The Ashton Journal

 Moving Forward with a Driving Passion - 7 important habits The 7 Habits of highly effective people includes: 1. Be Proactive 2. Begin with the end in mind 3. Put first things first 4. Think win/win - we don't need to win at the expense of others 5. Seek first to understand, then to be understood 6. Synergize 7. Sharpen the saw The habit with most meaning and impact for me currently is habit 2, begin with the end in mind. This habit leaks into further habits and, in my mind, functions as a prerequisite habit. Beginning with the end in mind includes mindfulness, intentionality, and visualization of success. My readings within the book Mastery  also helped me better understand this habit- as it aligns very closely with Intentionality.  Intentionality is very similar to embracing the whimsy of manifesting balanced with the presence of mindfulness. It is all about beginning with the end in mind. Mastery describes a very powerful example of intentionality with a golf story of...

Boundaries in Entrepreneurial work Entrepreneurial life is not boundary-less. You can have a balance between work and home life, even if you work for yourself. Set guidelines and rules for work to prioritize family. This is where boundaries come in. You can deepen relationships with your family. Choose and set goals and boundaries from the get go and adjust them as needed. Balance is what leads to a successful and happy life. This concept is validating. You don't have to sacrifice everything to be a successful entrepreneur. It also makes me realize being time conscious and learning how to manage my time will be an invaluable skill to have. Who You are is Unchanging I can grow and change and, my core values are unchanging. My core values is what leads me to personal growth and change. However- who I am at my core will not change. Identify who you are and use it to reach your goals based on how you work as an individual. This is a guiding truth. It reinforces what we have learne...

That Crafty Goblin Update This week has some very impactful takeaways. I am learning a lot. Also - I took an entrepreneurial leap this week. I am officially the small business owner of That Crafty Goblin LLC. This is something I have been sitting on a prepping for about six months. My entrepreneurial studies so far have helped me shift my perspective and take the leap- even though I don't feel fully ready.  Discover your passions and choose a path Something this week laid out well was there is no one right or one best path. There are a series of paths that can all lead us to becoming who we want to be. I is okay to develop skills in many areas and find passion in several. This choice of which direction to go can be daunting, and it can also be exciting and fulfilling. I have lots of passions, the one I have been most focused on recently is crochet. As I have taken various business classes and begun market research, I decided - why not me? If others can follow their crochet passion ...

 My life is a culmination of the choices I make. Choice is huge in entrepreneurial work. Knowing how to make effective choices and take the right action steps can set you apart from others.  This week I had to unlearn the following: If I work the hardest, I will get ahead and find success. This by itself is not true. Knowing how to make effective choices and work efficiently is a more powerful tool to success than simply working hard. For example, I can sit and stab a bag of ice in my freezer with a fork for five minutes to get enough ice out for my drink. This takes hard work, and eventually gets the job done. I also might be pretty annoyed after or have a sore arm. The alternative to this high effort method is taking the bag of ice out of the freezer and hitting it on the counter top once or twice to loosen the ice. Not only is this method faster, it also uses less energy and breaks up the ice to be ready to use for the next several drinks! It is not all about working hard, ...

 I have several takeaways from what I learned this week. While there are several, they are all interconnected with becoming. So, here is what I learned about becoming this week: Strive for growth and learning: As you go about life and develop skills, you learn how to handle new situations based on prior experience. When you have a mindset for personal growth, you have a formula you can apply to any situation to figure out how to navigate it.  Define and stick to your own Code of Conduct: I spent time this week developing my own code of conduct, things I will never or will always do. My personal code of conduct aligns with my strongest value- integrity. As I decide to start a business I want to always take accountability for business choices I make. I also never want to cut corners financially or in quality of what I produce.  Having guardrails protects and maintains proper business ethics: Having business ethics does more than just protect your business from legal issues....

 This week's focus was to create a life of meaning. It was full of goal setting, short and long term. It involved the why behind my goals. This was a good thing to ponder. I have goals. Why do they matter? Why am I setting them? It is because they align with who I am and the type of person I want to become.  We watched a video for class - Randy Pausch's Last Lecture. He has terminal cancer, this was his last lecture. You can tell by his personality that he lived a life of meaning and of love. I want to embrace this love of life. I want to instill it in my child. Pausch made his childhood dreams come true.  Dreaming is so important- it gives momentum to life. It brings nuance and excitement and a desire to grow. One of my childhood dreams was to work with animals professionally. Sometimes this was a desire to be a vet, or work at a wildlife sanctuary, or as a groomer. This was other times to run an animal shelter, or train animals to do tricks. Animals have always been imp...

 Here we go!  I started BUS 110 this week at BYU-Idaho. It is Into to Entrepreneurship. I feel if I can successfully write entrepreneur without looking at the word by the end of the semester I will have succeeded. Here are my two reflections on this week: Make Journaling a Habit: Inspiration will come- and it will also go. Recording thoughts and inspiration as it hits is a way to keep it. Inspiration builds as you learn and grow. Tracking and recording what you are learning and how you are growing will enable you to turn that growth potential into reality. I have wanted a reason to journal for a long time but haven't turned it back into a habit since I was a teenager. I hope this class will kickstart me back into journaling. This will be increasingly helpful as I start my business this year.  Track Lessons You've Learned and Lessons Not Yet Learned: It seems obvious to track lessons you learn in order to reflect and implement them. However, after reading Your Entrepreneur...