A week or so later I started my own list. It’s not up to 100 items yet, but it’s getting there. Many of the items have to do with being recommitted, and it’s a perfect time to post these given that this weekend is General Conference. It seems that Latter-day Saints have lots of opportunities to recommit themselves: New Year’s, General Conference, and even each Sunday as we take the Sacrament we recommit ourselves to following Jesus Christ. Here are a few of the goals I’m thinking about right now, each of which probably deserves its own blog post:

• Scripture reading
• Keeping up with my Spanish skills
• Fitness goals

There’s a lot more on my goals list, but these are the ones that are important to me right now. I don’t want to do too much while I’m just getting started, because it’s going to take a marathon effort to cross everything off my goals list!

It’s been almost two months since my last blog post? No problem! This post as an opportunity to redefine my goals for this blog. I’m not going to commit myself to posting here every day- a few times a month sounds more like it. I’m planning on taking the same strategy to fix the other things that are left undone.

Some things that went undone over the last few weeks will definitely stay that way, getting pruned off and out of our lives in the process. For me, that list includes a few TV shows I recorded to our DVR but were really more of a time-waster than entertainment, RSS feeds that I didn’t really read anymore, and other similar goals. Now the only trick is to make sure that other time-wasters don’t creep in to fill the void- there are plenty of other worthy goals worth tackling.

Until I can turn my goals into habits I may have to get up over and over again, but it’s much more important to work on my goals right now as much as I can instead of using excuses like “I’ll start doing that after I graduate” or “I’ll wait until I have some free time”. Those aren’t very good reasons to delay goals, and the end result is that we lose out on all the progress we could have gained in that time. I love this quote from Elder Bednar:

A spurt may appear to be impressive in the short run, but steadiness over time is far more effective, far less dangerous, and produces far better results. Three consecutive days of fasting ultimately may not be as spiritually effective as three successive months of appropriate fasting and worship on the designated fast Sunday. An attempt to pray one time for five hours likely will not produce the spiritual results of meaningful morning and evening prayer offered consistently over five weeks. And a single scripture-reading marathon cannot produce the spiritual impact of steady scripture study across many months.

David A. Bednar, Brigham Young University-Idaho Devotional, September 9, 2003

• Things are easy to find. If I need to go out, I have to grab my keys and my wallet. If they’re not in their usual location (I put all the things I take with me daily in one spot), there are only a few more places I might have left them.
• It’s easy to keep track of things. Not only is it easy to find something I know I have, but when things are organized it’s easy to know what you don’t have. We have two locations for food: the pantry or other kitchen cabinets or in our food storage area. That makes it easy to see when it’s time to buy more of something.
• Your things don’t impede your daily life. When things are put away it becomes easier to focus on specific tasks or even just relax.

Decluttering a home isn’t just a one-time weekend project, it’s something that evolves over time. As our stuff has grown, we’ve had to make decisions about where things go and how things are stored. We’ve had to come up with creative ways to store our daughter’s toys and live with temporary fixes until we can get things just how we want them, but this progress gives us a sense of accomplishment that we can build on until things are just the way we like them. This doesn’t mean that our house isn’t lived in, it just means that we try to use it so that we can fully enjoy it.

If you’d like some creative ideas on this subject, I recommend visiting unclutterer.com or the excellent post at Zen Habits. For those trying to get the whole family involved, take a look at this Family Home Evening Lesson, Making Work Fun

“Our society worships talent, and many people assume that possessing superior intelligence or ability—along with confidence in that ability—is a recipe for success. In fact, however, more than 30 years of scientific investigation suggests that an overemphasis on intellect or talent leaves people vulnerable to failure, fearful of challenges and unwilling to remedy their shortcomings.”

“Several years later I developed a broader theory of what separates the two general classes of learners— helpless versus mastery-oriented. I realized that these different types of students not only explain their failures differently, but they also hold different “theories” of intelligence. The helpless ones believe that intelligence is a fixed trait: you have only a certain amount, and that’s that. I call this a “fixed mind-set.” Mistakes crack their self-confidence because they attribute errors to a lack of ability, which they feel powerless to change. They avoid challenges because challenges make mistakes more likely and looking smart less so… such children shun effort in the belief that having to work hard means they are dumb.”

