Layout: A Moment Frozen

 

Sweet Digi Scraps has a wonderful new kit available at The Digi Chick called “Memories Past”.  It is made for those pictures from my childhood although it works quite well with more recent pictures also!

Dream Manager: January 2014

 

Session 12:

Your Character is Your Destiny

“The shortest and surest way to live with honor in the world is to be in reality what we would appear to be; all human virtues increase and strengthen themselves by the practice and experience of them.” ~~ Socrates

Our last session of year one. Unfortunately due to weather issues, 3 of our members were unable to attend.

We discussed our reflections on the first year by answering the following:

• How is your life different today than before you began the program?
• I have more confidence in myself
• I am more confident in my future
• I have become closer to family

Next up for discussion…

What are virtues?

• Virtue is the ultimate organizing principle. All of life is relationships. Two patient people will always have a better relationship than two impatient people.
• Virtues are attitudes, dispositions, or character traits that enable us to be and act in ways that develop our potential to become the-best-version-of-ourselves.
• Our lives only genuinely improve when we grown in virtue.

Virtue… the ultimate positive habit

• What virtues are most important for you to grow in if you are to achieve your dreams?
• Compassion
• Diligence
• Fairness
• Fidelity
• Forgiveness
• Generosity
• Humility
• Justice
• Kindness
• Patience
• Prudence
• Self-Control
• What are your obstacles to virtue? (Activities, thought patterns, habits, people, or places)
• What virtue do you most admire? What virtue was most celebrated in your family growing up?

Your character is your destiny:

• What role does virtue play in your life? Select a virtue for discussion and share how working on that virtue could impact your character and your destiny. Use the following progression:
• Thoughts create actions
• Actions create habits
• Habits create character
• Your character is your destiny

We got the good news that we would be continuing on in the program for year 2.  We would have 4 group meetings and do a lot of the work on our own. Kim will email us assignments throughout the year.

Then she gave us take-home assignments to get us started…

• What are three areas of your life, dreams, or habits that you would like to focus on in the next 12 months?
• What are ways in which you can grown in virtue? How can you practice, develop, and exercise virtue in your life?
• How can you ensure you stay connected and committed to living your dreams?

After our group session and the individual sessions, we had a “graduation” ceremony and luncheon.  Our chef, Dale, made a lunch for us and presented a graduation speech. A long-time dream of his had been to give a graduation speech so he did.

Bob Hager (our company president) and Vickie Roby (Human Resources) also attended our luncheon.  Bob was pleased with the way the program had progressed during the first year and was excited about starting it with a new group in 2014. 

One of our group had fulfilled a dream of learning how to do wood burning. She had presented Kim a plaque during our December meeting. Kim had then commissioned a plaque for each member of the group as a present for completing the first year!

Here I am receiving my plaque from Bob and Vickie.

I had advance notice about the graduation speech so I bought each participant a “Class of 2013” visor which was also given out.

Here’s our group on graduation day.

Bev, Kim, Wendy, Dale, Jane, Becky, Rene’ and Bob.  Dan, Fernando and Alex were missing due to work issues at their locations.  We lost one participant earlier in the year when he left Miller’s.

It’s been a wonderful learning experience and has forced me to dig deep into learning about myself.  I’ve also learned that it is NEVER TOO LATE TO DREAM!!!

Next up… Continuing Your Success Journey.

Dream Manager: December 2013

 

Session 11:

Professional Mastery

“I visualized where I wanted to be, what kind of player I wanted to become. I knew exactly where I wanted to go, and I focused on getting there.” ~~ Michael Jordan

We started off the session with our discussion of our take-home from the spiritual mastery session. It was interesting to see what characters from books, movies or plays that we admire.  I had chosen the character of “Angel” from the movie/Broadway play “Rent”.  A character that is living life to the fullest even knowing that he will not be around long since he has full-blown AIDS. His belief in life seemed so spiritual to me.

The purpose of the Dream Manager program is not professional growth although it is an important part of our lives.  Personal and professional successes are interconnected.

We broke into groups of 2 and discussed the following:

• What have been your professional dreams in the past?
• What were they as a child?
• What were they in high school?
• What professional dreams have you developed or accomplished since we started the program?
• What are some of your professional dreams for the future?

