This week I created my personal guardrails. The following are guardrails:

Ethical guardrails

I will never:

Comprise my moral standards in

              Marriage

              Alcohol

              Smoking

              Searching the internet, television, movies or reading

Be dishonest

Choose career over faith or family

I will always:

Seek the Lord’s counsel and confirmation in my decisions

Put my family first

Serve others

Have integrity

These are important to me and I have tried to be guided by these though out my life.

James Ritchie shared a formula for success 1) Get up early 2. Work hard 3. Education 4. Find oil 5. Make your mark 6. Serve. He combined things he was taught from Pres Haight and J Paul Getty. I love these, I have had most of them as goals. Finding oil and make your mark were not on my radar. What is meant by find oil, is to find what works for you and is your oil well. We all things we are great at and when we utilize those talents and skills we will do well. Make your mark, is one I had not thought of in terms of my life, I can make a difference within the sphere I am working, that may be doing well in my assignments, influencing those I work with and keeping to the integrity I cherish. When we make our mark we are being true to ourselves as well as the goals we have set and are achieving.

I am taking another business class this semester and I am reading Good to Great by Jim Collins, in his book he tells a story about Jim Stockdale a POW in the Vietnam War held in the Hanoi Hilton for 8 years. The book Love and War tells the story, I am going to read that book this year. Jim Stockdale stated, “You must retain faith that you will prevail in the end and you must also confront the most brutal facts of your current reality.” This is known as the Stockdale Paradox, Jim Collins added, “Strip away noise and clutter and focus on the few things that would have the greatest impact.”

The Stockdale Paradox is an aha moment for me, this has been a challenging week, finding time to do school work and meet all the demands on my time has left me exhausted and with little patience. In some areas I succeeded in others I failed. So this week I will pick myself up and start over, focusing on those things that most important and letting go of the noise and confusion. I will look at my current reality and the facts and then make a plan and move forward.