Paradigm shift...

I'm a bit of a Franklin Covey addict. However, I recently gave up my Franklin Covey planner in order to conserve space in my purse by switching to an HP Ipaq PDA/computer. It doesn't stop me from drooling over the new planners & accessories but I know paper just isn't ideal for me. I don't maintain it. The convenience of having MS Word & Excel on my Ipaq has been very nice and I doubt that I will ever be able to return to a paper planner. Several years ago I won a staff development award to attend The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. I always intended to attend the Renewal habits workshop but its frequent cancellation finally made me give up. Now I haunt the Franklin Covey website looking at the new books, tapes & etc. constantly seeking to improve myself. For quite some time I've wanted to attend the workshop Focus: Achieving Your Highest Priorities, but the approximately $300 registration fee is a bit of an obstacle since that would have to come out of my pocket and I may or may not be reimbursed by it (I'd have to apply for a staff development grant). I don't know about anyone else but $300 is a chunk of change that can be spent elsewhere with greater benefits (like debt reduction). Finally, I decided to order the CD version of the workshop rather than attend in person. For a mere $30, I could have the entire workshop on disc....so, in March, I ordered the 4-disc set.

Thus far I've only made it to the 2nd disc, but I'm okay with that. Being able to listen to it a portion at a time allows me to better reflect and absorb the information being given. Nothing they have said is new to me, but hearing it again reinforces the processes that have slowly unraveled since the last workshop I attended. This morning's lessons were centered on defining your values and clarifying them with a statement. Interwoven among the values speech were examples from history, such as Joan of Arc and Benjamin Franklin. Joan of Arc, after being captured by the British, was given an opportunity to continue living in England if she would only retract what she claimed to have heard from "the voices". She refused to compromise her values and thus was executed. Benjamin Franklin lived his life in 13-week cycles, one week of each cycle being devoted to living one of his 13 values (i.e. Week 1- honesty, Week 2-something else, & so forth). However, the most interesting shift in my outlook was the perception of the U.S. Constitution. All children are taught that it's the foundation of new government after independence from Britain, but what I found eye-opening was the comparison of the Constitution to an individual's statement of values. The Constitution is the values-based document created for a new world. It is the vision of how our ancestors wanted our country to continue, even if we don't always follow it. It's a guideline, something to aim for. I'd never looked at it in that perspective before. So many opportunities to say "hmmmm"....

(Note: This was actually written last week but I' was too busy to finish it for publishing!)