August 24, 2008 Meeting

Though summer took it's toll on attendance, we had a good meeting that focused on developing our Personal Mission Statements and learning about Core or Governing Values! If you couldn't make the meeting, the audio clips are included below.

Personal Mission Statements
Personal mission statements require us to define and write down what our key roles are in all aspects of our life: employee, spouse, caregiver, church member, teacher, team leader. . . we all have different roles. We define what our role should be in those areas or what our role will become as we begin working to improve. We try to foresee what our role will be like as we want it to be years from now.

Will our mission statements change?
Over time we'll continue to grow and to learn. God will move us through seasons in our walk with Him. Although our core values probably never change, our roles and the mission may change over years of growth.

Governing or Core Values
Every person is born with an individual personality, gifts, talents and values that are somehow imparted into us. We hone our personalities, use the gifts, and develop the talents but typically our values remain fairly constant. We grow in our understanding of them, and once we recognize what they are and what they really mean to us, we seek goals that will fulfill them. Benjamin Franklin carried his throughout his life and every week focused on one of them in order to keep his "internal compass" always pointed towards them. It brought him success and inner peace throughout his life.

Homework
1 Complete your Personal Mission Statement - write it down. Think about your roles as you want them to be, not necessarily as they are.
2 Read the handouts on Governing Values from the Franklin Covey system. Take notes so that you fully grasp the concepts.
3 Begin developing your Governing Values. Form a list of things you are willing to cross the "I-Beam" for! Then write down what that value means to you in your own words.

Audio from the August 24th meeting:

Discussion about Personal Mission Statements

Governing Values with excerpts from Hyrum Smith's training

Homework discussion and close

Note: Although the main text for our study is Newberry's "Success Is Not An Accident," we'll draw heavily from the Franklin Covey time management process. To learn more about Franklin Covey or Franklin Quest the following books are recommended: Time Management, An Introduction to the Franklin System - Richard I Winwood, and The 10 Natural Laws of Successful Time and Life Management - Hyrum W Smith. The latter is still in print, however both can be found on Amazon. They cover Governing Values very well along with a lot of other great practical applications for life management.