Wants of Today vs. Wants of Tomorrow

I read the following in Brandon Sanderson's book The Hero of Ages

“A man is what he has passion about, ... I’ve found that if you give up what you want most for what you think you should want more, you’ll just end up miserable.”

Boy, I've thought about this idea a thousand times. It seems that time can ALWAYS be spent "better". From a religion perspective, from a work perspective, from a relationship perspective, from a family perspective, even from a personal perspective. Looking back in time I often wish I had made different choices, or at least considered things differently. The problem, of course, being that I was looking at the past with lenses from the future. So duh, of course I would have seen things differently.

One of my primary goals for this year is to "just stop" We can get so busy and scrambled as we try to do more, a little more, and we keep pushing ourselves. As I "stop" I find more peace and ironically, time to do the stuff I really want to do.

I think therein lies the challenge. What are my wants? They come two fold. What I want to do today and what I want to become. (Let's not argue over the merits of what I want to become, just that there are two forces from within). Often they don't coincide, or at least the things I want today, probably won't lead me to what I want to become.

As I ramble on, I have noticed that as time progresses my wants of today more closely line up with my wants of tomorrow. Perhaps I am achieving my goal, or simply lowering my goal.

Long story short. Work towards something better and enjoy today.

Tide pools are cooler than you think

So, I love the tide pools, but this just made our day. Our good friend Drek saw this little crittter but then he eluded us for awhile. After a bit of hunting we were able to find him again and catch him so the kids could see. We were all alone out there and it was too great of a find to not share with others. So Anna went around to tell other people that we found an octopus. Eventually quite the crowd came around and we were able to show a number of kids and parents. We let him go then followed it and caught it again when another crowd came. What a fun day!

Ug...Pictures in blogs...I have no talent here

http://curtis-thoughts.blogspot.com/2011/01/tide-pools-are-closer-than-you-think.html

Yeah...I have no talent whatsoever...Any hints on how to get the text under and over the image?

Tide Pools are closer than you think.

So there are tide pools only 12 minutes from our house. Best time to go is very low tide.





We found lots of sea anenomes. They were great fun. Maile tried poking a little one and it "sucked her hand"





We found a crab with a broken shell (I think someone stepped on it)





And we found a baby starfish. We also saw lots of cool shells, a sea slug and a ton of little crabs.


It was awesome to consider all the life in that great big ocean. I love God's creations.

Progression

This is a great little scripture:

Luke 2:52And Jesus ^aincreased in ^bwisdom and stature, and in ^cfavour with God and man.

It explains so clearly the areas we should seek to improve: Wisdom, stature, favor with God, favor with man.

Leadership and self-deception

Just read a fantastically inspiring book called Leadership and Self-Deception: Getting out of the box by the Arbringer Institute (http://www.amazon.com/Leadership-Self-Deception-Getting-Out/dp/1576751740) It talked about the fact that we view others as objects, nuisances, challenges, obstacles rather than what they are...people. By doing this we don't interact with them as we should and they often get the feeling that we don't care for them. This then leads to behavior that is counter-productive. People are in it for themselves, not for the group/company.

The solution is to honor people as they are...people with hopes, dreams, fears, worries as real and legitimate as mine. I loved this paragraph from the text on page 123

"I saw in myself a leader who was so sure of the brilliance of his own ideas that he couldn't allow brilliance in anyone else's, a leader who felt he was so 'enlightened' that he needed to see workers negatively in order to prove his enlightenment, a leader so driven to be the best that he made sure no one else could be as good as he was."

This is exactly who I do not want to be. I have often wondered if a leader had to be this way, as it seems that most leaders we read about or see, are this way. But this gives me hope that those I work with can be the best and most brilliant, that I do not have to be better than everyone else. (It is more manageable this way!)

I very highly recommend this read.

Revelation

Joseph Smith said: “This is the principle on which the government of heaven is conducted-by revelation adapted to the circumstances in which the children of the kingdom are placed.”

It is all about having the spirit to receive the revelation for your individual situation.

I Love Computers

After whining about it long enough, my sweet little wife did not object to my upgrading the computer. I was able to get Windows 7, a terabyte drive and Microsoft Office 2010. The computer now runs sweet and is a joy to use. The video card works perfectly and I didn't do anything special. I guess 10 years after Windows XP was released, it was time to upgrade. (Wifey comments that it seems the same to her, but she doesn't recognize all the little things, that are measured in terabytes, and gigabits. This marks the first time I have paid for my software on my computer. Previously I used free software from when I was in college.