arturo.fammijangos.comArturo A. Mijangos – Husband, Father, Programmer, International Business Marketer

Arturo A. Mijangos Husband, Father, Programmer, International Business Marketer Scroll down to content Posts Posted on January 30, 2020 January 30, 2020 Master of Your Universe Watching He-Man raise his sword and calling upon the powers of Grayskull take me back to my childhood living room. He-Man was part of the Masters of the Universe. To this day, I’m not sure how that group became endowed with such power. I know that many times in my life I have not even been the master of my universe. One book that helped me understand my relationship to my own life and how to influence the outcome is The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey. Covey made such an impact in my life, that I go back to this book year after year to plan and execute my work. The two biggest principles I learned from the book are: I have the capacity to change I can determine how to change Once I knew that I could influence and determine my future, I was able to get on with the work of doing something about it. The book is divided into two main sections: Personal Victory and Public Victory. The biggest influence on my life has come from the section on personal victory. Personal victory encompasses three habits: Be Proactive (having the capacity to change), Begin with the End in Mind (Determining how to change), and Put First Things First (manage change). Putting first things first is the habit that I use most often, it is how I plan my year, each month, and week. This habit has provided the framework on how to look at life and to organize it. Because of this habit, I have a Personal Mission Statement, Personal Values, and have identified the roles I play in my life. Thanks to Covey and The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People that I have come to better understand myself. I have learned the things I need to do to determine my future. I have changed the way I live my life, the way I work, and the way I help others. In short, I have become the master of my universe. Photo by Greg Rakozy on Unsplash unsplash-logo Greg Rakozy Posted on May 25, 2018 From Rock to Millstone – 5 Years at Cummins May 24, 2018 – Columbus, IN I’ve never been with one company for more than four years, until now. This month marks my five year anniversary at Cummins. Five years ago I was a shiny new MBA with a vague idea of my new job at Cummins, a company I had only known a few months while doing an internship. I thought I was so valuable; little did I know what makes an asset valuable. The Rock During my interview days I could articulate which of my attributes would add to a company’s talent pool. When I was recruited to Cummins I felt special. I was that new rock found by the river bed ready to be added to a child’s rock collection. I thought: Look at me! I am a special rock.” I could do any assignment, and doing what I was assigned was in my mind the transaction for my talent. Thankfully I had good managers that could take a rough rock and make something useful with it. My value was not in my current talent. My value was in being malleable enough to do any job that was required of me. The Transformation In the past five years I have been through great transformations; the greatest transformation has been in the past two years. I changed from a malleable talent to a value yielding asset. I went from a rock in a collection to an efficient millstone. Don’t think it was easy or that I knew what was happening. My pride had to be put in check. My intelligence had to put into question and so were my skills. I had to allow feedback to know which areas I needed to improve. There were two significant events in the past five years that have marked my transformation. Five years ago my father traveled from Guatemala to attend my graduation in Provo, Utah. His health quickly deteriorated due to diabetes; two years ago he passed away. My lifelong cheerleader was gone and I had to truly prove myself. The second event came two and a half years ago when I had been re-deployed for the second time in three years. I was assigned to be the project manager for a very large project. My role for the previous years was also project manager, but this role would truly stretch me. It was during this stretch assignment that my father passed away. I have to admit that I failed at my assignment. Gratefully I had a kind manager that was frank and pushed me forward. Both events happened on the same year, and that was my turning point from rock to millstone. The Millstone I have felt so much empowerment over the course of the past two years. I have lead several successful projects. I was promoted last year. I have taken extra responsibilities outside my normal work. I have even seen an improvement in the way I conduct my personal finances, my non-work assignments, and an overall purpose in life. I am grateful to my many managers that have guided my path in by both example and deed. I am especially grateful to my eternal companion, Debora, for always believing in me even when I didn’t; you are my support. Lastly I am grateful to Cummins for creating the right environment for a stumbling rock to become a millstone. Looking forward I am optimist of what I can contribute to this organization, the community, and my family. I cannot be content with being a millstone. I will be a millstone maker. Photo by Wil Stewart on Unsplash Wil Stewart Posted on February 12, 2018 Plan the work, work the plan” Plan the work, work the plan” where the wise words of a previous manager. They reminded me of the quote from Ben Franklin: If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.” This concept is well cemented in my brain. This is what I do at work everyday, in spite of that I was not applying it to my biggest project: my life. Shouldn’t there be a case to have a life plan? I had gone about my life using a checklist at best or nothing at worst. I was not giving enough time to planning my week, my month, my year, my life. I was planning to fail amidst successful plans at work. At the end of 2017 I began to apply business principles to my personal life. I came across an advertisement for a planner , and the first words caught my eye: What do you want to leave behind this year?” The question took me back and really made me pause. I wanted to answer the question quickly and move one, but I couldn’t. The question stayed with me for several weeks. New Year’s Day came and I wrote down my goals as I always did, yet I still couldn’t answer the question. The first week this year I set aside one day to come up with a good answer to the question. After two days of soul searching, I had an answer and a plan. This year I wanted, above all, for my daughter to have a conscious and memorable baptism. I was also able to create meaningful desires for all the aspects in my life. I wanted to succeed as a husband, father, employee, manager, professional, mentor, disciple of Christ, and human. I was not only enlighten by this experience, but hungry for further introspection, planning, execution, and results. I set apart two hours each week to plan my week, four hours each month to plan the month, and two days each year to plan next year. I planned 2018 by setting goals for each of the roles in my life. I recorded all these goals in a note to be evaluated during each of my monthly planning sessions. In my four hour monthly planning for January I analyzed which goals needed to be started, advanced, or completed that month. I put specific actions that needed to be taken during that month and the week that needed to happen. Many tasks were full actions others were more vague and required further thought at certain points in the month. It took me less than four hours to plan the month and I was able to plan the first week. I made sure I understood all the tasks needed to complete the monthly goals. I assigned a specific day in the week when I was going to complete the work. I only assigned work Monday through Thursday to be able to catch up on in-week tasks on Friday....