Tag: multiplying value

How to Multiply Your Value? Make Your Bed

As regular readers know, I’ve been pondering value and how to multiply it this month, so it comes as no surprise that a friend shared this insight on her Facebook page today, and it struck home. Make. Your. Bed.

In my early adulthood, I committed to making my bed every day, and I have done so for at least the last thirty-four years. I, too, learned to make the “perfect” bed in basic training and continued to do so through technical training. I backslid for a few months at my first duty station, but I finally decided I liked the way it felt to climb into a made bed at night. The sheets just felt better. I don’t make “the perfect” bed every morning, but I always pull the sheet and coverlet up in a straight and neat manner.

The Admiral is absolutely right, though. Years ago, I thought by completing my workout first thing in the morning started the day with an accomplishment, but even before that, I’d begun multiplying my value — by making my bed as soon as I got out of it in the morning.

As we’ve been learning from the beginning of the Master Key Experience, it’s the little things that pay big dividends.

Week 31: Multiplying Value

This month, I ‘m multiplying value. As I study Scroll VIII, I’m seeing a number of interesting things as I compare myself to a grain of wheat. According to the scroll, there are three things that a grain of wheat can do. It can be fed to swine, ground for bread, or planted to multiply. I have a choice. I can be fed to swine, ground to be devoured by others, or grow and multiply. The major difference between me and the grain of wheat? I can choose. So can you.

Think you can’t? Too much bad has happened in your life? Nope. Here’s what Og Mandino says about that. “To grow and multiply it is necessary to plant the wheat grain in the darkness of the earth and my failures, my despairs, my ignorance, and my inabilities are the darkness in which I have been planted in order to ripen.” All that bad stuff? Fertilizer for your growth. You could interpret this to mean that the more bad stuff that’s happened in your life, the more primed you are for richness and bearing fruit.

How? “Now, like the wheat grain which sprouts and blossoms only if it is nurtured with rain and sun and warm winds, I too must nurture my body and mind to fulfill my dreams.” You have the power to choose your destiny by setting objectives for your life. Then plan the years, months, weeks, days, and hours toward reaching those objectives.

A couple weeks ago, I discussed my Plan of Action (POA) card and some changes I made in it. This week, I went through my DMP and listed the key areas discussed that I haven’t actively planned — there are nine. Today, I began mapping out the POA to make those DMP areas a reality. One, traveling all major Amtrak routes by January 2025, looks like it will easily be completed by August 2018. I’m going to leave the later date just in case our plans have to change for any reason. In discussing this with my husband, we distilled it down to three trips. Until we studied the Amtrak timetable with this goal in mind, we didn’t have a clue when this would be feasible to make into a reality for us.

Planning is ongoing, but once the DMP was articulated, I didn’t know where to focus my efforts or where to look for creating a plan. I made progress on five of the nine areas today. Not bad for an initial effort. The tenth area has been my primary focus since beginning the course, and it continues to manifest, so I haven’t mentioned it here except for this. I’m not sure if I’ve used the spinning plate analogy here before, but it’s a common one in maintaining balance in life. The “tenth” area, which is really my primary focus, was the “plate” I had to get balanced and spinning first. I’ll continue to work in the other “plates” as long as I can keep the primary one spinning smoothly.

Everything worthwhile in time takes time and effort. I’m pleased to apply the skills I’ve learned in the Master Keys course. How is this multiplying value? I’m trusting the process, because, honestly, I’m not sure right now.