4 Reasons to get a Personal Assistant

Dear Personal Assistant,

I regret to inform you that you no longer have a job. It's not that I found someone else, or that I don't have a need for you anymore, your work is simply unsatisfactory.

The past 5 days I've come home from work and my house is not clean. There are dishes in the sink, clothes that need to be put away, and my bed is never made .I don't understand what you do at my house all day because I can never tell you're there. I'm starting to see why you disappear right before I get home now so I never have the chance to confront you.

I got on my phone today and only had 24 MBs of storage left. Did you not remember to delete all the random pictures off my phone that take up so much unnecessary space? What about all the apps I don't use anymore but downloaded because they were in the top 10 must have apps of 2014? I even checked my email and found 261 junk messages in my Inbox that you never sifted through. Did you forget my passcode?

Yesterday, you let me get all the way to work in business casual attire when it was business professional day! I had to drive right back home to put a suit on so I could take to the investment managers.

Your primary function, also my biggest pet peeve, was to go grocery shopping. I don't know about you, but I've been pretty hungry lately due to the lack of edibles in my kitchen. Today I had to eat a rabbit's food!

I cannot fathom your passive aggressive nature of boycotting work. It is unfortunate that our relationship has to end this way, but I think it's for the best. Please do not use my as a reference for your next Person, because I cannot lie.

Sincerely,

Your Imaginary Employer

Life isn't about Happiness

We are not living the Pursuit of Happiness. People who strive their whole lives to 'find happiness' are just wasting their time. It is not the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. So if our lives aren't about being happy, why do we continually make decisions based on what will make us happy?

Philippians 2:3-4 says 'Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others about yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the other.' In case you missed it, it's saying my life isn't about me. I didn't put myself on this earth, God did. When I was younger, I got a giant doll house for my birthday. It was literally as tall as I was and I got to arrange the furniture, play with the little dolls, and imagine a world any way I wanted to. I was in total control. I can't even imagine how upset I would have been if my little figurines started moving themselves around like they could do whatever they wanted. I was definitely the ruler of the doll village, not the dolls.

Sometimes it's easier for me to understand how my life isn't about me when it's in the context of it was never 'my' life to begin with. God's plan for me is why I'm here and I passionately believe I need to help others instead of helping myself. Figuring out my life trajectory should be answering how can I help others get ahead instead of how I can get ahead. I don't need to even ponder what I can do that would make me happy, it's all about what can I do that will help people the most. I am a child of the Creator of the universe, so obviously I plan on changing the world with God. But nothing will happen until I get myself out of the way and start putting others interests ahead of my own.

I always knew I wanted a career doing thing that would help other people. I'm not as completely selfish as I may come off. My disconnect is where I thought building myself up and gaining power is how I could turn around and help people the most. The most influential people in the world are never the ones who make the biggest impact on people. Consider the Wright brothers. They were underqualified, underfunded, and undereducation. But it was their determination that lead them to learn how to fly. That one invention has impacted people all over the globe and changed everyone's world. I don't need to be a CEO of a fortune 500 company, or the president of the US, or some global chairman. All it takes to change the world is the determination to help others.

After college, there is an abundance of freedom. Not only in your daily activities, but in your direction. There is no specific path that you have to follow, or uniform structure to how things should pan out. This is the time when we have our chance to make life anything we want. Unfortunately, the majority of people I've met have decided that all they want from life is to be 'happy.' No offense, or maybe a little offense, but that is the biggest waste of a life goal there is. At your funeral, the one thing people will say about you was 'Oh well at least she was happy!' Absolutely not. I refuse to waste the one chance I have to make a difference in the world on a selfish ambition.

Every Dream Can't Come True

Growing up we are all told of these huge opportunities and how we can do everything. I think I've started to take this too literally and feel is a requirement to do everything. I put an unrealistic amount of pressure on myself to accomplish everything, without priority, to prove every negative person wrong, no matter the cost, and to be successful. I'm finally getting my dose of reality.

I've started having lunch at the park. Normally, I'll just eat in the kitchen at my office, but sometimes I feel too surrounded and need some space to breath. The park has lots of space. I'm starting to discover that my thought need a lot of space to develop. I'm constantly thinking, about everything, but in the rush of life my thoughts never find a conclusion. Apparently I'm much nicer and more fun to be around when I'm not so in my head trying to figure things out.

