Not Finished Yet

Those who have been reading my blog heard about my stressful week last week. Intex was really hard, and when it was over I decided to take a break from school for the rest of the week. My class had been told that we wouldn't really have anything else that we would have to do after Intex, but I still had two oral presentations to give, one of which I hadn't prepared yet, as well three fairly large projects. I still have three finals left to do next week.

Because I had already mentally clocked out at the end of last week, it has been really hard for me to get anything done this week. It was even difficult to go to work. I just felt like I wanted to forget about school and work and relax all day. While I did have time to do that half of a day, I needed to mentally clock back in at the start of the week.

I have learned that I really struggle to mentally clock back in. Some of you may not have this problem, but I imagine that it is a fairly common thing. I need to be very careful about taking time off and make sure that I am not completely clocking out, just going on break. Life is difficult, and we can't just take breaks all day, every day. We need to work and get things done.

In the future, I am going to do a few things differently. Much of the homework I had to do this week I could have done sooner, but decided not to since it wasn't due for a while. I am going to try to avoid having this happen, and do my homework when I have time, while still leaving some time to relax and have fun. I will try to have everything I can done before my huge end of semester projects so that I can actually relax after them, and will force myself to clock back in after taking some time off from homework.

Remote Meeting

My team met for a remote meeting last Wednesday. We used Google Hangouts, and there were a few difficulties. Some of the team members did not have consistent wifi, and one had to join the call a few different times. I discovered a cool feature of Google Hangouts - it focuses automatically on the video of the person who is talking.
It was nice as we were able to meet, discuss our presentation, and finalize our powerpoint in the convenience of our homes.

I Can Do Hard Things with a Good Attitude

This week for me can be summed up in one word: INTEX. If you want to know more about that, ask any Information Systems student. A brief description, though: we got a case Monday morning, and had to prepare a solution by Friday at noon. We then presented the project to a panel Saturday morning.

My IS group spent about 280 hours on this project. We averaged 14 hours a day, and turned in a 105 page report at the end. It was a ton of work, but thankfully I enjoyed doing it. In addition to realizing that I did make a good decision of what to study, I learned that I am capable of doing really hard things.

All semester I had been hearing about INTEX and dreading it. Once the project actually started, however, I was too busy to think about how hard it was and how much time I'd have to spend on it. I didn't really complain about it, and found that I was able to have a good attitude, and the project seemed easier than I'd anticipated it being.

Moving forward, I am going to try to stop being a pessimist. I will remember that I can do hard things, and that they are easier if I do them with a good attitude.

Take a break

This week has been very different from the rest of the semester. My life has been crazy with working part time and all my classes. I've been under lots of stress and at times it has been really hard. This break came at the perfect time, as at the start of the week I had burned out and was physically unable to do all of the things I had planned to do in the first few days in order to have no homework the second half of the week.

After taking the week easy and taking lots of time to relax, I feel much better and happier. I have learned that it is not good to be busy all the time. We need time to relax.

I expect that starting this next week I will be better able to handle all that I need to do. If I just stay busy as I have before, I expect to burn out again quickly and be back to where I was before the break. However, if I take time to relax and have fun, I should be able to continue better and perform at a higher level. Not only will this end up being more enjoyable, but it will be better for me. This is what I hope to be able to do over the last few weeks of the semester.

Elements of a presentation

We had oral presentations again this week in my MCOM class. This week I had to present. I learned lots as I prepared for this. I had spent the previous classes observing and noticing what other people did that worked well and what didn't work very well, and had figured out a pseudo structure that I wanted to follow. As I researched and developed a hook and an agenda, the presentation came together really easily. I was able to prepare a good presentation in a remarkable short period of time. Of course, that only included putting the content together, not actually practicing it.

As I was giving my presentation the next day, I realized that I had actually put together something that was high quality. I spent less than a fourth of the time preparing the content of my presentation as I do the content of a talk in church, and this is significant, even though my talks in church are typically 10 minutes long.

Therefore, what I learned is that f you prepare the proper elements, such as a hook and an agenda, then the rest of the presentation (including a paper or a talk) will come together much faster than they would otherwise. The content of the presentation will also be of much higher quality.

This is important because it allows to to present better quality presentations, which can be a big deal if you want to be influential. I will, therefore, remember these important things and use them in the future when preparing anything I need to present to an audience.

It's not all about content

This week we had oral presentations in my MCOM class. They were pretty interesting. I learned about a wide range of things, such as how to use various types of social media, what trello is, and about my new best friend "MAC".

The most interesting thing I learned, however, was not any of the subjects that were presented. I learned about the importance of things other than content in a presentation. Good posture, clear speaking, pauses, professionalism, energy, and positioning can have a huge effect on the credibility and acceptance of your presentation.

