Week 12: Work Life Balance

This being one of the last blog posts I will get to write for this actual class I wanted to write on something I have been reflecting on quite a bit thanks to the books and talks we have been reading in this class and as a result of my personal life experiences. This is having a work-life balance as many people may refer to it as.

Work-life balance to me is being able to work a full time job with the flexibility to work from home or somewhere else when needed. Along with this that the company believes in the importance of family and the time and energy it takes to raise one. This last week I have come to realize just how important this is to me. My now fiance just took and started a job that takes him to a different state in somewhere in the country for 5 months out of the year and earns a very good living. It also allows him to do whatever he pleases for the other 7 months of the year with minimal work in between. This is a huge blessing for our family except for him being gone for 5 months out of the year.

This proves to be a problem in that I do not want to have to always be away from my husband for 5 months out of the year without being able to see him. Having the ability to and spend time with him during those 5 months of the year is extremely important to me even if it is just a few weeks out of every summer that he is gone.

At the same time I am also searching for and in the process of accepting a new job. A huge portion of my choice of job depends on this work life balance to be able to travel with my husband for a few weeks out of the year and work remotely during that time.

I know that no matter what as I continue to make my family a priority then I will be able to have a happy marriage and a happy family. I want to always remember this when it comes to jobs I choose and how I move forward in any career that I choose.

Week 11: Being a Finisher

This class is coming to a close and I am sad that it is almost of for everything that I have been able to learn. I want to be able to continue to learn in this manner on a regular basis. As I do this I know that I will be able to continue to grow both personally and in my business knowledge as well. 

This week reading the talk by President Monson really hit home to me in that I was able to think about the kind of person I am in the workplace and in my person life. As a result of some awful things that have previously happened in my life I had been left with the mindset of thinking that I could not accomplish many of the things I wanted to accomplish in my life. Then a little over a year ago I decided to make a change in my life to decide to go back to school and go after many of the things I have wanted in my life such as getting an MBA. 

Reading the talk "Finishers Wanted" reminded me yet again of my goals in school and also in my personal life. I absolutely loved the poem in the talk that reads:

“Stick to your task ’til it sticks to you;

Beginners are many, but enders are few.

Honor, power, place and praise

Will always come to the one who stays.

“Stick to your task ’til it sticks to you;

Bend at it, sweat at it, smile at it, too;

For out of the bend and the sweat and the smile

Will come life’s victories after a while.”

I want to me able to always remember to be a finisher in my life no matter what I am doing. It reminded me of the book "The Dip" and how if I am going to actually do something then I need to do it 100% and be willing to make the sacrifices to make it work instead of giving up when the going gets tough. I know as I give my all to the things that I want to do in my life I will be blessed in many ways that I will appreciate in the long run both personally and in my professional life as well.

Week 11- Family First Always

This week I was able to realize whole heartedly what really is important to me above all else things. That thing is my current family and my future family. When we were listing our concerns that we had about being and entrepreneur and that affects it may have on my life that main thing that came to my mind was my family and my future children.

I know that I want almost nothing more then to be able to have a business of some type of my own someday. The only thing I want more then that is to have a happy, healthy family that is close and loves each other.  To me the most important thing is to have this. There are a few ways that I want to make sure that this happens in my life now and in the future.

First, I want to make sure that I set a consistent schedule of things that will always be consistent with my family. I will make sure that I am home for dinner every night of the week to be there with my husband and my children. Along with this I want to make sure that every Saturday afternoon and Sunday is dedicated solely to family.

Second, that no matter what my family comes first at all times. When my children have sporting events or concerts and such  I will make sure that myself or my husband is at every single on of their events and to take them to every single practice. I want my children to know how loved, appreciated and supported they are in all things.

I know that as I support them in those things and always make time for them one on one they will be able to be supported. They will also become the people that they are meant to become and I will be able to have a great relationship with my husband.

Never Settling For Less Then I Am Capable

This week I had a realization about myself and what I am capable of that I want to make sure and always keep with me. The book put it fantastically when it said “People settle. They settle for less than they are capable of. Organizations settle too. For good enough instead of best in the world.” (p.13) This is something that I want more then anything is to not settle for something but instead to be the best in my field at something that I love. This is not always easy and requires a large amount of time, energy and sacrifice that in the end is worth it. “How dare you settle for mediocre just because you’re busy coping with too many things on your agenda…If you’ve got as much as you’ve got, use it. Use it to become the best in the world, to change the game, to set the agenda for everyone else.” (p. 74) Never before had I realized that importance of not just looking to fit in but to stand out in my field of choice and in my life in general. I think often times the easy thing is to not be the best but instead to be mediocre just to get by in life. This is not what I want, instead I want to be the best at whatever I do in my life whether it be in a job, as a mother or in a business of my own. I hope that I can remember this at all times in my life and not just now.

Week 9- How to be a Rowan

Yet again I am learning something week after week in this class that has continued to help me grow and learn as a person both for my personal life and my business career moving forward.

As I may have explained before I just recently lost my job to lay offs in the company I was work for that was going under. When we were reading the article this week it made me think of the person that I am, the person that always gets the job done. I was always taught to never quit and you always get things done in our family. Failure has never been an option for me in my life. 

The entire reading to me focused on doing everything you can to be that person people can trust to get the job done and get it done right. I loved how is was put when the article said “The secret to such success lies not within the IQ that you were born with but with having the character and courage to accept a worthy mission and get the job done. If you want to live a life full of interesting challenges, focus on the action-oriented steps above until they become habits.” I want nothing more then to be that person who has a life full of interesting challenges. I want to know how I can continue to challenge myself and find those challenges daily.

For me one of the ways that I am going to do this is by starting in a position at a new startup company. This was an opportunity that presented itself when my boss at my old company met with me to offer me a new position. He offered it to me as a result of me always getting the job done. He rarely to never had to correct me on the jobs I was assigned and I was always the dependable one to get the job done. This idea of having this Rowan mentality has lead me already in my life to have so many great opportunities and I cannot wait to see where it leads me in the future. I want to be a name that is known to get the job done in all circles.

How can each of us find the interesting challenges that will continue to build our character regularly?