Kim listens to our discussions and uses what she hears to lead our group discussion.  She singled me out because she heard me say I always wanted to be a teacher.  She had me tie that to my current dream of leading the Core Financial Wellness program. Others also shared their former/current professional dreams.

Professional target dreams:

• What are you willing to do to accomplish these professional target dreams?
• What should you focus on to achieve these target dreams.

We then had to record our professional dreams we want to achieve in the next 12 months, 1 to 5 years, and 5+ years and what specific, measurable, and realistic things needed to accomplish these dreams along with who would be our partners to help us in these dreams.

At the end of the session, Kim told us to think about this question and write down our answers before our next session:

If you could speak openly and honestly with your manager, what would you tell him or her?

Other take-home included to complete the target dream action plans for our professional dreams.

Next session… Your Character Is Your Destiny!

Dream Manager: November 2013 Individual

 

My 5th individual session with Kim was in November.

I updated her on the progress of the Core Financial Wellness program that would be starting in January.  We will be having approximately 8 to 10 participants.

We also talked about how I hoped that the group I’m in would be able to continue on with year 2 of the program as well as bringing in a new group of employees for year 1.

Kim definitely encourages us and pushes us to work harder on our dreams and I enjoy these individual discussions with her.

Dream Manager: November 2013

Session 10:

Spiritual Mastery

“We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience.” ~~ Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
We checked in on our scorecards and dream lists then started discussing what spiritual mastery means to us by considering the following questions:

• What is spirituality to you?
• What are your spiritual dreams?
• What are the spiritual qualities that you would like to develop?
• Describe the last time that you felt at peace spiritually…whatever that means to you. What can you do in the next 30 days to create that sense of peace again?

Spiritual disciplines create self-possession

• Silence – How do you react to silence? How does quite time impact you? Do you find that the voice within encourages you to become the-best-version-of-yourself?
• Solitude – Have you ever been to the movies by yourself? How did it or how would it make you feel? What can you do to become more comfortable in your own company?
• Stillness – If you sat in a chair and put a stopwatch in front of you, how long could you sit completely still? Do you control your body or does your body control you?

Are you free? Consider the definitions below and offer your reaction:

• Freedom is the ability to do whatever you want, wherever you want, with no interference from anybody else.
• Freedom is the ability to choose whatever will allow you to become the-best-version-of-yourself throughout the day.

Our take-home this session included the following:

• Identify characters in books, movies, or plays who you admire for their spiritual mastery. What are the qualities or habits that these characters possess?
• Revisit our spiritual dreams and add to our dream list.
• How can you share what you learned today with others in your life?

Next session… Professional Mastery!

Dream Manager: October 2013

Session 9:

Intellectual Mastery

We started by examining our scorecards and checking in on our dream lists sharing what dreams we are working on and/or completed.
Some of the questions we had to consider this session were:

• What are your intellectual dreams?
• What are your intellectual strengths?
• What are your intellectual weaknesses?
• What are the intellectual qualities that you admire the most in other people?
• Describe a time when you felt like you were at your intellectual best.

We then had to consider these sub-questions to the main question of “What might intellectual mastery look like for you?”

• If you were paid $1000 per hour to learn, what would you learn and why?
• Describe a time when you learned something that you thought was out of your reach or that you didn’t want to learn.
• What does the term “life-long learner” mean to you and how might that concept apply in your life?

As part of our take-home, we had to make a list of 10 books to read, presentations to listen to, workshops to attend, museums to visit, or other activities that you would like to experience as a way to explore the intellectual area of your life.
My list ended up like this:

1. Cincinnati Underground Tour on Nov 23 – done
2. read “Battle of Leyte Gulf”
3. read “First Man”
4. read “Steve Jobs”
5. read “A Stolen Life”
6. read “Omaha Beach D-Day”
7. read “Restoreth My Soul” – done
8. read “Beside Still Waters” – done
9. read “To The Grave” – done
10. read “Last Queen of England” – done

Glad to know I’ve done half of them!

Next session… Spiritual Mastery!

Dream Manager: September 2013 Individual

 

My 4th individual session with Kim was in September.  Due to the holiday we had our meetings later in the month. So I had already presented my lunch ‘n learn before our meeting.

I updated Kim on how it went (awesome!) and the interest from fellow employees.  We discussed how to move forward with the actual implementation of the program.

We also talked about my progress on some of my other dreams.  Here’s a picture from the beginning of my presentation.

