Last Lecture

As I prepared my thoughts I what I would present as my Last Lecture, there was one overall principle that stood out to me.  In order to find success, you must first find yourself.  The road to self-discover that I have journeyed down over the length of this course will have a profound influence on the rest of my life.  

When I was young I knew who I was and what I wanted to become.  I had faith that God had a plan for my life and if I kept his commandments, He would guide me into the paths that I should take.  I followed this advice with the end goal of being a mother.  Early in life I obtained that goal and worked for years to do it to the best of my ability.  Until one morning when I realized that my family would soon leave my nest.  A sense of panic arose as I realized that somewhere along the way I had lost track of who I was outside of the role of mother.  Mother was all I wanted to be, but soon that role would play a smaller part in my day to day activities.  What in the world would I do with myself.  I realized how bad the situation had gotten as I tried to make a bucket list for my life.  I realized that I had no long-term goals anymore.  There was nothing to guide my actions once my children all left the house.  

This course provided such a sense of peace for my life.  I was able to set goals for myself.  Identify what I had to offer and what boundaries were necessary to help me succeed in these goals while still staying true to the true identity of the person I had recently found.  I soaked up all the examples of people who, like me, found something lacking and decided to step out into the darkness and try to make a difference.  It was super exciting to realize that there were others out there who had faced the same issues as me and were able to overcome them.

One of the most influential sections of the class was the focus on finding balance between personal aspirations and business goals, with the demands and responsibilities of family.  This has been my deepest fear in taking the first steps into the business field.  Up until this time family has been 100% of my life.  I believe that was the right choice, but moving forward I don't think that is the case.  I am ready to try to balance more.  Going back to school has been a great start.  My family realizes that my time has value, and they have stepped up their efforts to help me with my goals.  In a way when I lowered my percentage of mother time to a better balance of me time and mother time my entire family benefited.  We must never neglect ourselves.  If you have neglected yourself long enough to lose sight of who you even are I highly encourage you to pause and find yourself first.  This is vital.  You can not balance your life if you don't know who you are.  Set goals, find yourself, and then never neglect yourself again.  By doing this you will be able to more clearly see the paths that God wants you to take.  He will make you an instrument in his hands and help you to help the world.

My soul is grateful to have been found.  It is leaping with excitement for the next step.  All of that was made possible by this class.