The Beginning of Something New

January 9, 2019

As I progress on this journey, these are the questions I want to use to evaluate my progress:

1. Did I contribute something meaningful?
2. Was I a good person?
3. Who did I love and who loved me?

I learned these questions in our introduction to Launching Leaders. The focus of this program, and this class, is the start-up of myself. The biggest thing I took away from the overview was how to make and follow a star map. I start by making an end goal (the star) and then I make the steps to get there. My question is, how do you know what your star is? I am excited to figure that out with this class.

Another one of my favorite parts was how to take intelligent risks. This is what I should consider for risk management:

• Can I tolerate the worst-case outcome?
• Do not conflate uncertainty with risk.
• Is it reversible?

I tend to over-analyze everything and worry too much about unimportant details. The reading taught me to be thoughtful about asking specific questions and setting priorities. That will help me stop being so indecisive because I will be able to be confident in the decisions I make.

The reading also shared the ingredients for success. They used a Venn diagram to show the factors to consider when choosing your path. It needs to have a balance of something you do well, something you love, and it has to be something people need.

I am excited to see my growth this semester. I have been grappling with finding my calling after some major life changes; getting married, having a baby, moving to a new state. I feel like my Venn diagram would need an extra circle, because one of my important considerations is how well it would fit my lifestyle. I am a mom first, and so whatever I decide to do needs to work with that. I guess we all have specific work requirements, and mine would be that I need something flexible where I am in control of when I work, like my online schooling.

I am also excited to learn from other people’s experiences. I have no experience with being an entrepreneur besides reading a few news articles about it. In this class we will all be going through the same process and I can see what works for my classmates and their personal circumstances. It should be inspirational and encouraging to see other people overcome their own challenges.