Also, personal goals, “especially short-term goals,”29 help you reignite your powerful faith. When you set a good goal, you are looking forward, as you did before, and seeing what your Heavenly Father wants you or another to become.30 Then you plan and work hard to achieve it. Elder Quentin L. Cook taught, “Never underestimate the importance of planning, setting goals … , and [inviting others]—all with an eye of faith.”31
Perfection of means and confusion of goals seem in my opinion to characterize our age.
Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving.
What stops us from achieving that goal? Thousands of small things which can all be lumped together as forgetting the goal and how much it matters, how infinitely much it is worth.
What excites you when you think about it? Follow that feeling. Because if it's not what you really want, you simply will not have the energy to succeed. . . . By doing what you love, you inspire other people to do what they love, and that ripple effect goes far beyond what you'll ever know.
We cannot be so concerned about our goals that we overlook the necessity of using righteous methods to attain them.
I am always in the process of planning - my plans might not be right on all the time, but I am always thinking about the different areas of my life, spiritual, physical, mental, emotional, family, budget, work, and so on. And I’m constantly asking, 'What’s my priority right now?'
By small and simple means—in which we are each invited to participate—great things are brought to pass.
...the very writing down of that simple goal set in motion circumstances and events that brought about the fulfillment of this heartfelt wish.
...I realized that if I ever were to do this I would have to break the task down into doable parts and set specific, attainable goals or it would never happen.
If you go to work on your goals, your goals will go to work on you. If you go to work on your plan, your plan will go to work on you. Whatever good things we build end up building us.
But effort and courage are not enough without purpose and direction. For, as Socrates told us, "If a man does not know to what port he is sailing, no wind is favorable."
...stop focusing on your fears and start focusing on your goals.
If you don’t set concrete, measurable, achievable goals, you will never achieve them. Time is all we have in this life: birth to death. So, we measure everything by time, and we put in the time on those things that are (1) important to us; and/or (2) immediate to us.
Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here? That depends a good deal on where you want to get to, said the Cat. I don't much care where - said Alice. Then it doesn't matter which way you go, said the Cat. -so long as I get somewhere, Alice added as an explanation. Oh, you're sure to do that, said the Cat, if you only walk long enough.
Imposing a strict system of quantified metrics to evaluate and reward performance has serious deleterious unintended consequences. It induces gaming of the system, a kind of rent-seeking behavior that adds nothing to productivity and often detracts. It siphons attention toward goals whose achievement can be measured and away from goals whose achievement is difficult or impossible to measure but may be of greater importance.
It poisons employees’ desire to do their job by substituting external and often arbitrary-seeming requirements for internal motivation.
In K-12 education, government programs such as No Child Left Behind (NCLB) led to extensive gaming and even cheating. Teachers’ schools’ funding, and their own employment, was dependent on their students’ performance on standardized, government-mandated math and English exams. Hence, many teachers spent much of their class time “teaching to the test.” This moved the emphasis toward test-taking and away from arguably more important activities with unmeasurable results, such as cultivating students’ capacity for intellectual curiosity, good behaviour, and creative thought and innovation.
As Muller explains, part of the reason for the increase in metricization is that employees and executives are not trusted. Therefore, quantitative requirements are imposed on their behavior to keep them in line. In response, they behave in precisely those ways that the quantification model expects them to behave. And by gaming the quantification system and cheating, they make it appear that the measurement system is working. And yet, the ultimately desired results are not improved and are often even made worse.
But it feeds the expectations of funders that low overhead is the measure they should be looking at to hold charities accountable. Thus the snake of accountability eats its own tail.
I set another goal … a reasonable, manageable goal that I could realistically achieve if I worked hard enough. I approached everything step by step.
[Jerry Krause] said organizations win championships. I said, "I didn't see organizations playing with the flu in Utah."
I am so thoroughly convinced that if we don’t set goals in our life and learn how to master the technique of living to reach our goals, we can reach a ripe old age and look back on our life only to see that we reached but a small part of our full potential. When you learn to master the principle of setting a goal, you will then be able to make a great difference in the results you attain in this life…If you want to have success in the goal-setting process, you learn to write your goals down. I would even put them in a prominent place…Spend your energies doing those things that will make a difference.
To return to God’s presence and to receive the eternal blessings that come from making and keeping covenants are the most important goals we can set.
A business with a good definite plan will always be underrated in a world where people see the future as random.
Long-term planning is often undervalued by our indefinite short-term world.
