Self Mastery

Never in a million years would I have thought that I would want to master anything, especially my self. Yet as I look back on the trials that I have endured over the past 15 years they have all been training to learn to control my self. In the talk by Elder Tanner Success is Gauged by Self Mastery he quotes Plato "The first and best victory is to conquer self; to be conquered by self is, of all things, the most shameful and vile." I can attest that is true. When the rage is gone and you are left with having to account for what you did or said during the lose of control, if you have any remorse at all you will be ashamed of what you've done. This was a talk given in a General Priesthood session, but it applies to all of us.

Elder Tanner goes on to say "there are two important elements in self-mastery. The first is to determine your course or set the sails, so to speak, of moral standards; the other is the will power, or the wind in the sails carrying one forward." It makes sense that if you don't have control over your personal life you won't have control or success in your professional life.

Along those lines I enjoyed the advice from Steve Blank in the video The Entrepreneur and the Family. He suggested that if you have a family to make rules that you will keep, like be home for dinner and set a time for family. 

And Jan Newman echoed that advice in the video Loyalty to God and Family. He stated to prioritize first God then Spouse then Family. 

Don't wait for perfect

My biggest resistance to creating is perfection. I've read book after book by Pressfield and Godin trying to figure out why I can't make my business ideas grow. I have no problems with the ideas or the start up but the publishing is always what gets me. If it were up to me I wouldn't have published the site just yet, but it is due on Saturday and because of other responsibilities all of my homework needs to always be turned in by Thursday night. So I have published ModestEveSewingStudio.com

I had started this course so that I could improve my current website, which I am also doing, but working through the homework assignments in this class I was able to resolve a conflict that I had which was that I did not want a blog on my Business site, but I wanted a blog to be able to help people learn to sew. During the "finding a business" assignment, I realized that they could be separate entities. I also had not ever considered monetizing a site to the extent that I have planned to do with the new site just created. I knew of the income possibilities but I didn't want to mix that with my business brand site. I am excited to say that it feels right and because it feels right, it doesn't have to be perfect. 

Endure

I have a note on my phone that I put there a very long time ago. It says Endure=Beyond the point when it would seem reasonable to quit. I don't know if that is the actual definition of the word endure, but someone during a stake conference said it and I wrote it down and never forgot it.
This weeks reading assignments all seem to have the theme of Persevering. The first talk by Elder Faust was title Perseverance. He states "Perseverance is demonstrated by those who keep going when the going gets tough, who don't give up even when others say "it can't be done."
I had always heard that it takes 10,000 hours to master a skill but never broke down the math into 3 hours a day every day for 10 years.
I enjoyed the address by Jeff Sandefer, A Hero's Journey. Parts had been quoted previously, but hearing the entire talk from start to finish is very inspiring. I am a list person, I have more ongoing to-do lists than any person should have. I literally now have another To Do list one that is going to replace a few of my previous ones. The guidance, direction and detailed action steps that can be pulled from this talk is a wealth of knowledge and sound advice.
My favorite is "focus and become an expert"

On the road again

I have started yet another website, which was the point of this class. Unlike the others, this time I have mapped out a plan, a method to the madness from which I can create an editorial calendar. As I worked on the assignments and read the updated blog post in regards to Site Design, I realized how fast technology can move. Something as simple as a circular photo of you instead of a square one makes a big difference. I hunted for several days for the correct WordPress theme to use and was amazed at the amount of technology already built into the themes, even the free ones. I was able to load a theme upload a photo (only after turning it into a circle in Photoshop) type some text and it was ready to go.
The theme even came with built-in social media icons, all I had to do was fill in the fields with my user information and up came the icons. I remember having to spend hours trying to get the dang HTML right in order to have social media buttons.
I am grateful for the updated technology, it should allow me to spend more time focusing on a business instead of having to learn new technology.

P.S. if you don't know what Grammarly is I suggest you go find out! How have I lived without it?

Personal Constitution

At the beginning of the Chapter on Personal Constitution in the ministry of business book there is a quote by Thomas S. Monson "Vision without effort is daydreaming; effort without vision is drudgery; but vision coupled with effort, will obtain the prize."
I want to be a visionary women. As I worked on the deconstructing my fears assignment along side the Personal Constitution step by step laid out in Chapter 7 of the book, I came to many realizations.
Fist of all the last sentence on page 131 "it's never too late to begin developing one." referring to the Personal Constitution.
Then the realization that I needed more time. I had set aside 2 hours for each assignment but I spent 6 hours going back and forth between the two. They seemed to feed off each other. When you ask yourself life changing questions you receive life changing answers.
I was glad to know that this is an ongoing and growing type of endeavor. "Putting together my Personal Constitution took over four months of writing, pondering, praying, and re-writing. I've since learned that my Personal Constitution is most meaningful when I allow it to become dynamic, capable of growing and evolving according to the changes of life. So I continue to work on it, alter it, and expand it."
I will take Steve Hitz advise and not worry about perfection at this moment.

eeny meeny

This was a week of choosing. Choosing a product, choosing a site builder and choosing a host. I had gone through this process over a decade ago, hey that's how old this blog is. I had also done it a decade before that, when the internet was an infant. A lot has changed in 10 years, and an even whole lot more has changed in almost 20 years.
Working through choosing a product really helps you to think through the entire process. As you contemplate different variations of your dream product and the potential of other products you can get a good sense of what to expect. Using AdWords to find key words search impressions can help you decided how to best spend your time and money.
There are so many inexpensive options for site builders and the tried and true like Dreamweaver are still around. The options can be overwhelming. It helped that the assignment had us choose at least 3 key points to rate each option by so that we were comparing them products based on what we needed and wanted.
Choosing a host, this was even more overwhelming than the site builder. It seems like there are thousands if not hundreds of thousands of people in business to sell you a piece of the internet. The taught of there being that many dedicated servers out there is mind boggling. The only thing my hippie side could think is that we are depleting our natural resources. hahahaha

Business learning

There was a lot in this weeks lesson materials that I wish not to forget. The most important is James Ritchie's formula for success. I enjoyed the video but was able to get more out of the book. The book the ministry of business by Steven A. Hitz with James W. Ritchie is worth the $5 I spent on it just for that one chapter, but the rest has been really good as well.

