Life Plan/ Bucket List

Week 2:

Stars & Steppingstones: Some choices only come around once.  By Jeff Sandefer

• Steven Covey advises “to begin with the end in mind.”...Each of us has a spark of divine inspiration that can lead to lifelong goals. Your 'star'= your lifelong goals
• J. Zink:  Happiness is unlikely to come to the mind whose goal is to ‘get a good job.’”          ...take a fresh, hard, uncompromising look at life and ask, 'what needs to be done?'.  do what needs to be done. Do it better than anyone else does it and the world will beat down your door for your help.
• At your own funeral. Which role from your life do you want the speaker to mention first? Second? Third? What do you want them to say? How do you feel about the areas that have been left out?
1. Motherhood
2. Wife
3. Friend/ Neighbor
• Beginning with the end in mind is not about planning every detail of your life. In fact, the entrepreneurial philosophy is based on dealing with uncertainty, not certainty.                      *ASK Grandma about her greatest joys and greatest regrets. 
•  Choosing an end is not about limits, it is about setting priorities that allow you to accomplish as much as possible.
• STEP 1: Build my foundations
• STEP 2: Set steppingstones to judge your progress and values to guide the way. 
• Each decade your goals should become more specific and concrete
• To reach your lifelong vision, where must you be by age FIFTY? Close your eyes and imagine. What does your family look like? Temple-worthy 
• How many children? 3-5
• What ages? Each child is about 3 years apart.
• What colleges will they attend? BYU, BYUI, (or Hawaii), USU, or BSU, or TVCC.
• What does your house look like? 2 big bedrooms for kids to share and 2.5 bathrooms max. Plus a large Master with an ensuite and walk-in closet. Plus a flex space AND second living area for kids. Lots of storage and camping supplies.
• Where is it? Close to family.
• What kinds of cars do you and your family drive? New-ish cars with safety features.
• Where are you in your career? Getting ready for retirement.
• Are you nearing the top of a large company, have you started your own company or do you have a different kind of job? Either a Stay-at-Home business or a co-owned flower shop. 
• When you take vacation, where do you go and for how long? One vacation per summer, big or small.
• What is your position in the community? PTA, choir member.
• What social or charitable organizations do you belong to? 
• How much time does it take? 
• How do you spend your day? Dedicate time to music and scripture study.
• Be specific. 
• How much time do you spend in the other areas of your life? 
• How does the time spent move you toward your vision by seventy? 
• How is your physical health? 
• What will it feel like to be fifty? 
• How much energy will you have? 
• How much money does it take to support your lifestyle? 35-55,000
• Total the annual income (don’t forget taxes) that it will take to support the lifestyle you have envisioned. Include house payments, car payments, school tuition, clothes, vacations and anything else that comes to mind. Now look back at your career. 
• Have you picked a position that provides enough income to service your lifestyle? No, not without Ken's income. 
• Do you have enough cushion to survive temporary setbacks? Always
• If your job provides sufficient income, does it allow you enough time for the other areas in your life? Always                                                                                                                          *Money helps to compare and balance choices, and is only important if you have more needs or desires than income.
• THIRTY: Where must you be at thirty to attain your vision at fifty? A college graduate
• What skills, knowledge or personal contacts must you develop for your career? Associate with as many florists as possible. Attend floral conferences.
• What mental, social, family and career foundations must be put in place now to build on for the future? Regular, meaningful service and temple attendance. Finish College.                          *The lifestyle and trade-offs you make during this period will set the pattern for the rest of your life. (So basically live thrifty now so I can enjoy a relaxed, financially free life with my grandkids.)
• TODAY: what concrete actions can you take today to reach the next steppingstone? College
• Where are the difficult trade-offs you must make? If there are not any, you haven’t been realistic. *Visions are not dreams; they are a reality that you hope to create.                                   *Be realistic about time or you risk accomplishing nothing.                               >Occasionally the lifelong goal itself will be called into question. A quest worth making will always raise questions, and your star should be constantly examined in an honest way.  ActonFoundation.org

What is Your Calling in Life? -by Jefferey A. Thompson

• ...when we ponder our calling in life through the lens of the restored gospel, we don’t need to feel anxious.
• Luther's study of the Bible convinced him that work is how we participate in God’s providence toward His children.                                                                                          >your calling was to do whatever your station in life dictated...virtually any type of work could be a calling, so long as it rendered service to mankind.
• John Calvin argued that God endows each of us with particular talents and gifts, and that it is our calling to discover those gifts and to seek out ways to use them in the service of our fellowmen. 
•  ...these heresies are the very things that cause us so much anxiety when we are trying to decide what our calling in life is:

1. “You might have a calling if you are lucky, or you might not.”                             To dispel this heresy= D&C 58:27                                                                                                                >The Lord asks us to do “many things” in service to good causes. Why should our work not be one of them? ...."For the power is in them" (D&C 58:28) These verses testify that you are not part of a lottery system for life callings. You have a calling in life: to pursue good causes. And you have been given power to do just that.
2. “You have to find your one true calling in order to be fulfilled.”                          >all things are spiritual to the Lord, so yes, of course our spiritual gifts have everything to do with our professional callings. In fact, finding our calling in life involves the same process as discovering our spiritual gifts= fasting & prayer                                                                   Our strongest gifts tend to appear early in life                                                                    *finding your calling in life may not be a matter of finding the one right job. Instead, it may be that your calling is to bring your unique spiritual gifts to whatever position the Lord blesses you with.                                                                              *You may have to take a job that is below your level of qualification. If so, perform the work with drive, and use your gifts to put your unique stamp on your contributions. Doing so will increase your chances of finding better employment later.
3. “When you find your calling, work will be bliss.”                                           ...The work was meaningful because of the trials and burdens. We can’t expect deep meaningfulness from our calling unless we are willing to assume its burdens as well.
4. “Finding a calling means that the world will take notice.”                                   We do great violence to the souls of those who offer their callings in less-glamorous ways when we neglect them or treat them as minor.                               When we work to impress or outshine others, we violate the Lord’s vision of work.
5. it’s almost true. The heresy is: “Meaningfulness in life is to be found at work.”    ...in the eternal scheme of things, our jobs will someday seem to us like playthings.                      it is through enriching others that the artist makes her contribution to the world.              As the fifth heresy suggests, we can indeed find personal meaning in our work, but the real point is that the Lord expects us to render meaningful service through work. True meaning, as always, comes from service.                                                                                                          I testify that when you focus your work first and foremost on blessing others, you will become extraordinary at what you do and will find fulfillment and success much more reliably than if you spend your time at work trying to get ahead or get rich.

SUMMARY

I have always known that my calling in life is to be a mother. I think that as I find my calling in my career I will be able to better help my husband. I can create a life of meaning by conscientiously working on my stepping stones towards my stars. I'm kind of excited to see where I end up each decade when I will look back and reflect.