Where are my loyalties?

As I watched a video by Jan Newman, I thought to myself, “As my life continues, what activities am I crunching into the time frame I have?” Newman talked about never crunching your family, spouse, or the Lord to fit in all the other aspects of life such as hobbies and interests. It is the hobbies and other recreational things that should be crunched down, even our careers. This concept ties into some of our previous materials about following our passions. We should follow them in our careers; however, they shouldn’t take our focus away from what matters most.

The Lord does not care what job we had or how much money we made. He wants us to have honesty and integrity with our fellow men. If we can use our careers as a standpoint from which we can bring others to Christ and serve them, we will be a light to the world. 

Mastering the Hero's Journey

I am learning a lot about myself in the short amount of time that we have been going through this course. Even without my trying, I see clearly my shortcomings and inadequacies. I feel like my mind is being opened up; not just opened to new ideas and insights, but also to my failings and successes in life. Everything in my mind is swirling in a vortex of thought, metaphorically speaking. I suppose my next course of action is to organize those thoughts and persevere to overcome my weaknesses and limitations. I love the concept of perseverance. We you get into a rut, or when life gets rough and difficult, enduring to the end is all that we can do.

I think that pursuing our passions in our careers is key to us enjoying our jobs. Who would want to go to work in a place that you dread going to? Why waste your time at something that you hate doing? We should find our passions and work towards being a master in something. As was mentioned in the video titled “A Hero’s Journey,” people will pay good money to watch pros like Michael Jordan or Tiger Woods. We may not be the greatest at basketball or golf, but we can find what we ARE good at, even masters at, and have people pay us for that. For example, if someone is an incredible artist, people will pay money to either view the masterpieces or even purchase them outright.

That should be our goal then. To find our passions, master them, and persevere in this lifelong journey. 

Of Ethics and Priorities...

When reading the case study, I tried putting myself in in the shoes of Magdalena Yesil, seeing how I would react to each of the offers and decisions that she faced. I am not sure I would like the kind of life she was living. That is, I can’t see myself moving from company to company like she did. I like to have more stability and want to live in one area, avoiding having to move if I can. However, I can see why Yesil moved from company to company. She loved starting up new companies based on the ideas that she would get. She loved the feeling of companies taking off and thriving after opening. I want to have a similar experience in my future careers. I want to be in a career or company that I feel passionate about and where I can help others reach their dreams.

Reading through “Making a Living and a Life” was eye-opening to me. Seeing the different levels or grades that are given to people based on their motivations lets me know that I need to set my priorities sooner rather than later in order to better serve others.

This goes great in conjunction with the Personal Code of Conduct that we wrote. Here is mine so I can find it easier for future reference:

“I will never…” ethical guardrails –

• ·         I will never use company funds for personal expenses.
• ·         I will never cut corners to finish a project on time.
• ·         I will never blame others for my mistakes.

“I will always…” ethical guardrails –

• ·         I will always be honest.
• ·         I will always put my family first.
• ·         I will always keep the customer’s interest in mind.
• ·         I will always look for teaching opportunities.
• ·         I will always listen to my wife’s counsel.

I may add to this list later in the future as I think of new ideas. As I follow these ethical guardrails, my motivations will be able to stay at the A-level, with a love of God and fellowmen being first with income second. It was a little hard to write this list of ethical guardrails since I’m not married yet and I don’t have an established career. Writing them out will be very beneficial, though, as I will have them for when I do have a wife and career.