Begin With The End In Mind

Our home teacher gave a powerful lesson this month on beginning with the end in mind.  It was straight from Steven Covey and simple, powerful advice.  He said the hard part of the journey isn't getting there it's deciding where the end will be.  Four months ago a gal in our Branch gave a workshop on personal mission statements, also from Covey.  She started by showing the mission statements of Google, Facebook Tilamook Cheese, and some other famous companies to jog our minds.  Then she shared mission statements from Mom's in the Branch.  That motivated me to come up with a mission statement for how I parent Tate-- thinking first about how I want him to be by the time he leaves our house.  Here are my goals for this year with this background in mind.

New Year's Goals 2011:
1. Spend less time at the computer and more time on the piano
2. Read 1/2 of the Complete Works of Shakespeare
3. Make it a habit to exercise 3x's per week
4. Lighten Up

By the end of this year I want to be a better piano player, more well read and less stressed about little things in life!

Mission Statement for Parenting Tate: Help Tate gain the knowledge and skills necessary to be successful, get along well with and influence other people.

Right now Tate has eating on his own skills, walking and talking on his own skills, some Chinese skills, using chopsticks skills.  We're working on developing using the toilet skills and more Chinese Language skills.  The motivation for him that seems to be working the best is if he is potty trained he gets to go camping with Dan in May for Father and Sons and camping on the beach in June for the Haslam Family reunion in San Diego.  I was very influenced by the article In the Wall Street Journal by Amy Chua, and the follow up articles in Time Magazine and Singapore's Sunday Times.  Ms. Chua inspired me to be more of a Tiger Mom in certain areas, especially those where I will help Tate gain skills.  For one who has lived in Asia for 6+ years I have to admit, when it comes to musical, math, science skills the Asians rock and top.  By the end of this year I hope to see Tate potty trained, speak more Chinese and love and appreciate music.  I can already see that music and Chinese are two of his passions because since he was a baby he loved hearing Chinese and mimicked the sounds.  Today at the mall he was playing with a Chinese kid and speaking back to him in Chinese.  He didn't know what he was saying, but he loves pretending like he's speaking it.  Two weeks ago after he had been watched by his baby sitter he started reading me his Chinese books (she had read to him the night before) and mimicked with pretty good accuracy the Chinese sounds and tones she made.  It was so funny, and I wish I got it on camera.  He also loves a good song.  He sings ABC's, Baa Baa Black Sheep, and Mary Had a Little Lamb.  He also picks up really quickly on the new primary songs and can sing "I Know That My Savior Loves Me," almost perfectly.  Tate isn't on target in everything, but he has his own talents, and I hope he uses them to live a good life and help others be happy.  Here's to a great year with these ends in mind.