I think many times I worry too much about the content and don't spend enough time working on the presentation. This is something I need to change, since even if you have great content you'll still be ignored if you can't present it well.

One thing this reminds me of is a story my marketing teacher told, of an intern who found that a company was buying many different types of gloves for many different prices. He found a great way to present this problem, by bringing one of each glove with the price paid attached. Just by the sheer quantity of the gloves that were shown, he had already convinced management that a change was required.

Thus I will stop worrying so much about content in all presentations, talks, and projects and make sure I don't forget to prepare the presentation part.

Showing Gratitude

This week was very stressful for me. With 15 credit hours and working part time, I had lots of homework and projects and not enough time to do it all. Thursday night I had committed to joining my family when they went to the opening of my cousin's wife's art exhibit. I had almost resorted to eating cereal for dinner before going, when my mom sent me a text asking if I wanted her to bring down the leftover lasagna from my family's dinner that day. I happily accepted this. When we left the art exhibit my mom gave me the leftover lasagna, along with some salad. I was very grateful for this, and made sure to express my gratitude. 

The next day I got a text from my mom informing me of how touched she had been by my expression of gratitude. It meant a lot to her, especially since my dad has started a diet and no longer eats the food she prepares for the rest of the family. The kids who are still at home are picky eaters who haven’t really learned how to show gratitude yet, so she sometimes feels unappreciated.

From this experience I have relearned the importance of expressing gratitude. It ensures you continue to get food from your mom ;). Jokes aside, though, gratitude really is important. People like to feel appreciated, and showing gratitude also helps you feel better about yourself.

We all need to start showing more gratitude. It can have a great impact on our relationships with others, and can help us feel better about ourselves. This is something I will start doing - putting an extra effort into showing gratitude.

It is interesting that I have this lesson near Thanksgiving. This post is not a Thanksgiving post - not that I don't think we should show gratitude at Thanksgiving, I just think that an increase in gratitude is necessary year round.

Online Interview

As part of a homework assignment for my Management Communications we did a practice interview online. It was an interesting experience. We had some technical difficulties, even though some things had been previously tested.

Things that I thought were successful about the interview - I felt I did a good job staying calm, though I do want to prepare more. There were some questions that completely caught me off guard. If I were to have another online interview, there are some things I would change. I would find a place with a better internet connection to use, and I would write out answers to possible questions and have them easily accessible.

I felt those who interviewed me - Kelly and Brett - did a good job. They were very professional in dealing with the technical difficulties. 

The online interview was a good experience, and it was very helpful in preparing me for future interviews.

Beautiful Week

This week has been different. At church on Sunday my Bishop invited the ward to participate in what he called a "Beautiful Week". This consisted of doing things like reading a chapter from the Book of Mormon before noon every day, eating healthy, exercising daily, letting virtue garnish our thoughts and actions (included making sure music and movies were clean and pure), being kind to others, and ending the day in grateful prayer. Applying this in my life has allowed me to have a week unlike any I have had this semester.

It was very interesting to see the difference in this week. It was quite possible the most difficult week I've had so far this semester, since homework, classes, and work were more exhaustive than normal and my roommates were harder to deal with than normal. This led to me having a very stressful week. I am almost certain that one of the main reasons I survived this week was that I participated in the "Beautiful Week".

So I learned that when I put increased effort into living the gospel I am able to handle things I normally wouldn't be able to. I hope to be able to continue to do things like this and push myself to beyond my capabilities. As I do so, I will receive the help of the Lord and be more satisfied with my accomplishments.

Optimism

This week I had a rather annoying experience in which due to the neglect and pure laziness of one of my roommates part of my apartment flooded late at night. I was up 3 hours later that I had wanted to be cleaning up the mess. I had all sorts of reasons to be mad, annoyed, and angry. As I thought about it though, I decided to look more on the positive side, and look for good things that had happened, such as
1) I was able to stop the flooding before it got the whole apartment
2) There was no permanent damage
3) Maintenance did come (though after I'd cleaned most of the mess) and helped
As I began to think about why these happened, I began to be grateful for things I would have never thought, such as accidentally falling asleep so that when I would wake up I would leave my room to use mouthwash and discover the flooding one hour earlier that it would have otherwise been discovered.

Anyways, as I have tried to be positive I have been able to avoid getting mad at my roommate. I am also not as annoyed with the apartment management, who should have replace the part that caused the flood months ago when I first filed a request for it to be fixed.

So what will I do? I will be more optimistic and work to always be happy.

Choosing the Best

One think that has kept coming up this week for me is Elder Oaks' Good, Better, Best talk from a few years ago. We talked about it lots at institute - are we doing the best thing we could be doing? Are we doing what God wants us to do, not just doing good things?

Also, when I was asking someone for advice in a job decision, he also referred to this talk: "Both are good. This is a good, better, best situation."

