7. Slow and Steady Wins the Race

 This week has been so full of learning, it's hard to pinpoint what the most important parts are. Many of my thoughts here will be somewhat disconnected.

During this week, it was a great benefit to me to review Steven Covey's "7 Habits of Highly Effective People". I had read this during high school, and it was very instrumental in helping me shape my life and improving myself. Many of the principles and ideas are continually on my mind. I could say I have applied many of the habits in my life and internalized the ideas. I know I also have to improve on many of these things. Instead of beating myself down about it, I see my lack as opportunities to improve. It's better to know what I need to improve so I can make the needed changes, instead of not knowing what I need to improve, and continue making mistakes in ignorance.

Reading Mastery has also provided great instruction. The main theme of the book is similar to Steven's habit of "beginning with the end in mind." as well as the lesson learned from the tortoise and the hare: slow and steady wins the race.
There were some great quotes from the book that offer excellent insight:

"Seduced by the siren song of a consumerist, quick-fix society, we sometimes choose a course of action that brings only the illusion of accomplishment, the shadow of satisfaction." - Mastery - George Leonard

"Unlike computers, we can fall in love."

Practice for the sake of practice is not the same as reaching a plateau and not working at all. "The hacker gets on a plateau and doesn't keep working." The person on the path of mastery is "willing to stay on the plateau as long as [is] necessary. Ambition [is] still there, but it [is] tamed." "We loved the plateau, and we made progress." 

"Every time we spend money, we make a statement about what we value."

"If you could impute some type of central intelligence to these commercial messages, you would have to conclude that the nation of bent on self-destruction."
The impulse to replicate America's vision of the good life: "an endless series of climactic moments."

"The same climate of thought that would lead some people to the promise that they can learn a new skill or lose weight without patient, long-term efforts leads others to the promise of great riches without the production of value in return."

A critique of observation:
This book was published in 1992, the year I was born. A lot has changed in 30 years, and at the same time, things have stayed the same, but in inverse. "Communism is in full retreat, and freedom is the way to go." That should be the case. Maybe it was the case 30 years ago.
The threat of communism didn't disappear; It morphed into an unholy hybrid of state-run capitalism and cultural communism. Now, totalitarianism and tyranny have swung to the opposite extreme, and environmentalism, social justice and faux compassion rule with an iron fist, at the critical expense of economic health, and of freedom, and of logic and of morality. A society without values seeks to exist by the force of power and control of deception. All these things need limiting principles to guide them. All guardrails have been removed, and this is what we get: the cruel iron-fist of absurdity and selfish opinion that wears the counterfeit badge of truth.

"But recognition is often unsatisfying and fame is like seawater for the thirsty. Love of your work, willingness to stay with it even in the absence of extrinsic reward, is good food and good drink."

"Goals and contingencies... are important. But they exist in the future and the past, beyond the pale of the sensory realm. Practice, the path of mastery, exists only in the present."

This week also presented a great highlight. My wife and I were part of the choir that performed for a special broadcast for Seminary and Institute teachers. After the broadcast, I felt especially bolstered in my desire to teach Seminary and Institute. As far as what would be best for me personally, and what I feel is best for the world, this is it.