Jennifer Christunas
Siena Heights University
My Personal Mission
There was a time in my life when I had plenty of time to dedicate to myself and all of the things I enjoy. I could spend the whole day in my garden, at the river fishing, or even experimenting with a new receipt in the kitchen. Everyone thought that I had it made, but in my eyes I felt like I was inadequate. My relationship with my husband was strained, and I could not help feeling that I could not give my children the life skills they needed to succeed. Then my husband got in a car accident and almost lost his life; it was during that time I started to think about what I wanted in life, the type of person I was, and wanted to be. I thought to myself “If my husband would have died I would not be able to provide for my family”, so I did some soul searching and came to the conclusion that I needed to make some big changes in my life.
The first thing that I had to do was completely change my way of thinking. I realized that I was the one who was responsible for where I was at in every aspect of my life, mentally physically, socially, and spiritually. I had a negative attitude all of the time, and I had an excuse for everything. It was then when I realized that I need to become proactive. In the book “The 7 Habits of highly effective People” Covey (1989) explains “That proactive people do not blame circumstances, conditions, or conditioning for their behavior. Their behavior is product of their own conscious choice, based on values, rather than a product of their conditions, based on feelings.”(Covey, 1989, p72) I had every excuse in the book to explain my behavior, and now realized that I was only selling myself short. I understood that I am the creator of my own destiny, and once that became clear I started to feel a lot better about myself. I was taking the steps towards restructuring myself, and my life.
With my new found way of thinking I decided I needed to go back to