Final Project for Psy 1220

This Project caused me a lot of stress. It is a paper on my definition of Success written in letter form to my Children. I struggled because I couldn't really wrap my head around what my definition is. It's a great question to really ask yourself and think about.

Erin Godfrey

Success Project

The purpose of this letter is for me to express my knowledge, opinions and lessons learned in creating success in all that I do through out life. Hopefully by reading this letter my posterity will get to know who I am, and how I define success; and how I implement it in my life. 

While contemplating how to define success in life and career, I asked several people what they thought being successful was. By doing this I realized everyone has their own definition. Success is a very personal thing, we all have different aspirations, hopes, fears, trials and dreams. What may be right for one, will not be right for another.

"Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition inspired, and success achieved." 

 Helen Keller

Helen Keller's definition of success is beautiful. It is very true to who I am and how I would define it. In my world things have not always been easy, this I am so grateful for. I have many experiences to help shape and mold my Goals and Life Plan. I am learning to chose to be happy, no matter the circumstance of the day. I am going to College so that I can be educated and set an example for my kids. My idea of Success is achieving the goal of raising a happy, well adjusted family. In the following paragraphs I will dive deep into 3 Core Beliefs that I feel are so very important to develop in order to achieve my personal success in my life as a whole.

Accepting Personal Responsibility for the outcome of our life is the first Core Belief that I find so vital to achieving the goals we set for ourselves. On May 25, 2008 I was 8 months pregnant with my third child Sophie. Hayden was 9 and Gracie was 7. It was a typical Sunday evening, my husband Wes was snoozing on the couch as I was cooking dinner. The kids were quietly playing and doing homework. Within 30 minutes time my life went from perfectly normal to perfectly chaotic. I went from living in the home of my dreams and having pretty much everything I ever wanted to being left homeless with only the clothes on my back due to a record breaking 205 mi per hour winds of a  tornado that flattened my home and blew away most of my belongings. While standing on the lawn looking at the devastation around me I knew I had a choice to make. I could choose to let this horrific event ruin my life by allowing myself to be a victim of the tornado or I could choose to overcome the trial and better myself because of it. I chose the latter and have benefited greatly because of that choice. By taking Personal Responsibility I have created an outcome of gratitude for the blessings and miracles that I witnessed, I recognize that ,though, one of the hardest things I have gone through in my 32 years of life it has strengthened me in ways that were not possible without the trial and devastation of the tornado.

"In the long run, we shape our lives, and we shape ourselves. The process never ends until we die. And the choices we make are ultimately our own responsibility." 

 Eleanor Roosevelt

The second Core Belief that I value as an important role to my success is Self-Motivation. Without it we live from day to day, with no plans or goals insight; by which it makes accomplishment something we never know. Feeling Accomplishment promotes such important things as Happiness and Self-Worth. You must set goals and make a plan. Then the fun part; Visualize yourself accomplishing your goals this will make for great Self-Motivation. As of late, one of my goals is to get my Degree. I have set up mini goals and written out a 5 year plan to help myself achieve this. I visualize the day I get my degree often, I feel the feelings of happiness and this helps me to stay motivated.

"Without ambition one starts nothing. Without work one finishes nothing. The prize will not be sent to you. You have to win it."
 Ralph Waldo Emerson

The third important Core-Belief that I would like to make note of is Self- Awareness. I have made my choice to be Personally Responsible, I have set my goals and recognized my motivation to achieve those goals, but reality sets in and I start to digress...STOP, recognize self-sabotage, learn to recognize self-defeating habits that could potentially take you off the course of accomplishing your goals. Most important learn how to get back on course. We are all living by life rules, whether they are self-empowering or self-destructive. It is important to recognize your rules and make new ones that are self-empowering and let go of the not-so-good ones. My rules are derived from the words of Gordon B. Hinkley, they are as follows:

"Be grateful, be smart, be clean, be true, be humble, be prayerful."
 Gordon B. Hinckley  Way to Be! : 9 Rules For Living the Good Life)

There are many more Core Beliefs that you can form to help in creating a successful well-rounded life, the three I have chosen to highlight are beliefs that are important and personal to me. Not because they happen to be strengths for me but actually because they are all very challenging for me which in the long run make them the most full-filling and beneficial to how I create my own Successful life. My hopes is that this letter will cause self-reflection if not inspiration, and help lead my posterity "On Course".

My Grade: Thanks you Erin for this assignment. I seldom give the whole 100 points but I thought the manner in which you completed this paper was excellent. You followed the directions and included some personal experiences for each of the strategies used!

Congrats!

Bob

100/100

In the Words of Gracie

I am posting two of Gracies recent writings. The first is a paper she had to write in school. It is written as a letter to her Hero. It caught me off guard for a couple of reasons. First it has been a while since I have heard her talk about the Tornado and second she has never expressed her thoughts on the subject of of our home teacher Jason. It is such a sweet letter I thought I would post it so that it will be somewhere digital incase I ever lose it or if I choose to send it to Jason.

The second writing, her notes from Genral Confrence on Easter. They were cute too. Enjoy. ~E

Where to start?

Blogging has taken the back burner in my life. Kind of sad cause it is the only form of journaling I do. Every time I think about doing it, the thought "your so boring, what do you have to write about" rolls though my head. Hopefully though, now that it has been a month maybe I can come up with a few things.

I am back on the HCG diet. Today is the second day. I lost 20lbs the last time and hopefully will do the same this time. It really has been easier this time. I think because once I was done with the first round and could eat crap again, I really noticed how much better I felt physically and mentally when I wasn't eating all of the processed foods. Crossing my fingers for success again this time around.

