My thoughts

Mission in Life...

Who has a mission in life?...

We all do!!!!

Wouldn't it be great if we all knew and felt that we had a purpose.  Wouldn't it be great if we had the freedom to find our purposes in life?  I believe this is the key to happiness.  When we feel that we are free to choose what ignites our passion.  When we find something that we love,  and when we want to share it with others. 

Wouldn't it be great if our kids education was centered around the idea that they are great?  That they are of infinite worth.  That they can succeed.

Wouldn't it be great if we believed this about ourselves.  I know I wandered around 4 years of college trying to discover my purpose and never really found it.  

I believe this is what I want for my kids and I want them to learn it from the time they are young. This is what led me to Leadership education.

What is Leadership Education??

To me the definition of Leadership education is the idea that each person on this earth is born with greatness.  We all have something great to offer the world.  To become a leader means to become your best self.  Leadership education is the pathway to finding that best self.  Given the right home environment or school environment,  we find our best selves naturally in a loving and safe environment where we are free to explore and discover our purpose.  Once we find our purpose we will want to share this purpose and mission with the world in order to make it a better place. 

In order to implement Leadership Education I believe that you have to make your house a house of learning, and a house of God where you can feel the spirit.  The spirit is the best teacher and the best guide for all of us. 

Well,  it's not just about our kids.  It's also about us as parents.  One of the key principles to successfully teaching Leadership Education is  "YOU, NOT THEM".

We are the leaders.  As our kids watch us carrying out our life's mission and purpose,  they will want to follow.

Here is an example of Leadership Education in President Monsons' October 2013 talk in General Conference:

"Dad would drive about 35 miles an hour all the way up to Provo Canyon or until we would come around a bend in the road and our journey would be halted by a herd of sheep. We would watch as hundreds of sheep filed past us, seemingly without a shepherd, a few dogs yapping at their heels as they moved along. Way back in the rear we could see the sheepherder on his horse—not a bridle on it but a halter. He was occasionally slouched down in the saddle dozing, since the horse knew which way to go and the yapping dogs did the work.

Contrast that to the scene which I viewed in Munich, Germany, many years ago. It was a Sunday morning, and we were en route to a missionary conference. As I looked out the window of the mission president’s automobile, I saw a shepherd with a staff in his hand,leading the sheep. They followed him wherever he went. If he moved to the left, they followed him to the left. If he moved to the right, they followed him in that direction. I made the comparison between the true shepherd who led his sheep and the sheepherder who rode casually behind his sheep."

I feel that this is a true principle of the gospel.  What kind of leader are we if we are not showing our kids the way.  If we tell our kids to do something we must do it as well.  Likewise,  they must realize that their education is their responsibility.

"Self-education is, I firmly believe, the only kind of education there is.” 
― Isaac Asimov

The other day my son said "You keep me up too late."  I said,  "You keep yourself up too late."  We and our kids need to stop blaming eachother for things that we do to ourselves.  Sure there are circumstances that affect our lives,  but ultimately it's the choices we make that affect our own lives.  Our kids need to take responsibility for their own actions and not blame parents or anyone else for the outcome.  This too me is "You, Not Them"  and is "Self education".  

No one person can educate another.-Oliver Demille

We can teach, inspire, lead, exemplify,  but ultimately it is up to each person to choose and decide that they want to learn something for themselves.  Until we decide to learn something for ourselves,  we are not truly learning.  

The key for me is to inspire my kids to learn by sharing what I'm learning,  setting rules and parameters like not allowing excessive media in our home, and inviting them to  learn the things I'm learning and things I think that they need to learn.

"You, Not Them" is an important principle that I believe can truly transform homes, schools, churches.  If everyone is taking care of themselves and becoming their best selves,  then we truly would have a whole world of "great" people.  This is what I feel the Celestial Kingdom will be like,  everyone learning and growing to become their best selves.