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)
Friday, April 19, 2013
Wednesday, April 17, 2013
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. :-)
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. :-)
Tuesday, April 16, 2013
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!
"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!
Monday, April 15, 2013
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!
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!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)