Leadership Development: Work Hard, Play Hard.

The thing that I am loving most about my leadership development class is that it is helping me to change my mindset on really important things that I have been working on. For instance, this past week we have been talking about balancing our lives and managing ourselves in the time that we have. I am not naturally an organized person. I have forced myself to be organized in certain aspects of my life, but  organization and planning have never come easy to me. However, just in this past week I have started to change the way that I see time.

I am starting to like the phrase "WORK HARD, PLAY HARD" more and more everyday. Because college requires a lot more work than I am used to and also provides many more social opportunities, I have had to be more careful in the choices that I make and the things that I do all day. I realized that I should treat my schoolwork like a 8 to 5 job on weekdays since I am a full-time student. To do that, I also embraced the idea that my TA told us: we have 100% of time. I get to choose how much time I want to spend on each part of my life. Ideally, my breakdown would be sleep 30%, class 17%, homework 25%, friends/family 10%, scripture study 2%, eating 6%, and miscellaneous 10%. The things that I value most should essentially be what I spend the most time doing each day, and for me, those are my family, my testimony, education, friends, and church.

I really liked a quote that my TA shared that read, "Time=Life; therefore, waste your time and waste your life, or master your time and master your life." It was interesting because I posted this quote on facebook and a kid that I went to high school with commented on it and said "enjoy your time and enjoy your life." I think that both of these statements have truth to them, but have different frames of reference. The idea of the first one is more about values and centering your life around the things that matter most to you. Obviously I agree that life should be enjoyed, but I think that there is a difference between having fun and becoming the person that you want to be. Personally, I waste a lot of time on social media or surfing the Internet, which are both enjoyable, but probably won't help me to become the person that I want to be. Also the time that I spend on those usually distract me from important things that I need to get done like homework, and ultimately stress me out. Instead if I prioritize and do my homework first (WORK HARD), then later I will enjoy my play time more (PLAY HARD).

My Blog Assignment:

1.) Tamara talked about how leading your life is like conducting an orchestra and producing a beautiful song. Are there any parts of your life that should play louder in the current song your are conducting? Are there any parts that you should remove from the orchestra to make your song more beautiful or perfect? 

Even though I want to say that I think that my life is pretty balanced, I have a lot of room to improve. I think that I should spend more time on my schoolwork. Right now I don't think that I am taking college very seriously even though I am a full-time student. I want to shift my focus to treating my classes and homework as my job and really working on studying more. I also want to create better habits of working out and studying my scriptures. To make my life more balanced and productive, I should probably eliminate some of my entertainment like social media and sometimes my social activities. I waste a lot of time on my phone and on my computer doing things that I don't really consider super productive like Facebook and Pinterest even though they are enjoyable. 

2.) There are many things that we need to accomplish in this life. Tamara talked about how the best way to enjoy life and still get everything done is through "peacefully hurrying". Why did she suggest we "peacefully hurry"? What are some actions that will help you to "peacefully hurry" in your life? 

We need to hurry to be productive throughout the day, but she emphasized the importance of not being stressed but being peaceful. When we are stressed, we are focusing on ourselves and what we need to get done; we often become unpleasant and forget to be wise. However, when we are peacefully going about our daily tasks, we can look outside of ourselves and help others. We will find that as we take a breath and enjoy our lives, then we will have much more satisfying days and interactions with people. I can "peacefully hurry" by taking the time to smile at people and make conversation with the people around me. With the girls on my floor, I can spend more time with them instead of hurrying to my room to get my To Do List done. I can also focus on getting my work done in the library, so when I get home I can focus on my relationships with my friends and the people around me. I also shouldn't complain about the business of life and the things that I need to get done.

3.) Time management can be difficult at times, especially during school. Make three goals about time management that you would like to apply to the rest of your semester. Make sure these time management goals reflect your values. How will you hold yourself accountable to these three goals?

I want to use the DO BE DA chart that Tamara showed us. I already made one and started to use it this past week, and it has really helped me to focus on being a good person and making each day mean something to me. I also want to get all my homework done in the library so when I am home I don't have to feel stressed or interrupted by people in my hall. Lastly, I want to wake up earlier and read my scriptures and plan for the day instead of feeling rushed every morning. I can hold myself accountable to these goals by putting them up in my room, so that my roommate and friends could see them if they looked and help me be accountable for them. I can also reward myself with ice cream or some other treat every week or couple of days that I successfully complete my goals.