Motivation Matters

My sister's team won district when I was home. Motivation Matters!

I missed last week’s blog because I went home for the weekend. Yes, that is in Arkansas. Yes that is far. Yes it was great. I really needed it. It was a trip that I took because I needed to really think about how things are in my life and where they are going. I seriously got to think about a lot while I was at home. It was great. 

PG football undefeated. Motivation Matters

Class this week was really good because the trip was really exciting, but when I got to the airport I wanted to cry. I wanted to turn around and go home. I really didn’t want to come back. A class about motivation was what I needed. In class when Jessica asked the question “what motivates you,” my mind went through a process. What motivates me? What do I do? Why do I do it? 

So I made a list of things I do: workout, have scripture study, school, homework, eating, and work. 

Then I grouped them into categories: 1) workout and study 2) school and homework 3) Eating/Break 4) Work

Then I wrote why I do them:

1) To have a calm peaceful day, working ahead, preparing, focused on longer lasting things

2) have to make it in the world, parents are paying

3) get hungry, enjoy a time to stop and relax

SF NL Champs. Down 3-1 in series.
Motivation Matters

4) feel like I’m contributing to my life, more self-reliant, money

It made me realize what things I am focused on and what I am doing for the right reasons. Obviously 1,3,4 are all inspired by good motives. They are things that are motivated from within. But 2 is more like I’m being forced. Sadly that is what I spend most of my time on. It’s annoying just going to school without a reason or purpose. I am trying to figure out what I want to do, but it’s just not clicking yet. I don’t want to waste my parent’s money or my time. I could be doing things more enjoyable and worth my time than just aimlessly doing homework. 

From the paragraph above and the points for why I do certain things I hope you can see that my motivation is comes from inside. I feel very strong about that. If the desire is there things will get done. You can’t force someone to do something. How do you get people to work or do things then? They need to catch the vision. Just like in any sport if you really want to participate, you have to have the ball. You can only do so much without it. You can block, screen, cover the base, but until the ball is in your hands you alone only contribute so much. The good thing is that in a family, school, work, or in social settings the vision can be held by more than one person unlike a ball. A lot of people believe that getting hyped is motivating people. That can only last so long. If someone can see where they are going they are more likely to work towards in that direction.

A good example of that is Nelson Mandela. A man that comes out of jail, becomes president, and then changes a nation! How did he do it? Two great things he did. First he had a vision. He helped those he was with to see the vision. And instead of working to get somewhere, he worked as if he was already there. His example of living what he saw inspired others. The people began to see that living in unity was a real possibility. That is what things became.  

Powerful Communication

This last week I got to watch General Conference for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I heard a lot of things I needed to. This is a perfect example of what powerful and prolific communication is. We had two great guys from the BYU Communications Department, Todd and Joe, come and talk to us about the power of communication. I thought Conference was a great example of what they talked about.

From a worlds perspective it has to be one of the greatest forms of communicating a message to a mass group of people in a specific organization. They see our leaders and must say, “Wow, how do you get everyone together like this to listen to you?” The trick is....it isn’t them that gather. It is Christ like leadership at its finest.

“What I the Lord have spoken, I have spoken, and I excuse not myself; and though the heavens and the earth pass away, my word shall not pass away, but shall all be fulfilled, whether by mine own voice or by the voice of my servants, it is the same.” -Doctrine and Covenants 1:38

Listen to that power. He has so much confidence that his servants will carry his message to his children. How does he do it? He knows that his servants teach the doctrines and principles of His kingdom. In so doing, it opens the door for the Spirit to come and teach His children the ways in which they need to apply the message to each personally. Now some of you may wonder, “What is the Spirit or what is its role in this?” Simply put the Spirit is part of the God head; God, Jesus, and the Spirit. The Spirit testifies of God and Jesus Christ and their truths. Thus he is sent to us to comfort and guide us in our personal lives. A lot of people would recognize it as your conscious or a gut feeling. Well, those feelings have a real name because they are real. It is the Spirit that invites you and me to act on the messages we receive. 

What some leaders don’t understand is that communicating a message isn’t about demanding people to accept your message or even creating a specific wordy lecture that wins people over. It is presenting truths that inspire others to act. More than that, an outstanding leader’s communication is recognizing the spirit is who will carry the message to the “audience”. So if it is built on personal gain and deception, forget about it. If you are trying to bring about good, all good things come from God.  

Whether it’s in my family, work, or church I want my message built on what I believe. The two guys that spoke to us said that it is really hard to present a message you don’t really agree with. I want to be able to communicate like these men. I want to bring a true heartfelt message that creates a channel between God and my children, between God and my co-workers, between God and my fellow brethren in Christ. 

A pattern by which I have seen before in my own personal life was on my two year mission for the Church of Jesus Christ. In my service I had the opportunity to plan weekly meetings for most of my mission.  In these meetings a group of missionaries, in my surrounding areas, would meet together to work on being better missionaries. To prepare for these meetings I would evaluate performance, needs, and people that other missionaries were teaching. I would take that and the message that our mission president would want the missionaries to know and then go to God. Every time my thought and studies would begin to gain a focus. With that focus I would study around it until I felt comfortable and ready to share that message to my fellow missionaries. It was then that I knew what I would say. I can testify from personal experience the more I prepared and then relied on the spirit the message was always clear and there was a difference. In summary, the pattern by which I share my message is:

1 Taking information to the Lord and seeking His guidance 

2 Wait for a direction from the Spirit

3 Decide to follow direction, ponder it, and study around it

4 Open my mouth and let the power of the Spirit come out  

INFJ?

"INFJs may fantasize about getting revenge on those who victimize the defenseless. 