I think there is a reason this is getting emphasized at this time of my life. As I have thought back on these experiences, I realize that I have focused mostly on doing "good" or "better" since I got back from my mission. I have not really focused on doing "best", though. I do not want to be losing any opportunities because I am not willing to do what is best.

This is one thing that I will be implementing now. For example, it is good to do homework. It is better, however, to put the Lord first and spend time studying the scriptures and going to the Temple. Now, there is no reason you can't do both, but homework should not be priority number one.

As I work to change my priorities and put the best things first, I will be able to run my life, rather than having my life run by my obligations. I will be able to do those things that are most important, the things God wants me to do.

Procrastination Woes

This week started off kind of badly. I spent last weekend watching conference and spending time with my family rather than doing homework. While I don't regret that decision, it left me with four homework assignments incomplete at the end of the weekend. I had to wake up at 4 in the morning on Monday in order to finish them. I was barely able to finish these assignments. As the day progressed, two of the four homework assignments had their due dates pushed back. A professor decided that one of the other two assignments I had would not even be graded.
Some might say "Well good for you, they are already done and you don't need to worry about them anymore." While that is true, it led to me being very frustrated and annoyed at the start of a very demanding week. I have had a shorter temper and not acted as I wished that I would have. Why? Because I started off the week being so frustrated that I had needlessly woken up at 4 in the morning to do homework. Now, this may seem insignificant, and in the big picture it really is. For some reason, though, it just pricked me wrong the whole week.
What have I learned? I cannot control my professors' decisions about deadlines or what they will choose to grade, so instead I must keep myself from having to wake up at 4am to do homework. I need to stop procrastinating homework, and if I am going to take the weekend off I need to put effort in before that to finish my homework. By doing this I will be able to do the things I want to do without stressing about homework or becoming frustrated when deadlines are changed.

The Path God Has Prepared

In my institute class this week we discussed some of the lessons that can be learned from the Jaredite people, who came to the Americas after the tower of Babel. One of the great things that can be learned from the Jaredites is that we should be willing to do what God has prepared for us. In Ether 1:38 Jared tells his brother to pray to the Lord to know if he will drive them out of the land and lead them to a promised land. They knew that God has blessings prepared for those who are righteous. In order to receive these blessings, however, we must follow the Lord's plan for us.
Later, when they are on the coast, the Jaredites are told to build barges to cross the ocean. As they build these barges, which are "tight like unto a dish", they must have realized they would have two problems traveling in them - no light and no air. However, rather than trying to fix these problems themselves as they built the barges, they built the barges as the Lord had told them and then went to him to find out what his solution would be.
How often we ignore this wise pattern. We try to come up with solutions for our own problems. Now, don't get me wrong, D&C 58:26 states that it is not meet that we be commanded in all things. I firmly believe this, that the Lord wants us to put work in ourselves, studying the scriptures and the words of the prophets. However, when we have problems, when we need to make life changing decisions, we should turn to the Lord. We need to be open to hearing what He wants us to do, and willing to take whatever path it may be.
This is one of my new major goals, to make sure I seek the Lord's counsel when necessary, to always have an open mind, and to be willing to do whatever the Lord may command me to do.

Effective Communication

This week in my Institute class the professor started out the lesson by talking about the differences in how men and women communicate. For example, to women, nodding shows they are paying attention. Men think they are agreeing, which leads to misunderstandings. We discussed how even though we speak the same language, our communication is different. He applied this to the language of the Spirit. We must work hard to be able to really communicate with God, just as we have to work hard to make sure we have effective communication with each other. In fact, we should put the same effort into learning the language of the Spirit as we would learning a foreign language.

What am I going to do with this? I will work harder to understand how others communicate so I can effectively communicate with them. I will also put more work into understanding the language of the Spirit and having more effective communication through prayer.

Elder Scott's talk at the regional conference last Sunday (9/14/14) here in Provo also discussed communication through prayer, and is similar to this talk he gave in the LDS Conference in October 2009: To Acquire Spiritual Guidance

Leaving Behind Mediocrity

Now on the second week of school this semester at BYU, I have learned some important things. For most of my academic career I have been able to squeak by, putting forth the bare minimum required effort. I have even done well doing this in the past. Especially this last week I have quickly learned, however, that this is no longer the case. As I am now in a very rigorous major I need to work hard to perform my best.
This is a lesson, that I need to work hard and put always do my best, is one I have tried to learn for a long time. What I will be doing, having learned this lesson, is putting forth more effort to perform my best in all I do, not just things I enjoy or when it is easy to do. This is something that applies not only to schoolwork, but to life in general.
Why be mediocre when you can by amazing? There are many things I am good at, and many areas in which I can improve. No longer putting forth a mediocre performance and working to become better in all areas of my life are two of my main goals for this semester.