A little behind

Last week I came down with a case of bronchitis. I spent most of last weekend resting to get better before school started up again on Monday. I must have really needed the rest because I took a seven hour nap Sunday afternoon, then went to bed around 11PM and slept all through the night till 7AM. Unfortunately, this means that I forgot to write in my blog last week. I will make sure that I write twice next week to make up for the lost week.  Hopefully I can still get credit for writing in my blog as long as I have enough entries for the whole semester.

I am feeling much better though. I still have a bunch of junk in my lungs that cause me wheeze a little when I breath and make it so I don't get my normal amount of oxygen when breathing, so everyday activities (like climbing stairs) can cause me to become winded. 

Other than that it has been a good week. I am excited as finals are approaching because I have done well in all my classes thus far and don't have lots of catching up to do with all of my classes.

What Attire do YOUR Opportunities Dress in?

One of my favorite quotes is from Thomas Edison. He said that, "Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work."  After watching my Grandfather all my life, I dare say that on occasion Opportunity takes the liberty of dressing in coveralls instead of overalls. Regardless of whichever attire Opportunity decides to dress in, the meaning of the quote is the same--people miss out on great opportunities in life, because they shy away from work. 

Today in church we read a quote by President David O. McKay which read, "Let us realize that the privilege to work is a gift, that power to work is a blessing, and that love of work is success." After hearing this quote, I quickly scribbled it down on the sacrament program which I was using to practice my signature. Only a few hours previously I had been thinking that I was blessed with the discipline to work. After mulling the meaning of this quote over for a few minutes in my head, I realized that I have been given the privilege to work, I have been blessed with the power and capability to work, but if I want to truly become “successful” I have to learn to love work.

The success I am talking about has nothing to do with monetary success, but rather succeeding in life itself. The Book of Mormon tells us “men are that they might have joy,” or put in other words, people are supposed to enjoy life and be happy.  It is no surprise that life has its challenges which seem to consume us. These challenges are given to us so that we can grow, not to bare us down and depress us.

Furthermore, we are supposed to work in this life.  Heavenly Father did not create us so that we can simply come here to Earth to gain a body and lounge around all day.  Christ himself warned against wasting our time and talents. Even in the Garden of Eden, Christ commanded Adam to work and keep the garden, not to simply enjoy the garden and lie in the flowers all day long. 

Understanding these two principles (we are to be happy and joyful, and we are to work), hopefully helps you to understand what I mean when I say that I need to learn to work in order to be successful in life, because if I hate working and it makes me angry, then I never have a chance at finding joy in a life filled with work.

Pooped

I am exhausted.  I got about 3 hours of sleep last night. I wish I could blame my lack of sleep on performing a noble deed, but in reality it is a result of what I call suffocation from procrastination.  In other words, I did homework late into the night last night because I chose to spend my time doing other things earlier this weekend.  Fortunately, I can say that I didn’t waste time this weekend; I was simply taking care of other worth wile things that needed to get done.  

This morning I woke up early to go into work.  This is the big struggle in my life right now.  I would prefer not to not work on Sundays, but with my job it is required that I work some Sundays. The nice thing about Home Depot is that they are kind enough to work with my schedule and allow me to simply pull a three to four hour shift in the morning and then go to church in the afternoon. 

The struggle occurs because I have been taught all my life to not work on Sundays.  I remember being in Sunday school classes my whole life and answering the moral dilemma of working on Sundays with a firm, “I will not work on Sundays.  I will have enough faith that God will provide other ways for me to make money.”  Also, I remember when I first got my job with The Home Depot I felt at peace with the fact that I was going to have to work on Sundays occasionally.
 

Recently I have been wondering if it is time for me to personally progress in life and find a different job that does not require that I work on Sundays or if God understands my situation and does not require that I find a new job at this point in my life.  Obviously, long-term Heavenly Father wants me to find a job that does not require I work on Sundays, but know He understands every situation and makes exceptions accordingly. What I need to do is find out wither my feelings for a change are coming from Heavenly Father, or if they are from Satan trying to get me to feel miserable.  

Well that’s enough of my personal struggle for the day.  The next topic that I want to talk about is dishonesty.  For a business research paper I am doing in my management communication class, I am researching theft in the work place.  Using data from a couple different sources I have found that about $219 billion are stolen every year from employees within a company.  This number includes time theft (wasted time by employees that they receive compensation for) and fraud from within a company.  

According to my research gathered from other sources about $177 billion are stolen from employees that simply waste time, and the other $42 billion resulting from fraud existing within the businesses.  These numbers initially shocked me, but after a little consideration they make more since. What I find so appalling is the fact that money stolen by employees who are simply wasting time is more than 4 times greater than the amount stolen by thieves. This illustrates the true fact that diligence in the work place is a rare attribute found in employees.  It is sad that so much money is wasted, and almost looked upon as acceptable, every year by people who are simply lazy or lack the discipline to work diligently.  

It is now time for bed.  Goodnight world.  I am going to dream of a more honest place and then awake to do my part to fix the dishonesty problem found here in reality.  Until then, behave yourself!