The concept of 'poetic justice' is appealing to the INFJ."- Joe Butt

I love Batman 

(disclaimer some say Batman has another personality type. I think we share it)

Alright, I know I need to write about the great class I had by Brandon the Great, but I wanted to give our TA’s a shout out. They gave us a great question this week. They asked us to take a personality test. I thought it was so interesting. I’ve taken one before and got the same result, but I read some of the tendencies of people that are INFJs and I was blown away by this website <http://typelogic.com/infj.html>. Any random quotes I may put in this post come from two articles written by Joe Butt and Marina Heiss. 

I want to specifically quote Marina’s initial description of one with INFJ personality.

“INFJs are distinguished by both their complexity of character and the unusual range and depth of their talents. Strongly humanitarian in outlook, INFJs tend to be idealists, and because of their J preference for closure and completion, they are generally "doers" as well as dreamers. This rare combination of vision and practicality often results in INFJs taking a disproportionate amount of responsibility in the various causes to which so many of them seem to be drawn.”

I want to point out that is exactly how I feel. I always feel like a greater purpose pulls me in a direction. I have been reading in the Book of Mormon lately and this subject came up this week. I have some goals, but I don’t really know why I’m doing them. I know they are good and I know they are things I want to and should do, but I just have this desire to know why. 

There was a talk last Conference in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by President Dieter F. Uchtdorf that talked about the "WHY". It’s great. You should read it. Any ways, it points out that we should seek to know the why which builds principles that lead to applications in our lives. Elder David A. Bednar also talks about this in his book “Increase in Learning” (also a great source of literature worth reading). We normally tend to go straight to applications for answers. It shows! I have goals or actions that I know will open the door to happiness, but I don’t know the “WHY” nor do I know the specifics to them. So I have backtracked my thought process and feelings to see why. I haven’t got there. What I have learned though is that God wants me to seek knowledge that he has. When I get the answer to the "WHY", or the purpose for me, then I will get more specifics, but I don’t think I have got it yet because I may not be all the way willing to act if I were to get an answer. 

I was looking up stuff online about INFJs and I can’t remember where I saw it, but it said that INFJs normally have a hard time following. It’s like they have this inner feeling or responsibility to lead. That can be an inhibitor. Is it always true? No, but I have seen that in myself at times. I may tend to shut down if I’m not in control of a situation. I feel like this points out that I have a hard time trusting others. It’s not that I don’t want or need help, but I think it’s an inner pride that says “you have the right answer/idea”, “just do it”, or “you have a vision don’t let go and don’t let others destroy it”. At times those are the right answers. I have seen though the need to step outside of these thoughts. Specifically in a group project I have for one of my classes. Some things we have struggled with in our group are not willing to listen to others ideas and not having full commitment. I think in this particular situation because we all started to petition our ideas there was no bond between us. That led to a lack of trust and thus no one is really committed to the cause, but to a personal idea. I think that is an obstacle in teamwork that comes in a lot. If a team can’t gel, then nothing gets down, because no one trusts each other. Everyone one is still an individual. Until the bridge of relationship is made nothing will crossover from one to the other. 

Something I did in our group to try to facilitate a good working team I dropped my idea and let other people step up. I feel that in this group I have experience, but this is not the time or place to use all of it. It is an opportunity to let someone else get that experience and grow as a leader. It’s a good opportunity for me to grow as a follower and a supporter. I am a strong believer that people really learn as they act.  

Pay attention to what is said in the first 35 seconds.

"INFJs are twice blessed with clarity of vision, both internal and external."

-Joe Butt

Look for the principles of team work and vision

1)Why does the coach do this for his team?

2)What does it do to his coaching staff?

3)How do you plan to let your vision affect others?

3 for 3

What do you think of the bike? I went looking around Friday after work. I drove all the way up to Taylorsville thinking I had found a good deal online. Nope. But I was pointed in the right direction and I knew what I was looking for. I needed a 57-61cm frame. I didn’t need a SUPER decked out racing bike. I just needed a simple standard racing bike that could make good time across the United States. I found it. It was on KSL listed at a great price. It was all the way up in COVE, UTAH! That’s a few minutes from the Idaho border. I decided, “Why not!”  I pulled out the money, just in case I liked it I could buy it. I decided to leave Friday night, seeing how it is almost 3 hours away. I drove up to Logan Friday night. I slept overnight in my truck at the Logan temple. I woke up and went for a walk around the temple, read my scriptures, then went the last 20 minutes to Cove to see the bike at 8:30. I met Stephen. He was a great guy. He was trying to get rid of his bike because he might be moving down to Provo or Arizona and wanted to get rid of some stuff. I thought I would help him out seeing how it was a great deal and a great bike.

Like the outfits?

I went on a date Friday afternoon. It was a group date with my apartment and an apartment of girls from my ward. We split into two teams. We went on a picnic to eat dinner and then we went to “DI” to do a scavenger hunt. It wasn’t a huge thing, but I did it. I need to put a little more effort into the next one. If it makes anyone feel better I did ask someone on a date. It won’t be for another two weeks though, but its progress, right? 

Look I really did go!

Home teaching was great. We have this wonderful girl in our ward. She’s very quiet and lives out of the ward boundary but has permission to come to our ward. I’m so glad. She is so nice. I thought she was going to be shy with us but she was very open.  I found out she loves basketball and wants to be a basketball coach! I heard that and I was super excited! We got along great. It’s going to be a fun semester home teaching her. I hope we can help her more than she helped me today. 

This week I don’t have to put up a post but I wanted to report on my goals last week.  I can proudly say I got them all done!

Written September 29 and 30 (edited/Oct 5)

It was such a pretty drive. All the trees were red and orange.

That's just pretty! (Logan Sunrise)