Personal Constitution as a Guide

Although I procrastinated this week for my Entrepreneurship class, because I had quite the science group project to do, I am so glad that I did because it helped end this week and start off the next one on the right foot.

I finished up reading The Ministry of Business by Steven A Hitz and James W. Ritchie, linked here if you’re interested (http://amzn.com/147503802X).  It was an amazing read with so many things to work on.  I found it was more of a workbook than just a page turner.  I plan to go back through it with my wife during the upcoming summer break so that we can be on the same page with our goals as a couple and family.

One thing that I did this week was my personal constitution.  I’d highly recommend it for anyone.  It’s in chapter 7 of the above referenced book.  The steps are as follows; first you start out by figuring out your Governing Values.  You do this by writing short phrases that you want to describe yourself.  They don’t have to be what you are now, but how you want to become.  Once you have a few (I have seven currently) you then take time to rank them.  This is an important step because as is explained in the book, if you have Integrity and Financial Independent listed you have to know which one comes first.  What if you’re put in a position where if you just fudged a number a little you’d be more financially independent?  If you had Financial Independence ahead of Integrity you might do that, but if you had Integrity ahead, you wouldn’t.  After getting them in order you go through and write out what you mean about these statements and why they are important to you.

Once the personal constitution is done you then go through and make long term goals, short term goals and finally Daily task ideas for each one.  This will help you as you go throughout your life to stay focused on what you’ve said is personally important in your life.

I found so much joy out of this activity.  I think it will really help me to stay focused.  As is mentioned in the book, after sleeping for 7 hours each day, we all get 1020 productivity points (or minutes) each day and it’s up to us how we spend them, so spend them wisely.

Wisdom in Getting Up Early

James Richie’s Formula

1-      Get up early

2-      Work Hard

3-      Get Your Education

4-      Find Oil

5-      Make Your Mark

6-      Prepare to Serve/Give Back

It’s fun taking a college class when you’re 35, as I am.  I feel that I’m young enough to still have my choices now matter for a significant period of time, but I also feel that I’m old enough and experienced enough to value what I’m learning more than I would have at 21.

I see such great wisdom in the Formula James Richie presented.  I know from my own experience that getting up early and attacking the day is a must.  Up until last semester I was struggling with finding enough time to balance my work, school, family, scout and church responsibilities.  When registering for this semesters classes there was a quote by the study department on the bottom of the schedule that said, “Treat school as a 9-5 job.”  My first reaction was, “well I already have one of those, so that doesn’t work.” 

As I thought more about it though I realized that what it really meant was to make sure you have structured uninterrupted time every day.  My then current plan of coming home and doing homework at the end of the day wasn’t working.  I decided right then and there that I needed to completely change my order of things around.  I started getting up at 3:45am and getting to work by 5am.  This gave me three hours before work and before most people showed up to do homework at work.

It was this structure that allowed me the opportunity to pull my grades, which at the time had been 2 D’s and an F, up to two B’s and a C.  It’s also helped me so far this semester to help me stay mostly on track, despite a week-long trip to visit my parents.

It’s not always easy, but the benefits are undeniable and that is why I will continue to get up early despite my super comfy bed’s death grip on me.

Childhood Dreams

I had quite the busy week, but it fit right in with the topic of the Entrepreneurial Journal Entry.  One thing I’ve never done is travel much.  I’ve been a lot of places, but I don’t go often because I don’t have the time or the money.  This week I went to surprise my mom (dad knew I was coming), they live in Dallas, TX.  This past year both my mom’s mom and my dad’s dad passed away.  It’s been difficult on them, but soul searching for me.  I’ve learned that I need to spend more time with them and get to know them in ways I haven’t before.  I’m 35 and my mom is in her late 50’s and my dad his early 60’s.

My favorite part of this week was doing the Bucket List.  Traveling to see my parents like that by myself (without my wife and kids) was a bucket list type item.  Over the next two years I plan to take a long weekend trip with each one of them so they have a special memory when it was just me, them and my parents.

The video of Randy Pausch was emotional for me.  I ended up watching other clips of his story.  What an incredible man.  I think he achieved so many of his childhood dreams because he was allowed to dream.  I loved his plea to parents to let their kids draw on walls and be creative.  Kids need that space to do that.  I don’t know that I’m quite ready to do that yet, but I’m getting there.  Dreaming is really important because without it I think we become too focused on the average and don’t look at the possibilities of what is out there.

I don’t remember much of my childhood dreams.  The ones I do were very superficial.  The one that I remember the most was when I was a little older and that was that I wanted to coach sports.  A goal of mine is to work my way into a great position at work so that when my boys are old enough to be in high school sports I’ll have the freedom to take time off work and coach their teams.  I’m well on my way to do that and it’s so much more meaningful than I thought it would be because it’s involving my children and not just my love of sports.  

Getting Started

As part of my Business 183 class at BYU-Idaho we are to create an Entrepreneurial Journal in the form of a Blog.  Anyone who knows me knows that as much as I love to write, blog, and post I get very little time to do so.  This will not likely last past this semester, seeing as how it’s apparently been about 4 years since I wrote my last blog post, but I am super excited to do it for now and who knows, maybe it’ll stick.

I’m taking four classes this semester, this one, obviously, a Natural Disasters class, an Accounting class, and during the second block a New Testament class.  Out of all my classes, this was the one that I really didn’t know what to expect.  When I got my three books the week before class started I couldn’t help myself and I got started right away.  At night while I sat outside my kid’s room waiting for them to fall asleep, I started reading.  I read the introductions, about the authors, and the forwards written.  I even wrote up my initial feelings on them.  That got me really excited to what this class might be.

Once I got access to the online class I got even more excited.  The thought of developing a “Life Plan” instead of a “Business Plan” is great for me.  I really have no desire to be an Entrepreneur in the common use of the word, but I love the idea of learning how and applying it in my personal and professional life.  I love working for a larger corporation that has been around forever because it makes me feel more secure.  I feel that many of the same qualities that would make me a good Entrepreneur will also make me a great leader here.

I’m at a great place in my career.  The “end” is in sight for my bachelors (about 5 semesters left), I’ve got a great job with amazing leaders that are mentoring me at every turn, my family is supportive, and my company is going through such wide sweeping changes and growth that we have many leadership opportunities available.