I'm all for setting and working toward goals, but it just seems like people set themselves up for failure by "resolving" to do things like quit smoking or lose weight, when they aren't really into it; they just know they should do those things.
In the past I've made vague New Years resolutions, then quickly failed or forgotten about them. Usually something like "exercise more" or "read scriptures more."
But due to feeling in a bit of a rut lately, I decided that setting some big but attainable and measurable goals might be good for me. I'm inspired by a talk give by Julie B. Beck about setting priorities. (I cannot for the LIFE of me find the actual transcript, but have read quotes from the address in various places.) She talked about prioritizing our tasks into three categories:
Essential Things--"What things must be taken care of, and if I don’t take care of them, the blessings of eternal life won’t be mine nor will they be my family’s"
Necessary Things--"What [is] necessary to create an environment or climate where the Spirit of the Lord would be?"
Nice to Do Things--"[These things] add variety to our lives, but they won’t save us. When our priorities are on this list, and our time is devoted to those nice-to-do things, our priorities are out of order, and we lose power."
So in my re-prioritizing and goal-setting recently I've tried to keep these principles in mind. I don't want to lose power by focusing too much time on the nice-to-do things. I know if I'm taking care of the essential and necessary things, I'll have time for those other things that will add variety.
A few of my goals for this year are:
*Attend the temple 10 times (0/10, but we're going this Friday!)
*Do my visiting teaching each month (1/12)
*Read scriptures daily. (I'm about half way through the Book of Mormon right now, then I'm going to either start the Old Testament or study by topic.)
*Teach Boston piano lessons (first lesson was today...he loved it!)
**Weekly Family Home Evening
*Focus on Self-Reliance; get our 72 hour kit together
*Go to bed by 11pm so I'm not dragging during the day (oops, it's already 11:15...)
*Exercise twice a week (this may be the most challenging to get started, but I need/WANT to make this a habit)
*Read 12 books, including some classics. (0/12, but I started The Secret Life of Bees last night)
*Learn basic sewing from Mom/Erin
