Week 14: Present and Joyful

While going through life we often think we can do something later when in all reality, all we have is the present. I would like to talk today about being more present and active in our daily lives in order to live a life in abundance in the long haul. 
About 5 years ago I was faced with a near death experience when I suffered a severe brain bleed and crushed the left side of my face. I should have woken up knowing no one or worse been a vegetable for the rest of my life. Someone I was blessed enough by God's grace to come out of that experience not a vegetable and most of my faculties in tact. This experience completely changed my perspective on the idea how much each and every moment matters in my life and how little the crap matters. So the first thing I want to talk about is being in the here and now, no matter what. More often then not it is extremely easy to spend a lot of time buried in your cell phone as you make your way through the day. Instead I would challenge you for at least one hour a day to put your phone away and be completely present in what you are doing. I know that as you do this you will see more beautiful things around you and learn to appreciate the joy and happiness that is in life. 


Which brings me to my next point of choosing to be happy, no matter what. All too often I find myself comparing myself and my journey to someone else's journey which results in unhappiness and self doubt. What I have recently started doing instead is replacing those bad or comparative thoughts to finding something that brings me joy in my journey of life. An example of this is when I compare myself in my job to the other women I work with for how amazing they have done in such a short period of time and instead I replace that with I am extremely personable like Sierra who is so successful or I am great at training others just like Sadie does. This takes my ugly comparative thought and turns it into a positive one that sets me up to succeed! I know that as you try this practice it will improve your quality of life and allow you to live a life that is full of much more happiness.

Overall as you become more present and joyful in your life I know that amazing things will come from it as your choose to live your life in abundance and then work for it!  

Lesson 13: Fear is never the answer

This week the thing that hit me the most was the idea of fear and how much it dictates my life for the negative instead of positive. There was a quote shared that said "that “entrepreneurship takes a lot of determination and it takes some fear and a little bit of insanity. Don’t be afraid to be different.” In my own entrepreneurial journey fear, has been the one thing that I felt was holding me back the most in my journey. Fear of not doing something correctly, fear of what other people would think of me, fear of failing and so many other things. In the end though these same fears have done nothing but hold me back from the huge dreams I have in my life. Those huge dreams include me earning a free car and being able to quit my job because of residual income.

One of the main ways that this has manifested itself in my life is by me not wanting to stick out and be different then everyone else. I think that I have not wanted to put myself out there in such a way that I will be able to be judged and looked at too closely by others in fear of my flaws that they would see. The interesting thing is that I tell myself that I do not care what others think quite often in my life and in all reality I think I care more then I let myself believe. 

Well for me this stops today. I am going to do the things that bring me joy and happiness on my journey to my God sized goals because if I do not then I am not honoring my truth. For my this includes sharing what I truly think instead of keeping my mouth shut, sharing the love I have as often as I can, not being afraid to be who I really am and many other things. I know that as I make these changes to be different by being my true self then I will not only find success in my own life but happiness as well!

$100 Challenge: This week was great to wrap up sales for this semester for this class. It was a fantastic experience and because of it I would consider opening a fun bakery place at some point in the future like a something with both sweet and salty treats for people. I have learned I am great with making pies and I have thought about how much I love popcorn and how that could be a fun addition to a sweet and salty place.

Lesson 12 Sacrifice now for later

This week was a great learning experience this week and reminder about what I am doing with my life and how I am truly on the right track when it comes to goals my husband and I have for our future. Erick Slabaugh talked about sacrificing now in order have the life you want later. This does not always look glamorous or fun at the beginning but in the long run can and will truly pay off.

Currently my husband and I are living off of less then one of our salaries and dumping all of the rest of our incomes into building our real estate portfolio. In the 1.5 years we have been doing this it has already allowed us to have our net worth surpass both of our incomes combined which to us is a win and great start. We always laugh because we could have a much larger house (we live in a modest 2500 sq. ft house and we rent out our basement) and drive much nicer cars and many other things but instead we are planning for our future so we can live the life that most people can only dream of.

I want to remember this down the road that the sacrifices we are making now are going to be worth it down the road because we will be able to live the life we want with our future children and not the life we have to lead because we do not have the ability to.

$100 Challenge: This week I found that marketing is not my strong suit as it was harder for me to get the word out there outside of my family and friends. On a positive note though everyone that has tried my pies loves and raves about them.

Lesson 11: Faith over Fear

This week has been really interesting because the thing I have been spending a lot of time on in my personal life to work on is the same thing that was discussed in the Acton Video on Nicole Donnelly. It was about the idea of fear which has really hit home to me this week. For the longest time I have perceived fear as this crippling thing that I was letting dictate many things in my life. This week I have decided to make it a conscious choice to let me fear fuel me instead of controlling me. Then when I watched the Acton Hero video and he talked about "having fear, embracing it, and walking through the fear is the key” I honestly wanted to start crying because it confirmed to me everything that I had felt inspired about earlier this week. 