Another very productive meeting!

Layout: Fireworks

Ever wish there was a kit out there to scrap your fireworks pictures that wasn’t red, white and blue?  Sweet Digi Scrap’s to the rescue! She has released a kit called “Sparkle and Boom” that is absolutely gorgeous. You can find it at The Digi Chick.

Dream Manager: September 2013

Session 8:

Emotional Mastery

This session we examined the emotional area of our life. We also talked about The Seven Levels of Intimacy model.
After talking about our scorecard, we then worked on answering questions.
Identify three relationships in your life that are not working well. Then we had to answer these questions:

• Do the other people in these relationships feel the same way?
• How might you raise this issue with these people?
• How might you improve these relationships?

We next had to identify 3 relationships that are thriving. Then answer these questions:

• What does a great relationship look like to you?
• Identify three to five characteristics of a great relationship.

The Seven Levels of Intimacy overview

Every relationship improves when communication improves.

1. Clichés – In the first level of intimacy we simply communicate in clichés. The first level allows us to “warm-up” in conversations and interactions, but we cannot allow our relationships to get stuck here. What relationships in your life need to move beyond the first level?
2. Facts – In the second level of intimacy we tend to talk about the facts of our lives and usually focus on the impersonal facts like food, the weather, the stock market, or the results from the ballgame. In the second level the challenge is to move the conversation toward more personal facts. Who do you avoid sharing personal facts with in your life?
3. Opinions – The third level of intimacy is where every relationship gets into trouble. The reason is because we all have different opinions which have been formed by our education and experience. Here it is critical to recognize that opinions are constantly evolving based on new experiences and new education. It is this insight that empowers us to accept people with radically different opinions. How do you feel this insight will enable you to be more accepting of people with different opinions?
4. Hopes and Dreams – When we know the dreams of the people around us, we want to help them live those dreams. Nothing is more fulfilling than helping someone live a dream. We love the people who help us live our dreams. Do you know the dreams of your family, friends, and colleagues?
5. Feelings – The fifth level of intimacy is about knowing our feelings and being able to express them at the right time, in the right place, and to the right person. In what way can you grow in this area?
6. Fears, Faults, and Failures – Nothing stops us from becoming the-best-version-of-ourselves like fear. Leaders want to know their faults so they can either transform them into strengths or so that they can surround themselves with people who complement their weaknesses. When we reveal our failures, we give other people permission to be human. How does the sixth level of intimacy most challenge you to grow?
7. Legitimate Needs – We are happiest not when we get what we want, but when we have what we need. We have legitimate needs in all four areas: physical, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual. These needs are most basically understood with the following example: If you do not breathe or eat, you will die. What are some of your legitimate needs?

Then we needed to answer the question: How might you use The Seven Levels of Intimacy model to help improve your relationships?

Next session… Intellectual Mastery!

Layout: Metamorphosis

 

Sweet Digi Scrap’s newest kit is “Off The Path”, now available at The Digichick.  I used it and a template from Scrapping With Liz’s Recyclables 26 collection to do this page about the butterfly garden Dennis and Allison are creating in their backyard.  Involving the kids in the process is a complete learning experience.

Dream Manager: August 2013

Session 7:
Physical Mastery
After our review of session 6 activities and our scorecard check-in, we started discussing the topic of physical mastery.
First: Rest and how does sleep impact your energy. We discussed our how many hours of sleep we need to feel our best and how we can optimize the amount and quality of sleep we get.
Next: Exercise. Do we have an exercise routine and if we do, what is it. Are we faithful to it. If we don’t have a routine, what do we think our exercise routine should be. We then had to answer the following:

• If you exercised 3 times a week, every week for an entire year, how would:
• You feel?
• Your life change?
• Your clothes feel and look?
• Your energy increase?
• What can you do to stick with your existing exercise routine or to improve your exercise habits?

Next: Food. What does your body tell you about food?

• Do you ever use food for…
• Comfort?
• Entertainment?
• Distraction?
• Fuel?
• What are foods that energize you and that drain you?

Trying to think of foods that energize and drain us was hard! We were supposed to think of 10 foods for each.  I could only come up with 6 for energizing and 7 for draining.  Then we had to answer the question about why we eat the foods that drain us (they taste good!!!!). Then we needed to answer the question of what can we do to consume more of the foods that are energizing for us.
Homework included reading from The Rhythm of Life and finishing our lists of energizing and draining foods.
Next session… Emotional Mastery!

Dream Manager: July 2013 Individual

I had my 3rd individual session with Kim in July.  We talked a little about my vacation in May and then started focusing on my dream of bringing Core Financial Wellness to the company.
I updated her on my steps for this dream:

• following the FPU program myself – in progress
• investigate whether FPU vs Core Financial Wellness would be a better program – will contact Lampo Group to discuss this
• present a Financial Wellness luncheon for interested employees – scheduled for sometime in September

I had planned on listening to my FPU CD’s on my vacation and I did.  I made it thru the 13 week and the 9 week of CD’s in their entirety.  I was also able to start listening to the 13 week set again.
I had also started putting together ideas of what I would present in the FW lunch and learn.
Next step is to put together a PowerPoint presentation of about 45 minutes for the lunch and learn.  Once we set a specific date, HR will post sign up sheets and it will be publicized on the digital display boards.
Felt very energized after the session!

Dream Manager: July 2013

 

Session 6:

Time and Energy

Again we started by reviewing our session 5 homework and a check-in on our scorecard.

Part of our activities included choosing a word from this list that best describes how we feel in our everyday life and another word that best describes how we feel when at work.

• Angry
• Anxious
• Burned-out
• Confident
• Defeated
• Defensive
• Depressed
• Enthusiastic
• Exhausted
• Fearful
• Invigorated
• Joyful
• Mellow
• Overwhelmed
• Resentful
• Serene

My words were Confident for work and Serene for Life.

Next we discussed the 4 levels of energy and where our selections put us in the levels.

• Level 1 = depressed, exhausted, burned-out, overwhelmed, defeated
• Level 2 = angry, fearful, anxious, defensive, resentful
• Level 3 = mellow, serene
• Level 4 = confident, joyful, enthusiastic, invigorated

We then talked about where our time goes by filling out a personal time inventory record. This is pretty much a chart of the 24 hours of the day broken down in 30 minute increments starting at midnight.  We had to fill one out during our session of the previous day.  Our homework included filling out another one with what we would consider our ideal time inventory. We had to consider where we would spend less time, where we would spend more time and do we take time to reflect and work on our dreams.

We also talked about what person, place or activity increases our energy and what person, place or activity decreases our energy. 

Our homework included answering the following question: What are 3 things you can do this month to increase your energy?  As stated above, we had to complete our ideal time inventory.

Next session… Physical Mastery!

Layout: Blue Streak

 

Sweet Digi Scraps is back!  Her newest release is now available at The DigiChick, Choose Happiness.

I used it to scrap my favorite roller coaster at Cedar Point.  Because whenever I think of the Blue Streak, I smile!  It is definitely an “oldie but goodie” in the roller coaster world.  One of my fondest memories of Cedar Point is when a friend and I rode the Blue Streak 5 or 6 times in a row.  We got off a ride and hopped right back on!  It was in the evening and the park had pretty much cleared out after a late afternoon downpour.

I just love this ride…

… and Sweet Digi Scrap’s kit is great too!  Template is by Scrapping With Liz.

Sweet Digi Scraps Sale!

 

Be sure to check out the kits Liz of Sweet Digi Scraps has on sale at The DigiChick this weekend.  Here are a few of my layouts using the kits…

Kit: Shore Thing

 

Kit: Summertime

 

Kit: Tea 4 Two

 

Kit: Fun Night

 

 

Kit: Summer Daze

 

Kit: Find Yourself, The Scholar

 

Other kits on sale: Life’s Lemonade; Find Yourself, The Photographer; Find Yourself, The Performer; Find Yourself, The Trainer; Find Yourself, The Daydreamer; Find Yourself, The Crafter; Find Yourself, The Artist; Find Yourself, The Undecided

All kits are $1.00

HURRY! Sale ends soon!

Dream Manager: June 2013

Session 5:

The Genius of Personality

We started by reviewing our session 4 homework along with our check-in and discussion of our reading from the book.

Kim then handed out the results of our short quiz to determine our Myers-Briggs personality type. We looked over our results and discussed whether they were right.  During the month I had found several Myers-Briggs quizzes on the internet. Depending on the questions, I would come up with different results.  My result from Kim’s quiz was ISFP: Introverted-Sensing-Feeling- Perceptive.  At home, my results were either ISFP or ISFJ.  More of the ISFJ though. ISFJ: Introverted-Sensing-Feeling-Judging.