When it came rolling in, the money affected us all. Not much, and not for long, because non of us was ever driven by money. But that's the nature of money. Whether you have it or not, whether you want it or not, whether you like it or not, it will try to define your days. Our task as human beings is not to let it.
Goals, priorities and planning. Why am I doing this? What is the goal? Why will I succeed? What happens if I chose not to do it?
Why do so many struggle so hard to achieve their goals and ultimately fail? One of the most important factors in the success or failure of our efforts to change our behavior and improve our lives has to do with the friends we keep.
Take an honest inventory of your friends and accomplices. We are surrounded by people. Some have little or no influence on our efforts to achieve our goals. These are neutral acquaintances. Some people could help us reach our goals. These positive influences are “friends”. Some people in our social environment are “accomplices”. They help us get into trouble. They help us fail to become the person we want to be. Make a list of the people in your life and identify which of these categories most correctly describe the influence they are likely to have on your efforts to succeed.
Your success in achieving New Year’s resolutions has less to do with your personal willpower and more to do with controlling the sources of influence that push you toward success or failure. The people in your life are often your most important source of influence.
The archer must know what he is seeking to hit; then he must aim and control the weapon by his skill. Our plans miscarry because they have no aim.
When a man does not know what harbour he is making for, no wind is the right wind.
If a man does not know to what port he is sailing, no wind is favorable.
Speaking of this affluence, one youngster said: "Kids are caught between the values given them as desirable by their churches, schools, and parents on one hand and on the other the spectacle of mothers and fathers both working with great concentration to get 'things.'"
When a member of your bishopric stopped by your home and asked that you serve the Lord as a Scoutmaster, a teacher of a Beehive class, or perhaps a secretary or executive in the Sunday School, did you actually stop and contemplate the true meaning of your acceptance? Did you look upon your assignment in terms of twenty-four Boy Scouts, or twelve Beehive girls, or perhaps an obligation to devote two hours each Sunday morning? Or did you reflect upon the real meaning of your opportunity as the words of the Lord found lodgment in your heart: "Remember the worth of souls is great in the sight of God." (D&C 18:10.) If so, you were humbled as you became aware that God, our Eternal Father, and His Beloved Son had chosen you to play a vital role in a glorious cause. "This is my work and my glory to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man." (Moses 1:39.) First, the successful leader has faith. He recognizes that the greatest force in this world today is the power of God as it works through man. He takes comfort from the very real assurance that divine help can be his blessing. He is, through his faith, a believer in prayer, knowing that prayer provides power-spiritual power, and that prayer provides peace-spiritual peace. He knows and he teaches youth that the recognition of a power higher than man himself does not in any sense debase him; rather, it exalts him. He further declares, "If we will but realize that we have been created in the image of God, we will not find Him difficult to approach." This knowledge, acquired through faith, accounts for the inner calm that characterizes the successful leader. Second, the successful leader lives as he teaches. He is honest with others. He is honest with himself. He is honest with God. He is honest by habit and as a matter of course. Third, the successful leader works willingly. Formula "W" applies to him. What is Formula "W"? Simply this: Work will win when wishy-washy wishing won't. Victory is bound to come to him who gives all of himself to the cause he represents when there be truth in the cause. Fourth, the successful leader leads with love. Where love prevails in a class, discipline problems vanish. Fifth, the successful leader is prepared. In his mind, he has carefully stored full information with respect to his assignment. He knows the program. He knows what is expected of him. He does not approach his assignment just hoping or wishing for success. In his heart, he has made spiritual preparation, too. He has earned, through his faithfulness, the companionship of the Holy Spirit. He has knowledge to give. He has a testimony to share. Sixth, the successful leader achieves results. To begin with, he recognizes that no aim leads to no end. In short, he develops goals of accomplishment. If he be a Scoutmaster, he determines that each boy will achieve. You see such a leader at every court of honor in full uniform, his boys receiving award upon award. Their leader has taught them that we were not placed on earth to fail, but rather to succeed; that we cannot rest content with mediocrity when excellence is within our reach. Such a leader recognizes that his attitude determines his altitude. He knows full well that nothing is as contagious as enthusiasm, unless it is a lack of enthusiasm. He carries others to accomplishment through the sheer strength of his overwhelming desire to bring success to his assignment. The leader who gets the job done is one who inspires confidence, who motivates action, and who generates enthusiasm. You will ever recognize his work-for it will be well done.
We are the sons and daughters of Almighty God. We have a destiny to fulfill, a life to live, a contribution to make, a goal to achieve.