I have felt this week that fear is quite literally the only thing standing in between me and the HUGE dreams that I have for myself this year and in the years to come. I have only put this out there to close friends and family but I think accountability is a huge deal so I am going to put my goals here as well.

1. Earn a FREE car from the company I work for part time right now before my birthday (October 5th).
2. Earn enough residual income from my side job with SeneGence that I can quit my job before the end of the year and never have to work another Christmas season in my life when I would much rather be with my family and friends. (Got to loving working in sales)
3. Be able to use this income from my job with SeneGence to support my family so we can grow our real estate business and even more then that find ways to give back to others more then we ever have before.
4. Help 2 or more other women make enough money with SeneGence that they can support their families or even retire their husband or quit their full time jobs.

I am committing to these goals 100% starting today because I am tired of wondering what would have happened if I just would have tried and done everything I could to succeed. I never want to look back and wonder what if?... I want to know that I lived every moment of my life to the fullest with no regrets.

DOUBT YOUR DOUBTS BEFORE YOU DOUBT YOUR FAITH. - President Dieter F. Uchtdorf

$100 Challenge: This week I was able to make more sale which was fantastic doing something that I love! I was able to make an additional $35 this week!

Lesson 10: Never Giving Up

This week I realized the importance of never giving up on the things you believe in, even when no one else believes in your dreams. This is not an easy process and has been something that I have been working on for a quite some time and this week really helped to give me some clarity on this. This transformation has been happening over time for me and has definitely not happened over time. 

There are a few things that I do not want to forget to make sure that I do on a regular basis. First, I am looking to find my 'why' for why I want to be successful in my entrepreneurial journey. I know that as I have a why to work for then my vision will become clear and it will be easier for the doubts to melt away. Second, I am going to take action every single day towards my dreams no matter how scary it may be because that is the only way I am every going to be able to move forward with what I want in my life. Third, I am praying daily for God's help in making my God sized dreams happen in my life because I know that I cannot do anything without his grace and help. Fourth, no matter what anyone else in my life says I have to remind myself of my ability to succeed for the righteous desires of my heart. I know that no matter what my goals are achievable if I am willing to put in the hard work and break past my fears.

Week 9-God before riches

The last few weeks something that has really been on my mind is how to have money in this life in order to not only provide for my family and have a lot of freedom in our lives but also to help other people in our lives. Along that same line I have always wanted to make sure that I keep my focus and priorities on the gospel of Jesus Christ and my Father in Heaven. This to me is a fine line between finding that balance in wanting money and riches for the right reasons and being caught up in the world.

In a talk from one of the apostles it talked about how if we first seek God and then the riches of the world will come. It also talked about the idea of how important it is to not have the importance placed on riches but instead on riches in God's kingdom. I have realized myself that when you want to have money for the right reasons then this is a righteous desire these reasons include helping others, giving to the poor and needy, and doing whatever you can to make the world a better place. On the other hand wanting riches so you can show it off and be better then other people is an unrighteous desire and is not something that will help God's kingdom.

I hope and pray that as I continue on my journey of life that I will be able to remember why I want to have money and keep those righteous desires in my heart always.

Week 7: The strength of those around us

One of my favorite books says that you are the sum of the 5 people that you spend the most time with. One of the things that we watched for class this week reminded me of this idea and its truthfulness when they said to "“Surround yourself with the brightest and smartest people that have the same value and core system so you can work together in a team and create amazing things.” In the last job I had and the one I hold currently I realized that I have not been very happy and it is because many of the people around me do not share the same core values and beliefs that I do. I had never quite realized what an impact that could and would have on my happiness. I am spending the next 2 weeks away from work and I am going to be seriously considering what this means to me and what I am going to do moving forward to surround myself with people and associates that do have my same core values and beliefs. It has been very tiring to constantly have to remind myself of who I am and what matters to me in the face of those that do not value those same things. This needs to change in my life as soon as possible.


$100 Challenge Update: Although there was no technical assignment for the $100 challenge this week I was able to accomplish a few things that I found helpful. I was first able to talk to all of my family members and friends that have had my pies and ask them what their favorite pies were and I was able to narrow down people's favorites to the following: Apple Pie, Strawberry Rhubarb, Banana Cream, Key Lime and fresh raspberry. I may add a few more into the rotation but I believe that these will be the 5 pies that I decide to do with, it helps that most of those are my favorites as well.