Back to lunch. So I was sitting at the park in 90 degree weather eating my Wendy's, when I realized I needed to finish my thought process on the things I want out of life. In my need to accomplish everything, I've researched what it would take for every dream I've ever had to come true. Just career wise, I want to be a financial planner (which I am), an air traffic controller, a hedge fund manager, a pilot, a business owner, a ER doctor, a college counselor, a CEO of a Fortune 500 company, an Olympic athlete, a cruise line director, and the list goes on for 13 more professions. To just get the education that is required I'd need 15 more years of school. Assuming I make it through that, I also need about 3 years of experience in each area, 66 years. I'd be 104 before I could actually be considered above entry level. Then, if I factor in getting married, having a kid, hobbies, community service, and a small social life. I need there to be 288 hours in a day to meet my goal of being 'successful' by the age of 30.

It did take me a while to accept the fact that this is literally impossible. But I've come to terms with it now. So I'm at a crossroad, what to give up and what to pursue. I'm not really the hoarder type. I really enjoy purging my house and throwing too many things away so I have to continually buy the same thing over and over. However, it is extremely difficult for me to give dreams up, and extremely necessary. All the business articles I read say that if I take on too many things, then I need to prioritize by importance on what I can actually get done.

We really can accomplish anything that we want. I truly believe that. But we just can't accomplish everything. Just like my wish list on iTunes, we have to prioritize the most important and impactful dreams and bite off only twice as much as we can chew (instead of 288 times as much).

Potential for Change

What happens when we stop making a difference? What happens when we are so repetitive we get overlooked by the world? What happens when no one believes in our world changing ideas?

At this crossroad, we will either pick up and find a more stimulating and creative environment or we will settle and watch our potential smother. The former are the Drew Houston, Jack Dorsey,  and Mark Zuckerbergs of our generation. The ones who physically cannot settle for anything less that life changing. The latter are the names we've never heard of, the slow and steady minds who get overlooked for CEO promotions and never get Googled by strangers. Becoming the settler is something that the majority of my generations fears more than being alone but not quite as much as the fear of failure.

I believe we all start out somewhere between the two extremes. And within the first two years of our career we will either choose ambition and take on the chance of failure, we will remain constant, or we cannot choose. Not choosing is what causes so many quarter life crisis. I'm not blaming everyone who has this disruptions for not picking an extreme, but understand that at the root of a lot of crisis is indecision. Sometimes this is an unavoidable phase because we need that experience in order to harness our actual potential. We need to test the boundaries of our strength, will power, dedication and mental control. This is only a negative if the chance to learn and discover your true self is bypassed.

Good employers have a fear that their new young investments will leave after 2-3 years and have a life of 'job hopping' because they have an issue with commitment. I disagree. We will only leave a good job because it doesn't offer everything we want be way of experience, flexibility, advancement, mentoring, and stimulation. It is not commitment we are scared of, it is being average. I don't want to help others an average amount, or work an average amount, or grow a company at an average pace. I want to put my whole heart into everything I do because whole-hearted people are the ones who get to change the world.

The Secret to Success

I believe that deep down, every person has a desire to be successful. Unfortunately, I keep coming to the realization that not everyone achieves this potential. So for all you success junkies and failure relapsers, I've done a little research and decided to let you in on the secret to success.

1) Be Upright:

Proverbs 2:7 says 'He holds success in store for the upright, he is a shield to those whose walk it blameless.' So it is quite obvious that to be successful, we much first be considered 'upright.' Well what does it mean to be upright? It means to 'fear the Lord' (Proverbs 14:2), avoid evil (Proverbs 16:17), and have goodwill/seek reconciliation (Proverbs 14:9).

2) Rejoice:

Psalms 107:42 says 'The upright see and rejoice, but all the wicked shut their mouths.' It's exciting when things go the way you anticipate, when you make accurate decisions and predictions. When the God who created our tiny minds send us some express blessings, a thank you card/pray is definitely appropriate. 

3) Have Advisers:

'Plans go wrong for lack of advice; many advisers bring success.' Proverbs 15:22. Maybe it is just me, but this seems pretty straight forward. We are not created to be a one man show. We need those real life angels and devils to sit on our shoulders and help us reason through decisions. Surround yourself with wise people who you know will be honest, and your chances of reaching your potential will dramatically increase. 

