Setting Goals

I think I am pretty good at setting goals.

I've tried every way you can think of to set goals: yearly, semester-ly, monthly, weekly, daily... mentally, scribbling it down, creating a detailed plan, speaking it out loud (and not just to myself).

And I've tried a variety of goals from simple {take a shower before bed} to not so simple {walk before Owen does}, physical {squat 125} to spiritual {read Jesus the Christ} and everything inbetween. And from this I have learned that...

I think I am pretty good at failing at my goals.

That's right, I'm pretty much a failure. Ask my sisters they can tell you- I quit tennis two days into it. I quit piano half a year into it. I dropped out of Key-Club. I didn't even show up to my first day of volleyball class. I never use sign-language anymore. Or ask my husband- my children run around half naked more than once a week. The dishes go without washing for days. FHE is as consistent as a roller-coaster. Dressing in something better than my pajamas for the day is a joke. I boiled a turtle (thanks for the reminder Alex). And I went more than a few days without a shower {and not just after I broke my leg}.

Now, this is not a pitty-post, this is truth! no 'oh but Lindsay you are great...' no, no! I know the truth. I AM great but I'm still a failure! I'm just a great failure!!!

Devin and I were discussing this the other night- the fact that I set goals and fail, because really the above list could go on forever those are just some evident things. And yes that's right my husband knows I'm a failure, and it didn't take him these three years to figure it out!

It wasn't until the morning after we discussed my failure habits that the light-bulb turned on.

Hours before our discussion I had picked up the Gospel Principles Manual read the weeks lesson (another goal: to read the weekly lesson as I am in Primary and miss it- that I've previously failed at) and then thumbed through it. I stopped on Chapter 34: Developing our Talents. I loved it and decided to use it as a guideline for setting our FHE Semester goal setting.

The part that hit me the next morning was the line "[it will be] easier if we pray and seek the Lord's help"

I think I have prayed for help with my goals... but I now have a goal (haha!) to take my prayers about my goals more seriously because goals lead to talents, and '[The Lord] wants us to develop our talents, and He will help us."

I know that I don't fail at everything but I could be doing a lot better! So my journey begins with this final quote in mind:

'That which we persist in doing becomes easier for us to do; not that the nature of the thing is changed, but that our power to do is increased'

-Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Heber J. Grant (quoted in the above mentioned manual/chapter).

Best wishes to everyone in their goal setting!!!