A Freelancer's Trek

In class this week we reviewed Covey’s 7 Habits of Effective People. Our journal prompt is twofold – one to describe which habit has the most meaning for me, and two, “Why will the 7 habits help to fill my life with passion and purpose as I seek to achieve both a public and private victory?” When there are multiple good answers, it is always hard to narrow it down to one. For now, I will select Habit number 2, “Begin with the end in mind”. This is one of the private victories. By beginning with the end in mind, we can cultivate a “vision of victory.” We are encouraged to know where we want to go and how it will feel when we get there. I liken this to a road trip. I’ve taken a couple in the past two weeks by myself. I get nervous on the interstate in my little red Nissan Versa, when I am right next to a giant tractor-trailer that is riding the white line on his left side, to my right, it’s almost always super-windy on I-70, there is a curve in the road ahead and it feels like that g...

 This week in my Intro to Entrepreneurship class, we have been studying the topic of Mastery. If I were to ask myself “What is mastery?,” my pat answer would have been “the ability to be really good at something.” That sounds about right, right? In the book Mastery by George Leonard, we are learning it’s a bit more than that. Mr. Leonard’s definition is a little different. “Mastery = The mysterious process during which what is at first difficult becomes progressively easier and more pleasurable through practice.” Practice. That word has come up again and again in relation to mastery. I almost typed “achieving mastery.” I need to delete the word “achieving.” Because mastery is an ongoing process I’m learning. You don’t just get to the top, dust your hands off and say “Check!” Mastery is a lifelong process in which you continue working, hit a lot of plateaus and stay level for a while, make small gains, fall back a little, level out again, a little bit more than the last time ...

  I am currently taking two courses in entrepreneurship, one through BYU-Idaho and another through the Kauffman Foundation, sponsored by a local non-profit. In both classes this week, we touched on our “Board of Directors” (BYUI) and our “Advisory Board” (Kauffman Foundation). This never even crossed my radar until really pondering it this week. I’m a solopreneur. I’m not going to have employees! I’m not going to have shareholders! What is the purpose of this exercise and why does it even matter? I realize that it will be important to have other friends, trusted family, business friends and colleagues to bounce ideas off of. It will be important to make connections not only for referrals, but as way of serving. If I know somebody who is struggling with downsizing their elderly parents, I know I can refer them to Heather who has that process worked out to a science. If I know someone who is having issues with malware or internet security, I know that Dan is going to take good care...

Here are a few of the good things that happened to me this week. 1.        I was spiritually fed during the semi-annual General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I felt like I had prepared spiritually to be instructed on the things that I needed to know most and I wasn’t disappointed. I have the responsibility in my congregation’s women’s group to select talks that will become lessons for the next 6 months – it is hard to narrow it down because there was so much good information to choose from. This week I focused on a talk by Elder Michael A. Dunn , about improving areas of our life by 1%. This is a very manageable thing to do. Elder Dunn pointed out, if you try to be 1% better each day over the course of a year, you will improve by 37 times your previous performance! This principle goes along with my next good thing. 2.        I completed reading the book Launching Leaders by Steven A. Hitz ...