Week 6 - Identity, Candor and Fear

Thank-you all for your inspiring participation during the discussion and for your hard work in recording the song. It is sounding great.

I did not want to take time from the discussion to ask each of you about your project goal and your personal goal because I thought it might be more efficient if you each wrote it out in the comments below instead. Please write it by Sunday. If I don't get everyone to write their goals in the comments, I will go back to asking you individually each class, but I do hope you'll write it yourself to save us some time.

I wasn't planning on having class this week because many of you will be busy with Maria, but since we were not able to film the music video last week, I wondered if we could find a time where we could get together to film? Let me know if you are available either Tuesday from 2-4, Thr. from 3-5, or Friday or Saturday morning.

For your ispirements, there is a bit more reading than usual since you have 2 weeks, so start it soon.

Inspirements that are due 2 weeks from yesterday (on May 6th):
Write: Project and personal goal below. Help one another with reminders and checking up.
Read: Creativity Inc. Chapters 4-6
Write: A discussion question, quote, and a way to apply something from the chapters to your family or to your collaborative projects.

Over the last two weeks, several people have neglected writing the question and quote. Please do not neglect it this week.

Spring Week 5: Maria and Filming

Alright, I am excited for this week and for what we have planned for the class. I apologize for the disorganization the last couple of weeks. We have had some difficult family decisions to make that have required some research and pondering and it has kind of absorbed me. But I think the hardest decisions are over and I am excited to move forward and get back on track with mentoring this class.

Thank-you for your feedback last week. Please feel free to offer feedback about anything anytime in the future - readings, activities, ideas - I want this to be a class that grows with us as we understand what we need from each other more each week.

We will be meeting at my house at 4:30 this week to record the song and do our book discussion. We will then drive to Bountiful to film the music video.  We will stop at Little Caesars on the way to Bountiful so if you have a couple of dollars to donate, that would help, but it's not mandatory.

If there is time after the filming, we can go back to my house for a movie (Either Mother Teresa or God Grew Tired of Us).

Here are this week's inspirements:
1. Read: Maria: My Story (chapters 1-11). Look for decision making principles.
2. Write: A favorite quote and discussion question from the reading in the comments below.
3. Accountability: Write your personal and project goal below. Remember to ask your accountability partners each day about: Personal Goal, Project Goal, and assignment.

Last week, everyone present when we started class had reached all their goals, but I still need to hear from the following people who were 45 minutes late to class or who did not come:
Miles
Carson
Caden
Isaiah
Cassia
William
Rachel
Ashley

If you all reached your goals and completed your assignments for class, we will have one week down and just 3 to go for our fun class activity. We still haven't decided on an activity, but here are some suggestions we can talk about:
Cliff Jumping at Causey Reservoir
Camping (if we can get 2 dad's to go and one more mom).
Go see a Play or Concert
Rock Climbing
Canoeing
Mystery Room
Other ideas?

See you Friday! (Let me know if you won't be able to make it.)

Spring Week 4

1. Read chapter 3 of Creativity Inc
2. Memorize the first 8 lines of If (by Rudyard Kipling)
3. Check on each other about your personal goal and your creative project goal
4. Write a discussion question and a favorite quote on the reading below!

Spring - Week 3 - Conference and Accountability

I left my camera in the car so the only picture I got was in the parking lot as we were leaving. Sorry, Caden and Carson had left by then!

I am glad so many of you were able to go to Salt Lake to listen to the Lionheart presentation. We missed those of you who couldn't come :-( But I will summarize my notes below - though they include some of my thoughts (anyone can feel free to add to my summary in the comments - I'm sure I miss good stuff.)

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Presentation:
They said to achieve your dreams you should:
1. Explore (you don't know what you don't know - learn about all sorts of different areas and see each experience as an opportunity for growth).

2. Reflect (take time to be still, notice beliefs you hold that are not true - like that you are not good enough - and crush them)

•  Tool: Think of a memory where you first encountered a feeling. Put the memory in your mind. Picture Christ stepping in at that point in time and telling you something true to replace the lie you walked from that experience with.

3. Jump off a cliff (take action, even if it is scary. You may not know the whole picture, but take the next step.)

• Tools: Tribe - Find people who encourage you
• Mentors (Christ is the ultimate mentor - develop a relationship with Him by doing what He prompts you to do, He may lead you to other mentors who can help).
• Systems: Set up an accountability system - write your goal, find a partner to keep you accountable, set up a consequence for not achieving it
• Affirmations (say positive things to yourself)

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Discussion:
We discussed that we don't necessarily have "ONE big dream" (besides exaltation), but that Christ can guide us along in accomplishing the dreams He has for us (which are sometimes different than we think and always better).

