Gold Stars

Today I wanted to blog about goal setting. It is that time of year again when we all start to think about our goals and New Year's resolutions. This year I got really organized and for the first time ever I have been sticking to many of my goals. I came up with an idea to put a gold star on my calendar each day I completed 3 of my most important goals. If I don't do all 3 then I don't get a gold star. My calendar sits on my dresser in my bedroom, so I see every morning as I get out of bed and many times through out the day. It has been a wonderful reminder and gives me a lot of incentive to accomplish my goals so that I can have a gold star.

I realize how childish this may sound to all of you, and really I think it's childish myself. But the Lord has taught us that we need to be childlike! My 3 most important goals that I must accomplish each day are: 1. Say my morning prayers, 2. Study my scriptures for 30 minutes every day, and 3. Floss my teeth. For many years I have struggled to remember to say my morning prayers. I rarely have any trouble with my nightly prayers, but for some reason I just couldn't remember my morning prayers. (I think that it is mostly just because I was being lazy.) Since I have come up with my gold star idea I have only missed one morning in 10 days. That is pretty much a record for me. (Please don't judge!)

I highly encourage you all to set yourself some daily spiritual goals that you can work on over the next year. Then find a way to visually motivate yourself to accomplish them each day! Feel free to use my gold star idea if you think putting stickers on a calendar is fun! Good luck with all of your goal setting!

The Procrastinators Anonymous Meeting Has Been Postponed

It's 11:45 p.m. on Tuesday night, and guess who just remembered to blog?

Me.

(That wasn't very hard to guess, was it?)

Well, here it goes. I found a lovely little thought on (yup, you guessed it) procrastination.

A quick thought from Elder Donald L. Hallstrom of the Seventy:

"Procrastination may seem the easy way, as it momentarily removes the effort required to accomplish something of value. Ironically, in time, procrastination produces a heavy burden laced with guilt and a hollow lack of satisfaction. Temporal and, even more importantly, spiritual goals will not be achieved by procrastination.

Now is the time to exercise our faith. Now is the time to commit to righteousness. Now is the time to do whatever is required to resolve our undesired circumstances. Now is the time to reconcile with God through the merciful process of change afforded us by the Redeemer of mankind."

I think that it couldn't be more clearly stated-- if we want to reach our goals, we have to get up and get to work! Nothing will ever be accomplished if we keep procrastinating, both in the temporal and spiritual sense.

Now is the time! Do whatever it is you've been meaning to do. Now is the time, not later.

As for me, now is the time... for bed. :-)