Unearthing Alicia

 The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Ah, who hasn’t heard of this book? According to the latest (on Wikipedia), Steven R. Covey sold over 25 million copies in 40 languages. Chances are, it’s not new to you. But, while I’ve heard the title thousands of times and heard it referenced just about as often, I’d never actually looked at what those 7 habits were. It’s not too surprising that most of the advice sounded like things I’d heard before, but that’s because the book was published when I was about six years old   and has influenced generations since. So what are those 7 special habits? 1)       Be Proactive 2)     Begin With the End in Mind 3)     First things first 4)     Think win-win 5)     Seek first to understand, then to be understood 6)     Synergize! 7)     Sharpen the Saw Basically, have a plan and start doing it, weed out distractions in your life, play well with oth...

  Success Is Gauged by Self-Mastery That's quite an assertion, but for N. Eldon Tanner in 1975 it was the message he felt he most needed to share. Tanner was a successful politician in Canada, including being Speaker of the Assembly, and was a member of the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints while still a junior apostle, which makes him seem pretty credible; but was he right? As contrary as it seems to my initial views, after careful consideration I have to conclude that I believe he was. Here's why. While I have never been obese, I have always struggled with my weight. It goes up and down seemingly independent of anything I do. However, 10 years ago, just after my first child was born my husband and I started focusing on eating healthier food and being more active so that we could set a good example for our daughter. I started tracking everything I ate, how much water I drank, my exercise, and my weight every day in an app. As soon as I started...

This week I watched a video titled "A Hero's Journey" by a speaker from Acton School of Business (I looked but couldn't find his name). He talked about entrepreneurial journeys, which they call hero's journeys at Acton, the "Power to Become" and the great paradox of them both: The hero’s journey is all about you, but it’s not about you at all. I'll admit, this didn't stick with me the first time I watched the speech but reviewing it struck a chord with something else I've been pondering this week. In a past business class, I watched a short clip from Guy Kawasaki talking about making meaning and how if you set out to make meaning you will likely make both meaning and money, but if you set out simply to make money you're more likely to make neither, and if you do make money it will have no meaning.  Over the years I'd been told on more than one occasion that I should write a blog but I had always dismissed it until I saw a free web...

 This week I have been waking up at 6am to test out the advice that getting up early is the first step to success. (see this blog post  https://unearthingalicia.blogspot.com/2020/10/in-his-book-launching-leaders-steven.html ) So, did it work? Am I motivated and active and living my best life? In a word, no.  But seriously, what was I expecting? Does success come from one week's bare-minimum effort? This morning as I wrote in my journal (which I have not been consistent at in years) I laid out all my tiredness and setbacks, my continued lack of organization and accomplishment. I considered turning off my alarm at the end of the week and going back to normal. Then, as I went on my morning walk (which I have never gotten up early enough to do before my kids wake up) I listened to a recent talk from one of my church leaders who described climbing to the top of Mt. Fuji with his wife. He described all the times it was hard and the top was a goal too seemingly insurmountable to...

  In his book Launching Leaders, Steven A Hitz lays out what he calls “The Formula”, something he learned from Jim Ritchie. Jim Ritchie put together The Formula from advice he received from David B Haight, a leader in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and from J. Paul Getty’s book, How to Be Rich. Wow. When I sat down to write about The Formula and how I’ve been thinking about it all week I’d forgotten that it was the cumulative work of so many wise men, who probably learned and developed it through the teaching and influence of many other wise men and women. We have to learn from one another. Back to The Formula. Here it is: 1)     Get up early 2)     Work hard 3)     Get your education 4)     Find your oil 5)     Make your mark 6)     Give back Sounds easy enough, right? Except I get stuck on the first one. I home school three kids, narrate and produce audiob...