We talked about how we can use this class to help us "explore" - find true principles in everything we read, including great works readings, "reflect" - with one another in group discussion, online comments and in our reflection books, and "jump off a cliff" - set up goals and hold each other accountable

We were sitting in a circle and decided to report to the person to the right of us, and that person would hold us accountable that week. We can report to them through a quick chat message, text or call each day. If the person who reports to us hasn't reported that day - we may want to send them a reminder. It may be helpful to remind them too of the inspirements to do that day. We decided that if everyone accomplishes their goals and inspirements 4 weeks in a row - we would do something fun as a class (maybe a mystery room), but if someone does not keep their goals, then the whole class starts over.

Here are the goals and the person you are reporting to (Some of the order changed from last night because I dropped in the names of the people who were not here in between some who were so you could answer questions for them about it if they have any)

I know I probably worded some of your goals wrong -  so if I worded it wrong or you weren't there to tell me a goal, please comment or email me and I will put it up here.

Try to report as early in the day as possible once you have accomplished your goal to get the ball rolling through the circle.

Accountability:
Ashley: (reports to Cassia): To replace negative thoughts with kind words when she is frustrated with siblings
Cassia (reports to Isaiah): To write a daily priority list to keep her on track
Isaiah (reports to Adam): To make a priority list with time assigned to it
Adam (reports to Elisabeth): Write a daily list (I can't remember how you structured it...)
Elisabeth (reports to Megan):
Megan (reports to McKena): Replace negative thoughts with positive ones (I think this was more specific, but I can't remember how you worded it.)
McKena (reports to Rachel):
Rachel (reports to William): Do something she knows she ought to do, but is scared to every day.
William (reports to Carson): Finish his song this week to play on Friday
Carson (reports to Miles):
Miles (reports to Gracious): Learn something about a talent daily
Gracious (reports to Sydney): Remind herself that she is a child of God when she has negative thoughts.
Sydney (reports to Caden):
Caden (reports to Ashley):
Karen: (I will report to Cassia and William) - Make a list of action items after conference

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Inspirements:
Now, here are the inspirements for the week. I put a suggested day in brackets by each one so you have an idea of when it would be good to get them done, but you can adjust as needed as long as they are done by their due date.

1. Continue thinking about your semester project as you listen to conference. See if God puts any additional thoughts in your mind about what you can do or how you can do it. [Sat and Sun]
2.  Take notes during conference about decision making principles [Sat and Sun]
3.  Share the principles you found in the comments below by TUESDAY (and questions if you'd like) [Mon]
4.Read the comments and write your own principles in your decision making notebook as you read (answer questions if you'd like). [Wed]
5.  Answer 3 or more questions from last week on last week's post. Write a scripture, quote or experience that supports your answer. [Thu]
6.  Accountability Report and Memorization (first 4 lines on IF) [Everyday]

I would also like us to record "Precious Savior, Dear Redeemer" this coming week so if Elisabeth could bring her cello, Isaiah his guitar, and I will see if Nathan can come up for the piano (if he can't - can anyone else play the song?)

Also, I wrote a blog post the other day after watching the movie The Walk that goes along with what we discussed last night after the presentation. You can read it here if you'd like.

Spring Week 2 - Daily Decisions that Inspire Creativity

Thank-you all for your comments and discussion questions and principles today. I enjoyed learning from you and thinking about what sort of things entice me to procrastinate and what kind of love keeps me from doing so.  I appreciate each of you so much. I hope you are all excited for our final semester!


Here are this week's inspirements. You already wrote #1 in class so just post it below ASAP so we can encourage one another in our goals. Don't procrastinate the rest of the items though... #5 especially should take some thought. And have a happy Easter!

1. Post: Your goal for the week from Friday's discussion
2. Read: Creativity Inc. Intro - end of Chapter 1. I also copied and encourage you to read chapter 2, but I will leave it up to you. I found it fascinating. (And buy the book now if you haven't yet so you will have it for next week. This is the last time I will be linking the PDF on Google Drive)
3. Watch: Should You Live for Your Resume or Your Eulogy?
4. Write: in the comments below, a scripture and principle and discussion question from your reading or watching that relates to making daily decisions that inspire creativity
5. Prayerfully Decide: on a creative project for the semester, (you can use the decision making principles you have written so far to help you decide!) be prepared to share it with the class. (Don't worry, you can change your mind about it later if you find it doesn't work out).
6. Buy or find: notebook to keep track of decision making principles

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Here are everyone's presentations from Monday. I enjoyed listening to all of you and the variety of things you each learned! Thank-you for preparing for this and being willing to share with others... my phone kept running out of memory so if your presentation gets cut off, it is because my phone ran out of memory and I had to erase some things before I could film again. Plus, you probably noticed I was struggling with my little ones that day so the filming sometimes goes a little crazy.


