I Don't Have to Agree

Let me attempt a little Humility before getting to my point.  There are a lot of smart, amazing people that I’ve learned so much from in my life and I know that I have a ton more to learn.  That said, I think one thing that has taken me some time to learn is that I don’t have to agree with every professor or every published work that I read in academia. 

My reason for going to college really wasn’t for the money.  I love my job and don’t plan on changing when I graduate.  It was to protect me against an uncertain future and help me to learn and grow.  Part of that growth was to come out of my shell so to speak.  While I still love black and white rules I’ve known for quite some time the world often operates in the grey space.

This week I was to write a book report on the book Mastery by George Leonard.  I enjoyed reading this book, but not because everything he said hit home.  Instead it made me question what I believed about mastery versus dabbling or hacking my way through life.  While those words have negative meanings in most cases, what he was really describing is also known as “Balance”.  I disagreed in my paper that we need to be masters of anything but instead strive for a balance in our life to find true happiness.

I just enjoy being able to disagree and articulate my opinions, hopefully in a respectful way, but also one that shows I’m beginning to feel comfortable with my own level of education.  I feel less talked down to in situations and more that I know how I truly feel and not just what someone else has told me I should feel.

Balancing Act

In the 1985 movie Brewster’s Millions this man is given a set amount of money and told that he has to spend it all in a very short amount of time.  Suppose you were given $86,400 each day and you had to spend it all in that day.  You couldn’t keep any of it with you for the next day.  What would you spend it on?  It’s kind of fun to think about.

Well the news for some of you is that we are given 86,400 each day except it’s in time (seconds to be exact) and it’s up to us how we spend them.  Will we spend them sleeping in bed, obviously some of that is needed to function properly for the rest of the time.  Some of it needs to be on work, we after all didn’t get the windfall Brewster did.  There are so many things that we could spend that time on.

The theme of my learning this week was a balance of everything.  We need to balance our Work, Family, Church, School, Exercise, Fun and other activities.  This is something as a 35 year old College student I’ve had to learn firsthand.  I have a family with three kids.  I am the sole breadwinner for my family.  I also have had many different church callings (primarily around scouting), and of course I take 3-4 college classes each semester.  I’ve not gotten the balance perfect by any means, but I have learned that I don’t need straight A’s.  I don’t need to be at every activity for my family as long as I am there for a lot and they know I care.  I can delegate at work and in church callings as long as I’m pulling my weight when I can.  So much of our life we stress over what we’re not doing.  When you’re in the thick of your life though the greatest attribute you can have is to go to bed each and every night seeing all that you accomplished, because trust me, no matter how much you think about the next day, it’ll be waiting for you in the morning with another 86,400 for you to spend.

Personal Board of Advisors

This week I went through a great exercise and I wanted to share.  It was called “My Personal Board of Advisors.”  The basic idea is that you pick a Chairman of the Board along with 6 or so other advisors that would advise you on life and the decisions you make.

I have always been one with a lot of acquaintances but what I would consider very few actual friends.  In those acquaintances though are a lot of people I look up to.  After going through my Facebook friends list, the Ward Directory, and my Work Directory I came up with about 30 names – any of which would be wonderful advisors to me.

I separated them into different categories because one of my focuses in this activity was to make sure I didn’t have a board of all the same type of people.  Getting everyone to just agree with me would be useless.  I wanted diversity of thought and opinion.  Some of the categories I thought would help that were, Family, Church, Female, Fun/Energy, Work, and Same age or experience.  I found that many of the people I picked often fit more than one area in my life.

After getting my list the last part was to write a paragraph each for the names selected and tell why they would be on your board.  I found that a couple that were no-brainers to be on my list were the hardest to write for because there was so much that was intangible.  It was fun to try and come up with reasons of why their opinion would matter to me and to really question if they are who should be on this list.

In the end I ended with a great idea of some people I already have in my life that I can bounce ideas off of, who can help mentor me and be there for me.  The wonderful part is that I know all of these people would in a heartbeat.

I strongly encourage anyone reading this to try the same exercise.  Good luck with your Personal Board of Advisors.