BUS 110 Week 2

 For this week's journal entry I'll be posting what I learned, mostly regarding achieving childhood dreams and the last lecture of Randy Pausch. In studying his last lecture it is evident that he worked on achieving some very specific childhood dreams, including going to space (or a suitable facsimile thereof). What isn't evident in skimming the lecture is whether he chose one dream to pursue at a time and focused solely on that until it was accomplished. I feel that this is my personal drawback in falling short with some of my own dreams or goals. I don't put enough focus on one thing and instead spend too much energy in pursuing too many different things and not getting very far on any one of them. Randy seemed to choose a childhood dream he had and work toward that until he either reached a point where he had satisfied his own criteria for completion or realized that going further was no longer an option. He describes how "brick walls" are often put up to separate those that really want it from the rest and they are by no means a complete barrier.

I absolutely believe dreaming is important. I have studying psychology before and there is a point at which when we stop hoping for something "newer, better, different" that we essentially stop "living". That is to say that life itself is the pursuit of a massive goal- to return to our Heavenly Father and abide with him in Heaven. By that reasoning we are naturally imbued with hope, the hope of something better than we have now. To give up on the pursuit of dreams, or to think we don't even have any, is to give up on our own divine nature. Which to me would be the same as giving up our lives altogether.

I don't exactly remember many of my childhood dreams per se. I know I wanted to fly. I've achieved that one. I went to flight school, earned a Private Pilot Certificate, followed by a Commercial Pilot Certificate, and finally became a Certified Flight Instructor (with several ratings and endorsements). However, when I started on achieving that, I had planned on becoming a captain for an airline and flying around the world to travel and explore. That part hasn't happened and I have had to make some adjustments. That doesn't mean it won't ever happened and I haven't entirely given up.

I also know I wanted to be a ninja. Of course growing up watching movies and studying martial arts made me think that anyone could be a ninja regardless of when and where they were born or lived, they just need to learn how and practice. As an adult I realize that being a "real ninja" could never be true for me. But I continue to learn and study martial arts. I practice many of the same skills that a ninja would have to be expert at and have no plans on living my life any other way. I'm still like I was as a kid, I think ninjas are the coolest thing ever.

With what I've learned this week in mind, apart from continuing to work toward earning my degree, I will choose another dream I have and focus on that one the way Randy Pausch did on many of his.