 

Spring week 1: Daily Decisions

Thank-you all for your participation and insights on our nature walk. I hope the Spirit gave you something to ponder at home afterwards. If you want to share anything you've thought about since, please comment below!

One thing I thought about was how a better analogy at the river would have been to consider the bank of the river the boundary we discussed and the river could represent the filthy river in Lehi's dream... that seems more accurate because crossing the river took us to a beautiful view and that is not the case with crossing boundaries :-) But the bridge could have represented Christ's help in overcoming a temptation to get in the river... anyway I'm sure there are all sorts of other ways to see that analogy.

I also though about how when I really love someone, I don't try to see how far and how long I be away from them without offending them - instead I try to do all I can to stay connected to them and be around them. I want this attitude towards my Savior.

One more thought I had was a connection between the scripture Caden shared last week and the comment Elisabeth made when I asked about the state of our heart when we are trying to see how far we can get to the edge without breaking any rules (if you don't remember, she insightfully said our heart was already on the other side when we had that attitude). Caden's comment last week was "As a man thinketh in his heart so is he." So putting those things together helped me realize the importance of keeping my heart on serving my Savior.

It's funny, but when I went to that Nirvana concert I mentioned in class - I really didn't think I was breaking any rules in the Strength of Youth pamphlet - and since I wasn't breaking rules (I thought Nirvana was "good" music) - it was okay for me to be there. I felt the same way about having a boyfriend in high school (even though we were together very often - we weren't going on official "dates" so it was okay). That was the attitude of a heart that was in the wrong place at the time of those decisions. (But just so you know - I had a different upbringing than most of you and I did not understand the gospel well in my teen years - thankfully I had a change of heart before it was too late).

I am excited to discover principles of decision making with you this semester. Last semester we learned all about the importance of rest and play along with meaningful work. This semester, we want to discover what principles can help us make decisions that will allow us to incorporate those things in our lives to live joyfully and wholeheartedly.

Correct principles of decision making should be practiced every day. Not only because we will need that practice when making big "life-altering" decisions, but also because it is the small, daily decisions that really determine where we go in life.

This is a very busy time of year for many of you so I will try to keep the reading light this semester, just be sure you are writing questions and quotes as well as applying the principles you discover each week to make this an inspiring end to your year.

Here are the inspirements for this week:
1. Make: A 5ish minute presentation about your take home message last semester to present to families on Monday.
2. Watch: Inside the Mind of a Master Prcrastinator
3. Find a principle (or more if you'd like) in the scriptures about how to become better at not procrastinating. Post your principle(s) with the reference and a discussion question below.
4. Reply to 4 (or more) people's comments.

Week 10 - Zayin, the Illusion of Fear, and Letting Go of Being Cool

 
I sure love you guys. Your online discussion last week was so beautifully profound, I wish we could get all the youth in the world to take a peak at it and see how great it is to be collaboratively seeking truth and helping each other dig deeper into how to joyfully live. You are incredible. I think you should try to continue commenting on quotes and questions in the future when you can - I believe it helped deepen the class discussion for everyone.

So the class discussion was also wonderful - we talked about how to stop judging ourselves, how to be still and how to practice calmness and joy through gratitude and love. We also listened to music as we made ourselves slashed names (like it talked about in Guidepost 9: writer/cook/philanthropist etc). If you were not in class, I encourage you to try this - use your patriarchal blessing as a guide too - and make your name as long as you want. Most of us had awesomely long names. We talked about how we are all unique and we need to stop pigeon holing ourselves into "one identity" that we are known by.

We also go into teams and made plans for a collaborative project to work present to families. You guys came up with such great ideas in just 10 minutes! Impressive.

Here are this week's inspirements. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did!

Watch: Jim Statley talk about Zayin in the Hebrew alphabet.*
Read: The Illusion of Fear 
Read: Guidepost 10 and Final Thoughts
Write: A goal from last week's reading/discussion, and a quote and question from this week's video or readings. Comment on other people's questions and thoughts if you'd like.
Prepare: Take your writing from last week, and prepare a 5ish minute presentation to teach our families what you have learned this semester. You can do it in any creative way of your choosing - speech, skit, game, video, song, poem, art, powerpoint, etc.
Collaborate: on this Google doc to help with the collaborative presentation we will be putting together on Friday.


*Jim Staley is a Hebrew scholar and a preacher. I love his talks on the Hebrew alphabet. The letter Zayin is the letter of perfection. I think you will see connections to what we've been reading and discussing.

Here is another song about stillness:

And here is the song we played on our hike, if any of you were interested: