** This was my first project in 330 when I was youthful and full of light. Made me laugh out loud reading it again, so I figured I’d toss it in like it’s dirty laundry or gross dishes. What can I say? I’m filling this website to the brim(hall) **
Preface:
Let’s start things off with saying that I have two favorite sentences that people can utter out of their mouths. The first one is, “I have an idea,”. The movers, the shakers, the deal breakers-- all idea people. My uncle Jeff once said, “There are three kinds of people in the world: people who make things happen, people who watch things happen, and people who sit around and wonder what happened.” I really liked what he said in that particular instance. Why? Because it’s true. It’s true to the very core of the sentence. And it all starts with one good person with a great idea. So let’s be the people who make things happen.
The other sentence that’s my favorite is, “Let’s go get Thai food. My treat.” It doesn’t come out very often, and it’s usually from my mom, BUT it’s the fast pass to my heart, so boys (PARTICULARLY Harry Styles), take note.
Chapter one:
So in this chapter they have a lot of quotes about how to get an idea. Kind of looks like my Pinterest boards without 3-9 carat wedding rings in the middle, which is surprisingly a welcome change.
My favorite line of this chapter is that you need to condition your mind before you can get an idea. The word condition automatically brings me back to my days on the Arcadia swim team, when those first few weeks of “conditioning” after summer break would be complete and utter hell, but you watch your body become stronger, faster, and better. It’s a hard process, but it’s one of my favorites, no matter what B.S. I told Coach McClurg, I really am grateful to know what it’s like to get this kind of conditioning. So, bring on the pain. That’s where the growth happens.
Have Fun
As soon as I got to this chapter I stopped, took a Snapchat, added a dope filter & put it on my story psyched out of my mind that this was a chapter in my textbook. True story.
I have always lived my life on a “fun scale”, always trying to have everything I do reach a 10. When I get to those pearly gates, I’m tried for my sins, and I get to meet my maker the number one thing I want God to say to me is, “You lived large, my friend.” And that I was a good person, but, priorities.
The first thing that I think of when it comes to fun is my mom’s side of the family. The Haldeman sisters. She’s the youngest of four girls who have all lived their immensely successful lives in a matter of happiness, laughter, and a straight up good time. They laugh, they love, they break out into random accents at any given moments, and I love them all with a ferocity that I couldn’t even begin to describe. They are my people, and, some of the most creative, intellectual, and kind beings I know.
I read somewhere that you can tell how smart someone is by what they laugh at. Well, I have been held to a caliber of Oxford where others are riding at like, a Paul Mitchell hair school level, so I definitely feel like I have a lot to live up to.
“If it isn’t fun, why do it?”-- Jerry Greenfield. I think I’ll get this tattooed on my forehead to really show that I mean business to recruiters. I think it could have a nice effect.
2. Be More Like a Child
Right off the bat the title of this chapter made me laugh. My best friend is 21 and dating a 32 soon to be 33 year old, and he told her he doesn’t like her friends (aka, me + my two ride or dies) because we’re immature. Says the 32 year old dating a 21 year old. Irony at its finest kids. Since when is having a good sense of humor and having fun being immature? Does it have an expiration date like the yogurt in my fridge? Live and let live buddy.
I loved the line that said, “Become a question mark again.” I think it gets taken away too quickly for the fear of being wrong. Well, it’s a good thing I’m pretty dece at other things because I’m straight crap at math. Have me write you a compelling and artfully crafted essay about Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy, but for the love of gosh PLEASE don’t make me solve for x.
I knew I was bad at math in third grade. We just moved from Las Vegas to Phoenix and a whole different math program was in place than what I knew. I couldn’t get my times tables down and I was asking a bunch of questions to Miss Brennan when Parker Jax, who was obviously in the gifted math class, asked me if I was “stupid or something”. I was so horribly embarrassed I rarely ever asked any questions again and I just kind of accepted that I was an idiot when it came to math.
I wonder what would have happened if I would have kept asking questions? Maybe I would have ended up at NASA. Maybe I would have been the brains of an Transatlantic meth sale. Who knows? But since I let Parker Jax intimidate me, it won’t be me. AND, now I have a plagued hatred for anyone with the name Parker because of that little crap head.
It’s time to change that. Question everything, and anything. I’m excited to become a beginner again.
3. Become Idea-Prone
I liked the line that said, “When I first started teaching I told my students that for every problem there was a solution, an answer, an idea. I was wrong… there are hundreds,”.
You know, back to my math debacle, I think that this also calculated to the fire-y burst of hatred, because I can’t stand the idea of only having one right answer.
It’s like those girls in Relief Society that are adamant they only have one soul mate, and that’s it. Not true. Wrong. Inaccurate. There are multiple answers to everything, and that’s the best part about life is seeing all the different answers and how they worked out. Look again, there’s always another right answer, sometimes you just have to go with the next best one.
(Don’t apply this to a multiple choice math quiz where you pick the answer closest to the one you got. Been there, done that, it wasn’t pretty and 0/10 would recommend).
Okay, but the line of this chapter that is crucial is, “First, you must accept that what you think about yourself is the single most important factor in your success,”. I spent my summer reading a lot of funny women’s memoirs (S/o to my no.1 Mindy Kaling) and listening to a lot of Oprah’s podcasts. I have never felt more empowered or like what I can do can make a difference. There is no one that’s going to cheer for myself more than me, and being on my own team will be the greatest pleasure I’ll ever have. All I have everyday, consistently, is me, so I better be pretty freaking stoked about it.
4. Visualize Success
This chapter reminded me of when I tore my ACL, MCL and part of my meniscus. Basically, I completely obliterated my left knee and gave up 15 years of running + swimming muscle that my body rightfully earned.
I was devastated.
Not only that, but I tore it in September of 2016 and was signed up to go on my London study abroad in January of 2017. Fourteen weeks to heal, get better, and get ready to go. My first day at physical therapy after surgery I started crying on the foam stuffed table because of I couldn’t believe how my body had betrayed me. Luckily, I had a superstar for a physical therapist. Cici had me close my eyes and imagine walking around London. She promised me she’d have me ready to go and that if I trusted her, that it would all work out. Basically, a savior superiority complex-- but it worked. I took my crushed vase, turned it into a mosaic, and to this day it’s one of the main experiences that I feel defines my life.
The mind is a powerful tool, and I really believe that with a god-sent mindset and some elbow grease, we can do anything we apply ourselves to.
5. Rejoice in Failure
There is nothing that shapes character faster than failing. Realizing what doesn’t work, figuring out what does, and finding joy in not being the best.
I was THE BIGGEST try hard in high school. AP classes, swim team, swim captain, five clubs where I was the president of three-- all for the hopes of getting into BYU.
But, I didn’t. I was rejected when I applied and I went to BYU Idaho for a year, crying the entire way up to the middle of nowhere wasteland. Little did I know that the middle of nowhere wasteland would supply some of the best times of my life. I met some of my best friends, got a huge majority of my generals out of the way, and had so much fun. You see, there’s never failure, there’s just different paths to success that don’t involve always getting what you want.
I really don’t believe in failure. We, as humans, don’t set out to do things with the intent to fail. We do something hoping that it will be right and bring us happiness, and when it doesn’t, we think we failed. It’s not true. Experience is what you get when you don’t get what you want. And that's the tea, sis.
6. Get More Inputs
The more I talk to people, the more I learn. The more I create, the more I learn. I think that being able to learn is one of the greatest joys that this life has to offer.
I love the part about getting out of your rut. Get out of your comfort zone. You know what you like, but let’s try something we think we don’t like. That’s where the magic in life is.
I took a painting class this summer, and it was so hard. I have a newfound respect for Claude Monet that I never knew before, but it stretched me. And I learned I’m not great at painting.
My mom always encouraged us to try everything, because we never know what we might be good at.