As we read about the topic of virtue and read several articles they all came down to one thing integrity. I believe the quote to sum it all up in a business setting would be from Sheri Dew's article True Blue Through and Through. "true leaders embody certain virtues, with the key virtue being integrity, because a man or women who can't be trusted can't really lead."

As I look at the managers in the many work places I've worked at, there were a few true leaders. In thinking back I didn't really know then why I didn't feel right about them and I now realize I didn't trust them. Because of one thing or another that they had done, I didn't trust them to make the right decisions for everyone involved not just themselves.

too many ideas

I'm sure that to a young person who wants to start a business, idea generating exercises are helpful even fun. My problem has always been too many ideas. I do see the light at the end of the tunnel, I can see that we are gathering information to find the best option for a business. I can also see that as we go through choosing one idea over another and using research tools like google Adwords keyword planner you can get a good idea of the impression potential of a given subject.

It is amazing the amount of content that is out on the web, especially since I though I was already consuming a lot of content. In a somewhat older video the creator mentions freedback.com which sounds like it was an early reddit, he suggest to become the expert there. The URL is a different type of company now. I also looked up feedback.com just incase I had written it down wrong, but that too is not a question site. It is however and idealab which is a whole different type of nut, squirrel....

Any who, that added an idea to my business idea- asksonia.com and just to satisfy my curiosity I posted the gig on fiverr instead. I haven't promoted it yet, but I'm revving up to start writing content again. Especially after researching affiliate marking programs, I might have to stop sewing to make time to write content just for the profit potential in the other gifts and talents that God gave me.

So there you see my problem, too many ideas.

Dreams and Stones

Working through the assignments in the entrepreneurship class I've had to dig deep into the reasons why I do or do not do things. As I wrote out my bucket list I had to really stop and think about what I would like to do if I had (or made) free time. I have spent the last decade and a half taking care of others being responsible for the health and wellbeing. I have come to realize that I need to be able to dream about my future in order to plan and accomplish the things on my very new bucket list.

The Stars and Stepping stones activity came a bit easier, because for the past 2 years I have been on a plan to start a business. I had taken a few small steps but this activity helped me to really put some specifics down and lay them out on a time table. As we go further in the class I look forward to being able to refine this document and really pull out some more defined stepping stones. I found the following quote from that article hilarious "The ultimate horror is not death. The ultimate horror is to wake up at age fifty-five or sixty and realize that you have wasted your life; either that time has slipped past while your dreams waited, or that you never had any dreams at all." I will be 48 years old in a couple of months. This actually happened to me at age 40, I woke up to the realization that I had spent 20 years going from small job to small job or small business to small business and even though I learned a lot about small business, I had no benefits. Plus many years the income was reported as a business loss so nothing was paid into Social Security. So I would be poorer than the poor living on Social Security. 

I have dreams but have set them aside for one reason or another and time has slipped by. My childhood dream was to create clothes for the rich and famous. That is no long a dream that I want to pursue but I am working on an iteration of that dream. It is a pretty achievable goal in the "working years" that I have left.

In reading through and watching Randy Pausch's video, I believe he was able to achieve his childhood dreams first because of the support of his parents. I love that they let him write on the walls of his bedroom. He also referred to himself as tenacious. That is an important quality for people to be able to achieve their goals. It is very important to dream and instill in our children the ability to dream big and give them the courage to seek to accomplish those dreams.

Web Creation Reflection

I've been on one heck of a roller coaster, not sure if it is resistance or menopause, either way not fun. I was excited for the class on web creation, I am ready to have a site with product and payment integration. So when I realized the amount of time I would need to spend on discussion boards I was taken back and ready to quit.

I've never been good at slow and steady which makes a lot of sense as to why I haven't followed through on many things. I didn't quit, and my perfectionist self will figure out what is required of me to get an A and strive for it. If I end up with something less then I'm ok, knowing I did what I could. If I say that a couple of times maybe I'll believe it. I have 110 credits and a 3.9 GPA, I'm still trying to find an honors course that will help me get that .1 back. Yes, I have issues, but I'm sure we all do :)

It's all about the learning and I have learned a few things in these two weeks. I learned I'm more stubborn than I thought! I realized that people actually sit around and say "I want to start a business, what should it be?" and there are websites out there that can help you figure it out. Every business I've ever started has come about because I saw a need that I could fill and thought "I could do that." Every small business owner that I have ever worked for have had the same experience.

In this new digital global economy everything is different. It is interesting to do the research to start a business without a business idea or passion driving you toward an entrepreneurial goal.

With that being said, I also found that the Keyword planner tool in the Adwords google software is a great tool. I had no clue and here I was paying money to people to help me come up with keywords to use in etsy in order to come up on search results. What an ingenious backdoor to an advertising tool.