A choice has to be made. There are no minor or insignificant decisions in our lives. Decisions determine destiny. Whether we like it or not, we are engaged in the race of our lives. At stake is eternal life—yours and mine. What will be the outcome? Will we be servants of God? Or will we be servants of sin?
We cannot restrict our thinking to today's problems alone. We have the obligation to plan for tomorrow's opportunities. We are limited only by our thoughts and personal determination to convert these thoughts to realities. Henry Ford, the industrialist, taught us, "An educated man is not one who has trained his mind to retain a few dates in history. He is one who can accomplish things. Unless a man has learned to think, he is not an educated man, regardless of how many college degrees he has after his name."
At times the preparation period may appear dull, uninteresting, and even unnecessary. But experience continues to demonstrate that the future belongs to those who prepare for it. And if we are to become leaders, we cannot skimp on our preparation.
To be prepared spiritually for leadership overshadows all other types of preparation. A wise leader cautioned, "When you play, play hard. When you work, don't play at all." Leadership requires effort, hard work, a do-or-die philosophy. When we speak of work as an essential ingredient of leadership, we speak also of teamwork. Getting along with others must be part of our work and service pattern, or leadership assignments will pass us by. One cannot perform all of the needed work by himself. J. C. Penney, the business leader, advised, "My definition of leadership is brief and to the point. It is simply this: Getting things done through the aid of other people. Cooperativeness is not so much learning how to get along with others as taking the kinks out of yourself so that others can get along with you."
May each of us think big, prepare well, work hard, and live right, thereby finding success in life.
It has been said by one, years ago, that history turns on small hinges, and so do people's lives. Our lives will depend upon the decisions we make, for decisions determine destiny.
Think of the decision of a fourteen-year-old boy who had read that if anyone lacked wisdom, he should ask of God, "that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him." (James 1:5.) He made the decision to put to the test the epistle of James. He went into the grove and he prayed. Was that a minor decision? No—that was a decision that has affected all mankind and particularly all of us who are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. What are the important decisions our youth must make? First, what will be my faith. Second, whom shall I marry. And third, what will be my life's work.
My counsel to returning missionaries and to every youth is that they should study and prepare for their life's work in a field that they enjoy, because they are going to spend a good share of their lives in that field. I believe it should be a field that will challenge their intellect and a field that will make maximum utilization of their talents and their capabilities, and, finally, a field that will provide them sufficient remuneration to provide adequately for a companion and children. Such is a big order, but I bear testimony that these criteria are very important in choosing one's life's work.
Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible.
The only reason we really pursue goals is to cause ourselves to expand and grow. Achieving goals by themselves will never make us happy in the long term; it's who you become, as you overcome the obstacles necessary to achieve your goals, that can give you the deepest and most long-lasting sense of fulfillment.
A person should set his goals as early as he can and devote all his energy and talent to getting there. With enough effort, he may achieve it. Or he may find something that is even more rewarding. But in the end, no matter what the outcome, he will know he has been alive.
A sensible man never embarks on an enterprise until he can see his way clear to the end of it.
If you want to live a happy life, tie it to a goal, not to people or objects.
Your goal should be out of reach but not out of sight.
Develop your willpower so that you can make yourself do what you should do, when you should do it, whether you feel like it or not.
Big shots are only little shots who keep shooting.
Happiness, wealth, and success are by-products of goal setting; they cannot be the goal themselves.
If you're climbing the ladder of life, you go rung by rung, one step at a time. Don't look too far up, set your goals high but take one step at a time. Sometimes you don't think you're progressing until you step back and see how high you've really gone.
Never look back unless you are planning to go that way.
If you do not know where you are going, every road will get you nowhere.
Actions to be effective must be directed to clearly conceived ends.
Arriving at one goal is the starting point to another.
The secret of getting ahead is getting started.
You have to expect things of yourself before you can do them.
A goal is a dream with a deadline.
Dare to live the life you have dreamed for yourself. Go forward and make your dreams come true.
We aim above the mark to hit the mark.
Begin with the End in Mind.
One may miss the mark by aiming too high as too low.
An obstacle is someting you see when you take your eyes off of the goal you are trying to reach.
You got to be careful if you don't know where you're going, because you might not get there.
Also, personal goals, “especially short-term goals,”29 help you reignite your powerful faith. When you set a good goal, you are looking forward, as you did before, and seeing what your Heavenly Father wants you or another to become.30 Then you plan and work hard to achieve it. Elder Quentin L. Cook taught, “Never underestimate the importance of planning, setting goals … , and [inviting others]—all with an eye of faith.”31
Missing Reference