4) Avoid Evil:

'The highway of the upright avoids evil; those who guard their ways preserve their lives.' Proverbs 16:17. I understand this is easier said than done. But this is why I'm not writing about a 'get-rich-quick scheme' or a 'success in under 5 minutes' blog. It is a everyday, rain or shine, good hair bad hair continual decision that never stops. Choosing to avoid evil should become a habit, like eating food. We know we will have to eat food for the rest of our lives, so we do it three times a day and understand how to chew. Same recipe applies to fending off the wicked: practice three times a day. 

5) Reconcile:

‘Fools mock at making amends for sin, but goodwill is found among the upright.’ Proverbs 14:9. However badly you want to believe that the television stars who scheme and manipulate people to climb to the top understand success, it isn’t real life. People have to like you if they are going to support you. Don’t even let a favor go unnoticed, miscommunication go unclarified, advise go unthanked, and wisdom go stale.

Endless Gifts

I've been slightly bombarded by the topic of spiritual gifts lately. A couple weeks ago, I decided that I wanted to know the gifts that God had blessed my small group girls with, so I asked them all to take one of those online spiritual gifts tests. I understand that online test aren't a mirror image of God's blessing, but I'm a sucker for quick results. No surprise to me, my top three spiritual gifts were giving, encouragement, and faith. This may sounds a little too obvious, but if you have a gift, you're suppose to give it. The whole meaning of a gift is something that you grant to someone else. Gifts aren't like money, you can't just hoard it and hope that it never changes. If you don't give your gift, it no longer is a gift.

Naturally, I believe that if God called them gifts, its not just because He ran out of words to use and did the 'find a synonym' trick that Microsoft Word kindly incorporated to help vocabulary challenged individuals like myself. So now my challenge is discovering exactly how I plan to give these gifts away. My mindset going into this is that these gifts are unlimited. I've always heard that you can't out-give God, so I have a feeling that this supply that I've tapped into is unending. And if it's not, then I plan on finding that out first hand.

I've also been thinking that it's not really the 'who' do I give to, but the 'how' do I give. I've never met someone who doesn't want a gift (except the homeless man I tried to buy food for and he ran away from me as I chased him with a cheeseburger). My techniques may be a little off base, but my intentions are good. Just brainstorming here, but I have a couple ideas that I may try. For giving, I increased my tithe to the church, I want to give more gifts for no reason, and be more intentional about remembering occasions than  warrant gifts. For faith, I'm still discovering how to give that one, but being more bold and intentional in my conversations regarding the amazing works of God will be my start. Finally, for encouragement, I've thought about writing little notes, avoiding negative conversations, and not running away from people that cry simple because tears make me extremely awkward and uncomfortable. Yes, I am a work in progress, but I do still have gifts that must be given away before they no longer keep their form and turn into nothing useful at all.

Till Death do us Part

I've never been married. And quite frankly, the thought of being married terrified me. I've never been the girl who is just waiting for her Prince Charming to show up in his Maserati and whisk me away to Paris for a long weekend. No, I'm more of the 'I'll get married when I'm 60 and have the potential to be bored with the single life' type of girl. However, I decided to explore the reasoning behind my attitude a little bit. It's not that I don't think I can be happy with one person my entire life, its the fact that my future husband lives in a world that doesn't take marriage as seriously as I do. In 2012, the divorce rate was at 50%. That means that half of the people in the US don't fully understand what marriage means. So I'm going to explain its meaning. Marriage is a covenant (stronger than a promise) with God. It's not the next step in a relationship with the girl next door. It's not something you do to prove you love someone, just buy them flowers if that's what you're going for. And its definitely not temporary. No matter how many government officials, pieces of paper, or excuses you can come up with, once you get married, there is no getting out of it. I don' believe that marriage is about making yourself or another person happy, true joy only comes from God, not other people or circumstances. I believe that I am single because this is the status that I can bring the most glory to God. When God grows me and my future husband enough and knows that together we can bring Him more glory that we can separately, then and only then will I give into marriage. Luckily, God knows my stubbornness and fears so I believe when the time comes, He'll be fully prepared to beat me over the head with His instructions. I can only hope that my marriage will be accompanied with happiness, love, and at least 900 crazy adventures. I know that God's plan will work itself out in me and until that happens, I'll be here just enjoying the perks of being single!

Next post (before I get off my soapbox completely) on Divorce. Here's a preview:

People can justify their reason's for wanting to break this covenant 1,000 different ways, but according to the Bible, there are only 2 situations in which God will grant you a divorce. 1) Immorality: Matthews 19:9 and 2) Abandonment by an unbeliever: 1 Corinthians 7:15.