Skip to main content

Week #2

This week we had the wonderful experience of listening to Randy Pausch's Last Lecture. I have watched it before many years ago, but watching it again in the context of this course I was able to gain new insights from his experiences.
It was amazing to hear of the opportunities that Randy was able to come across in his relatively short life. One of the biggest things that stood out to me is the amount of times he failed in his original path. He did not have an easy road to get the the achievement of his goals. I really liked when he talked about how you just keep going until you find a way. This is something I have always struggled with. If something does not work out, I feel defeated and I tend to give up. When you look at other people, you assume that they are just smarter or better at everything and that is why they are gaining these opportunities. I am beginning to understand that it is less about being smarter or better, and more about being willing to keep at a task after everyone else has quit.
Are dreams important? I think they are! I feel like I have been living my dream. Growing up, I always wanted to be a wife and a mother. It is something that I have loved and found a lot of contentment with. As my kids have grown, I have realized that I need to discover some new dreams for myself because like it or not, my life situation is continually changing and the dream I have been living is going to be a memory in the coming years. I was inspired by the ideas that Randy shared and I think that as I am looking to the future, I can allow myself to have big dreams again and work to accomplish them. I think that dreams are the things that keep you going through the tough and mundane. For instance, this week has been difficult. I spent most of the week driving to Idaho to get to my uncle's funeral. That left me scrambling to finish my work when I got home. I do not like to do assignments last minute and have turned in everything this week at the wire. It was getting upset and felt like giving up. My husband took me aside and reminded me of my dreams and goals for the future. Last night he told me that all of these challenges are going to make realizing my dreams so much sweeter in the end, and I really believe that.
As I discussed above, I feel like I have been living my childhood dream. I feel like I am currently living the life I have always wanted. It can be difficult to achieve a big dream because with the changes that are always happening in life, you have to keep on dreaming and working toward new things. I think that like Randy talked about, some of our childhood dreams are not going to be fulfilled like playing in the NFL when we are not exactly physically cut out for it. When I was a child I wanted to be a nurse, but I discovered after taking CNA classes and working in a nursing facility, that I hated that line of work. We can come to realize that our dreams are not exactly all they are cracked up to be, and change course and that is okay.
I think that the material from this week has helped me to better focus on what I do want to do. I also feel like what I have learned this week has helped me to recommit to my goals and be willing to put in the work, even when it is difficult and seldom works out exactly as planned. I think that Randy taught us about that with his ability to be okay with the fact that his life was ending and be satisfied with what he had done to that point. He was happy with the legacy he left for his family and I think that I needed to learn that lesson at this exact point in my life.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Week #12

I can't believe how quickly this semester is coming to an end. I have learned a lot from this class and have been required to do a lot of considering and dreaming about the future. This has been an amazing experience. I truly loved the content of this week's learning activities. It gave me the chance to listen to a beloved talk from Elder Holland. I love that talk and it was nice to be reminded of the worth of souls. It is hard to be self-centered and selfish with the things we have been blessed with when we consider the plight of others. I love the reminder that we all are beggars in the sight of God. We all rely on God for our daily breath. This is key to remember and not lose our humility. Especially in our pursuit of worldly things. Having the opportunity to listen to the entrepreneur conference key not speaker was really cool. His ability to paint a picture of what our money can do to bless others was neat. I like when he talked about his small business he started when h...

Week #13

This week was another great week of study. I truly enjoyed listening to the talk by President Monson. I love his ability to tell a story. His stories of gratitude were truly inspiring and left me wanting to do more, especially at this tender season of the year. I love the story that he shared about his Sunday school teacher and the impact she had on the class when she asked them to donate their party money to a class member in need. Larry North was a very inspiring character that was introduced this week. I think that it is wonderful to understand that our background and experiences we have can propel us forward to better things, even if those experiences were not the best. He took his difficult childhood and used that to fuel his successes. He had a lot of gratitude for the every day and for the mentors he had found along the way. It was truly inspiring to see! I especially enjoyed the presentation by Ted Zoller about the deal-maker pathway. I found it to be interesting that worki...

Week #3

This week has been an eye-opening one. I would have to say that the biggest impression that has been left on me is that my life's experiences can be something that I can use to propel me forward as I continue on my career path. Too often I get bogged down in the fact that I have been out of the typical working game for nearly 14 years. This is something that discourages me when I think about the future because I do not see how my career will ever have the time it needs to take off and have real meaning. I want to do something with real meaning and not just punch a clock for the next stage of life. After listening to the videos and reading the case study this week, I am more excited about my future. I realize that none of the time I have spent is wasted. My abilities as a person have been extended, tested, and pushed to their limits in the past 14 years. It has made me into a finisher. It has made me into a believer in hard work. It has given me a front row seat to early childhood...