Goals

This past Tuesday we had an amazing Devotional address by Elder Dennis B Neuenschwander called "I Take My Journey". Here's the link to go read it : He told a story about how he had some difficulty committing to writing his doctoral dissertation. I quote directly from that talk:
"One day my chairman called me into his office – hardly ever a pleasant experience – and asked me a very specific question: “Will you write your dissertation this year?” I tried to skirt the question with some very lame excuses. But he kept pressing me. Finally I realized that I had to answer with either a yes or a no. If my answer were “no”, I knew that my formal education would be over and that I would never reach my goal, even if I had traversed much of the required road. If my answer were “yes”, I knew that I would have to act differently than I had up to that point...When I finally said yes with some conviction, his demeanor changed. He became my mentor instead of my tormentor. “Good”, he said, “I will tell you how to do it”. Then there came a series of questions: “How many months in a year?” I was a doctoral student and felt that I could answer that one. “Twelve”, I answered. He then demanded that I set twelve goals. The next question was: “how many weeks in a month?” To which I answered four. He wanted me to write four goals for each one of the twelve. Then he had me set seven daily goals for each of the four weeks in each month. He knew that if I could complete my goal every single day, that I would complete my dissertation by the end of the year. He then gave me this counsel: “don’t go to bed any night until you have completed your daily goal.” He was right. I completed each of my daily goals, often without sleep. By the end of the year I was defending my dissertation. It is the constancy of your commitment and personal discipline that bring you to your destinations."

And so with that in mind, I have made some goals that I will be working on this semester: 1)Grow spiritually (when is this ever not our goal), 2)Apply to grad school 3) Get straight A's, 4) Improve my literacy.

So monthly goals: (all four main goals seem to interweave and overlap in execution)
Get Visiting Teaching done
Have all information together for my top 5 grad schools
Read two books related to the grad programs I'm applying to (This month it's Utopia by Thomas More -6pgs a day- and Beyond Good and Evil by Nietzsche -8pgs- a day)
Have at least 3 followers on my blog
Have 2 chapters of my novel done

Weekly Goals:

Visit the Temple
Print off the information pages for my different Grad schools
Have all assignments that can be done within a week, done within seven days of the teachers' initial assigning of them
Comment on four of the blogs I follow and have seven pages of text for my novel

Daily goals:
Pray: the first and last thing I do every day
Read the RS and Sunday school lessons with my scripture study
Write in my journal
Write one blog entry
Read the required number of pages I need to in my books
30 min on my novel
Look at one grad school and email the department
Study four hours a day

It looks like a lot, but only taking 12 credits and being unemployed and single---I have time

My daily schedule looks something like this with class falling in between tasks

Pray
Read Scriptures and RS lesson
Read Utopia
Blog entry
Study 4 hours
Look at school
Email program
30 min story dev
Read Beyond Good and Evil
Read Scriptures and Sunday School lesson
Journal
Pray

And so tomorrow it begins...unless Pandy and I must go on a roadtrip, which under the circumstances is more important. She is going through a REALLY stressful time right now and is in need of some time to get away from everything, and so because I love her I will set aside my ambitions and be her support. "People are more important that things"

Pandy and I on our last roadtrip


Now I wonder...