W09: Disciple Leadership

Disciples and Leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

This week I learned a lot about how to be a disciple and how to be a leader, one of our readings this week was a BYU-Idaho devotional it shares that "a disciple is one who follows or attends upon another for the express purpose of learning." When I read this quote, I thought of how I am a disciple. It doesn't have to be in the spiritual sense, but right now I am learning how to become many things right now in my field of study that will give me a variety of options to later seek a working career path in. I'm a disciple of learning. By being a disciple and striving to be so, we can be leaders as well. Leaders to those who are seeking that discipleship path.

In another article we read, entitled, A Message to Garcia, it shares a section about seeking a hero's journey by giving perspective and inspiration for the journey. These steps will also help to improve your talents and develop a better understanding of what you are supposed to be doing. 
The steps are as follows:

1. Begin to see your life as a “calling” toward a Hero’s Journey. Your life is too valuable to waste. Embrace the idea of a “calling”—a reason that you were put on this earth. Envision your life as a quest, a series of daily struggles and larger challenges worth overcoming for a worthy mission.

 2. Develop your gifts and talents into a discipline. Become world-class at something. Everyone has special God-given gifts. Discover yours and accept challenges that allow you to practice and perfect these skills. Develop a reputation for mastering a discipline and extraordinary opportunities will seek you out. 

 3. Find a “deep burning need” you care about. Your lifelong mission will be more fulfilling if it serves the needs of others. Look for opportunities or injustices that speak to your heart. Find where your gifts, tasks you enjoy, and a “deep burning need” intersect and you will have found your calling.

4. Surround yourself with good people and worthy role models. Find role models who inspire you. Look to people who are further along in life’s journey for the right questions to ask. Surround yourself with good people who care about you.

These steps already tie into a lot of what we have discussed so far in this class. We are also taught these things in different varieties through education and through our parents. I think it is important to note that it is ok IF you do not know what your "calling" is yet. It honestly takes time. When I graduated High School, I thought I knew what I wanted to be. When it wasn't working out for me, it took a few breaks from college and a job that started my interest in my now seeking career path to really understand my "calling," and what I wanted to study. These are all essentials in the careers we want to take, and even more so in a business-related career path.

A video we watched is an excerpt from Guy Kawasaki's lecture on, "Aspects of Building Trust," he shares "trustworthiness occurs when you first of all trust others... The sequence of events is that you trust people and they will trust you. The onus is upon you to trust first." In business, we will have to come to trust people. Especially when we are seeking mentors to help us along this path. I think it is important to remember too, that there may be times we run into people who may not be honest or trustworthy. When those moments happen, we need to find ways to heal ourselves and begin trusting again. Kawasaki also shares, "Most people are completely reasonable about what they ask. And for the rare occurrence where they are not reasonable, that’s probably someone that you shouldn’t bother trying to enchant."

To become a disciple, we should strive to be on the Hero's Journey and strive to be people who are trustworthy. I really don't think we ever stop being a disciple, but when we find ourselves in a role as the leader. We should take all that we learned and work on applying it. We could be mentors one day, or a leader, or still traveling as a disciple. We can help people and in turn, help ourselves as we strive to become the entrepreneurs we seek to be.

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