, The Gospel to All the World (he directly addresses Ward Mission Leaders); President Henry B. Eyring, We Are One (discusses the ward mission plan and gives a story of one bishop's efforts); and President Thomas S. Monson, Come, All Ye Sons of God (some form of the word "mission" is used 30 times in his talk).

This was a great inspiration for me, and I came away with some Slight Edge thoughts on how to help the ward become better missionaries. I feel confident that for each person that does the following, they will have some friend or family member taking the missionary discussions by the end of the year: 1) Begin each day with a prayer, and ask for an opportunity to share the gospel and serve at least one person. 2) Read from the scriptures for at least 10 minutes, and look for some spiritual thought you could share. 3) Look for and take the chance to tell someone some small thing related to the church -- whether it be the scripture in step two, or just "I'm a Mormon...." And again, that's something I'll be covering in this blog.

That's it for now; welcome to the rebooted Slight Edge Diary!