When reading through the descriptions of these 2 personality types at several different websites, I always came back to the ISFJ as my type. We discussed our personality types during our session and for the most part everyone felt that their type fit them.

Each month we also would spend a few minutes celebrating the achievement of dreams.  If we could, we would share pictures.  This session was my turn to brag...  I had taken my first ever 2 week vacation.  In a way, this one dream also had some other dreams involved with it.  I wanted to see the Wright Bros Memorial located in the Outer Banks, NC.  Dad and I did this. It was a great day spent with my Dad. He enjoyed it as much as I did! I also wanted to experience some part of WDW with Allison and her kids. Allison, Wendy, the kids and I spent a day at the Animal Kingdom. It was a great time and Allison was glad I was along so she could ride Expedition Everest! I also made it to the Magic Kingdom.  Never thought I’d spend a day walking around there by myself but I did.  Bruce did come over and meet me for the evening.  We also had a great time. It was so nice to spend some alone time with my “big brother”. I really should just do some posts about my vacation!

Homework included more reading and also exploring our personality type:

• How might your personality type impact your group interaction?
• How can you explore your opposite personality type so that you could learn more about yourself and others?
• How might your personality type impact your conflict style?
• How does your personality type reflect jobs or work situations when you’ve succeeded or faced challenges?
• What personality type strength do you most celebrate?

Next session… Time and Energy!

Dream Manager: May 2013 Individual

 

We discussed my final plans for vacation. Since everything was under control with that, we started discussing my dream of bringing the Core Financial Wellness program to the company.

My steps for this dream consisted of:

• follow the FPU program myself – in progress
• investigate whether FPU vs Core Financial Wellness would be a better program
• present a Financial Wellness luncheon for interested employees – sometime in the fall

I also planned on listening to my 2 sets of FPU CD’s as I drove the highways during my vacation. They are very motivating to me and would give me ideas of what to present in the luncheon.

Another energizing session!

Layout: You Complete Me

 

Those words sum up how I felt the first time I saw each of my kids and held them in my hands.  I had fallen in love with them from pictures, but holding them just completed me.

Sweet Digi Scrap’s “You Complete Me” kit and template were used for this layout.

Layout: A Hero Takes Flight

 

I am very proud of the fact that my hometown is also the hometown of a real American hero, Neil Armstrong.  Neil not only served in the military during the Korean War, he was the “first man to walk on the moon” in 1969.

Dad and Neil were in high school at the same time and the same age although Neil was a year ahead of Dad because of skipping a grade in school. Mom’s parents were very good friends of Neil’s parents and because of that we also knew them.  When Mom and Dad built our house, we were living very close to Mr and Mrs Armstrong. In fact, I can see that house from my office window.

We were given a photo with Neil’s signature that has been proudly displayed in our home all these years.  I decided it was time to scan and scrapbook the picture along with a picture I took of a drawing exhibited at the Neil Armstrong Air & Space Museum.

I used Sweet Digi Scrap’s kit “Comic Heroes”.

Dream Manager: May 2013

Session 4:

Money and Your Dreams, Part 2

Besides the review of our reading and our check-in, we discussed how we felt about doing the homework.  A few participants had a hard time with it but saw the need to become more comfortable with budgeting.  Both Kim and I emphasized that budgeting is the key to you being successful since you are telling your money where to go, not wondering where it went. Yes, Kim was a participant in a Financial Peace University class at this time and I’ve participated in several classes myself.

We did an exercise on calculating a number where we would feel “financially free”. Then discussing what things cost in relation to that number. We also talked about the financial component of our dreams. Some dreams will cost us more than others and we need to account for the cost in our planning for the dreams.  We also talked about calculating our net worth at this specific point in time.  We can come back to that later and see how things are going.

Before ending the session, we had to do short personality type quiz. Kim would give us our results in the next session.

Our homework includes completing the financial components for our target dreams and to calculate our net worth calculation.  We also needed to look at what works and what doesn’t work in our budget and what is the hardest thing about implementing the budget.

In doing my homework (after my vacation), I did some internet research on the cost of apartments in the Orlando area.  I’m seriously thinking about retiring there!

Myers-Briggs personality types in the next post!