Personal Progress Marathon

So, my laptop at work has been acting for the past 2 months.  It kept popping up these messages saying I needed to back up the hard drive.  I tried, but when I was into my 6th CD of the backup, I gave up b/c it was taking way too long.  Well, for the past 2 months I’d be working away & all of a sudden my computer would freeze up & I couldn’t do anything.  I would try everything & would finally just have to hold down the power button for 10 seconds to make it shut off.  Then I’d wait & restart it.  It was a pain to do, b/c I would have at the very least 9 Excel spreadsheets open that I would have to restore & do the whole “read/write” thing.  Anyways, it’s been happening more & more frequently (as in I had to shut it down 4 times yesterday).  Today, it completely died on me & wouldn’t restart when I turned it back on.  So, this is the sad & lonely corner of my desk where it used to sit.  My boss took it into his computer/tech guy to see if they could fix it.  Luckily I had my personal laptop w/ me, so that’s what I used for the rest of the afternoon.

I’m glad that most of my work is done online, or on files that I backed up to the external hard drive or Dropbox.  It’s scary how dependent we are on technology these days.  I am in constant awe & appreciation of all that technology does to make our lives easier.  However, when it doesn’t work it really stinks!!!

Since we have a 5th Wednesday this month, we did a combined Young Women’s activity about Personal Progress.  Sis. Lee has been wanting to do a Marathon themed PProgress activity, and tonight was finally the night.  She started out by reading a letter she had written 7 years ago about how training for her 1st marathon was a lot like personal progress.  Then she explained the 4 stations we had set up around the room.

They were Preparation, Progress, Training & Start.

At the Preparation station (LOL) she had a little bottle of water for the girls to take.  The leader assigned to that station had 2 iPads w/ internet capability, where she showed the girls how to log in online & showed them how to navigate around the Personal Progress website.

At the Progress station she had a protein bar for the girls.  The leader assigned to that station went over their progress w/ the girls.  They charted out what they have completed & got a visual of what they still need to accomplish.

At the Training Station, she had a form (see pic above) for each of them w/ their name on it, to fill out.  Basically they were breaking down all they had left to do into smaller chunks to help them reach their ultimate goal.

At the Start Station she had a “race bib” for each of the girls.  At this station she had a list of a value experiences they could pass off tonight to help get them started on their journey.  We split the girls up into groups & had them rotate around to each station every 10 minutes.  I LOVE these race bibs!!!

I also love how she had some of her own real running shirts, shoes & race bibs on the wall as decoration.  She talked about how important the “gear” you use is as part of the training & preparation.  She tied that in to how important your attitude is when doing personal progress.  Some value experiences & projects are going to be hard & push you, but that’s a good thing.  There were just so many tie-ins that we were able to come up with.

I had gone early to help her set up, and we were talking about personal progress.  I was saying how I like to switch the words around & focus on the progress that I’m making as a person.  That’s really what this is all about … it’s not supposed to be a thing of dread or drudgery.  It’s meant to help us progress personally towards becoming more like our Savior & having a closer relationship w/ Him and others around us.  It was a great activity & hopefully one that will get the girls motivated to progress on their journey towards becoming the person Heavenly Father wants them to be.