“Such lessons apply to almost every human endeavor. For instance, many young athletes value talent more than hard work and have consequently become unteachable. Similarly, many people accomplish little in their jobs without constant praise and encouragement to maintain their motivation. If we foster a growth mind-set in our homes and schools, however, we will give our children the tools to succeed in their pursuits and to become responsible employees and citizens.”

Carol S. Dweck, Scientific American Mind

Line Upon Line

Learning is more about persistence than it is about natural ability. Ability certainly helps, but it doesn’t win us a marathon. Running a marathon takes persistence and applied effort. As children we certainly didn’t know all that we do now. In the same way, our current level of learning and understanding isn’t a cap on our maximum learning. Although we may have completed high school or college or graduate school, this doesn’t mean we’re done. Our efforts can take us up another level, and we can continually expand on that knowledge.

For behold, thus saith the Lord God: I will give unto the children of men line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little; and blessed are those who hearken unto my precepts, and lend an ear unto my counsel, for they shall learn wisdom; for unto him that receiveth I will give more; and from them that shall say, We have enough, from them shall be taken away even that which they have. 2 Nephi 28:30

As a missionary, I was asked to learn Spanish to be able to teach the people of Argentina. I had studied Spanish on and off since elementary school and had always received good grades, so I thought this would be pretty easy. In the Missionary Training Center, we received lots of lessons on Spanish grammar and pronunciation. I did well in those lessons and thought I knew Spanish. Actually speaking it, however, was very frustrating. My mouth wasn’t used to forming Spanish words, and I became a little disheartened. Apparently I had no natural talent for actually speaking Spanish, I thought.

When I really learned Spanish, it came from actually speaking it. One of my instructors told us that learning a language means making mistakes and then correcting those mistakes. When I arrived in Argentina I was pretty intimidated because I still made plenty of mistakes. Luckily, many of the people I came in contact with were very willing to correct me. At first this was frustrating again, because I wasn’t used to being wrong so often, but after a while I realized that these comments were a real help.

That which we persist in doing becomes easier, not that the task itself has become easier, but that our ability to perform it has improved. -Ralph Waldo Emerson

Learning Never Ends

In a devotional speech given at Brigham Young University, Dilworth B. Parkinson, a professor of Arabic at BYU, said that “One of the clearest results of language teaching research is that when a student becomes satisfied with what he knows, when he feels he “knows the language,” he almost immediately ceases to make progress.”

This quote really hit home for me, because I fell in the trap of thinking I was done learning more than once. It has been a recent challenge of mine to know that learning is never really finished. I had the opportunity to translate our church meetings into Spanish, which led me to realize there were many more mistakes to be made and many more lessons to learn. It’s a challenge to maintain the proper learning mindset, but if we do, our progression has no limits.

“After a few days you’ll have a chain. Just keep at it and the chain will grow longer every day. You’ll like seeing that chain, especially when you get a few weeks under your belt. Your only job next is to not break the chain.”

When I started this blog, I made it my own personal goal to have one post every weekday. As you can see, once that chain got interrupted it became a whole lot easier to skip writing. I’ve now got a calendar and a marker near my desk so that I can more easily highlight my accomplishments. I’ve renewed this effort, because I want to see that chain grow.

I personally recommend using a paper calendar, but others may prefer a web calendar. Whichever you choose, make sure that your calendar is in a place where you can refer back to it easily.

Update:
A quick, easy-to-use task manager Joe’s Goals has added this functionality into its system. Read more about how they use Productivity chains.

The Book of Mormon is another testament of Jesus Christ, and we learn about Him in its pages. We know that it has great power. It has the power to change lives. It has the power to convert. If you read it with an open heart, you will know that it is the word of God and that it is true.

Through the Book of Mormon the Lord can also teach us about being with and serving people. This book reveals the will of the Lord for family life in a way that the other scriptures don’t even approach. I believe that is largely because of its interesting structure. It’s about families; it’s about people’s relationships. It starts with families, it ends with families, and we come to love these families.

Like any habit, daily scripture reading takes practice. To start, it’s best to decide on a time each day that you can read the scriptures. If you can make a habit of getting up early, beginning your day with scripture reading can have a profound effect on your life. Keep track of your progress and set goals, perhaps using the online tools at Readthescriptures.com. My wife and I are on a scripture-reading “team” that lets us keep track of each others’ reading, as well as to keep track of our family scripture reading.

Let us know of any tips you may have for daily scripture reading in the comments.