School has been good, in four weeks I will have 9 credits under my belt. Ha! I know that is not a lot, but, more than none at all! I have really enjoyed my classes, they were all really easy. The hardest part was just keeping up the motivation to study. I am going summer, full time. Hopefully that will be OK, we shall see. I am also going to take math at bridgerland, yikes! My advisor told me that students are having more success taking math there than at the university because of smaller classes and better teachers. I will then have to test out of the class at USU. I really don't like math...oh well, it will be nice to be able to help my kids with 4th and 7th grade math. 3rd and 6th grade math has been a bugger!

Kids are doing good. They are growing into little people, so weird to me. I can have semi-adult conversations with the older two, which is fun, I just wish they would stop getting older. I am so glad to have Sophie, she is keeping me young or maybe making me age? who knows, she is a busy bee.

The other day Hayden and Gracie went to dinner with my dad. Hayden and my Dad were talking the economy. Hayden was explaining to my Dad how capitalism is important, and how Obama seems to be a bit socialist, all of the sudden Gracie piped up and offered her opinion. She said she was so frustrated with all the CEO's that caused the bad economy. My Dad said he almost drove into the burrow pit, he was so shocked by her knowledge. He couldn't stop laughing to tell the story... My kids, they are as bad as me when it comes to walking around with useless facts in there heads, insanity. Poor Wes!

Wes has been really busy lately, he has been working in SLC way more than he has been home, I wonder if we need to move down that way sometimes, then I think of all of the hustle and bustle and traffic and I begin to re-think that. I love Smithfield for so many reasons. I have family here, my kids love the schools they go to and there friends. I am in a ward with amazing women, none of which I can possibly equal ever. But, at least I get to watch them and learn from them, right?

Just a few random thoughts:

Something that has been going through my head today, I don't know why is-
There is opposition in all things. The statement applies to everything, every little situation I have been through(especially this month) I have to keep reminding myself, that it is how you react to the opposition that counts. Some of the places I have noticed the most opposition lately are as follows-

Facebook, great to communicate with friends and family, but, time consuming, addictive in some cases and abusive sometimes.

Family, The most single important thing that we all have is our families. The family unit is so important to heavenly Father and his Eternal plan. Satan knows this and is doing all he can to conquer families. I have had to step back and look at a few situations where I have been guilty of fueling this opposition, I have also had to really take a hard look at my own feelings and how  badly they have been hurt. I have had to try to look at the bigger picture, and really analyze where I need to repent or offer forgiveness. Seriously, this is something I am working on, something that I have had to go to the lord with and beg for help and forgiveness and hearts to be softened.

Food, it's important to feed and nourish our bodies, it's yummy. Sometimes to yummy.

Friends. Pretty much the same story as family. I have a friend who has, seriously probably, 100 best friends, maybe more. I look at her in awe...how does she juggle so many friendships. I have never been one to have a lot of friends. I really don't know why, I usually get hurt or, I am sure, have done the hurting. Sometimes it's hard to be grown ups and have emotions. And try not to be hurt by what some on says or doesn't say. It takes work to be mature about things. Not sure if that makes sense, what I am trying to say is that friends are important, don't give up on them if you have a misunderstanding or a diffrence in opinion.  Work through it, the more people you have in your corner the better.

And besides the few good movies we have seen lately (The diary of a wimpy kid and Bounty Hunter) that is all I have today. happy Easter!

On Sunday it was my turn to give the lesson in Young Women's. I started out with an object lesson, that I think really brought the spirit we needed to really understand the importance of the message. I will share it, and maybe when you need it you can try it.


Take a piece of paper and write down 2 or 3 things that have really made you mad.  It might take a minutes to think about it, but really think and feel the emotions of it. at this point I had the girls close their eyes. I asked them to crumple up the paper and just throw it. Then I held up a sculpture of Christ and had them open there eyes. (if you are doing this right now just picture Christ in your mind) The room went from a bunch of girls snarling and groaning and sharing stories of why they were so mad, to complete silence. Everyone just looked at my sculpture. As the one in front of 25 people, I could see and immediate change in thier countenance. I saw remorse, embarrassment, and reverence. I asked them if they handled the situation the way Christ would have, and if not, how the situations could have been different.


My lesson was on Being a Peacemaker. I was so humbled by the words of the lesson book. Especially because every Sunday morning is such a struggle at our house. It was amazing to hear the girls tell of times when they have taken the higher road, and not let Satan take control of different situations. Again I was reminded how awesome my calling is and how each one of my girls are an example to me. I have posted some quotes that i like. I challenge you, just like I did myself and the girls to really look for opportunities to be a peacemaker, and reflect on what Jesus would do. ~E

"When the real history of mankind is fully disclosed, will it feature the echoes of gunfire or the shaping sound of lullabies? The great armistices made by military men or the peacemaking of women in homes and in neighborhoods? Will what happened in cradles and kitchens prove to be more controlling than what happened in congresses? When the surf of the centuries has made the great pyramids so much sand, the everlasting family will still be standing, because it is a celestial institution, formed outside telestial time. " 

— Neal A Maxwell

"As I have said, the first thing is to be honest with yourself. You can never have an impact on society if you have not changed yourself... Great peacemakers are all people of integrity, of honesty, but humility." 

— Nelson Mandela

"the Beatitudes 

Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. 

Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted. 

Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth. 

Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled. 

Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy. 

Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God. 

Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God. 

Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. 

Matt. 5:3–11"