Resolutions...Not Really For Me

This post is personal but for the sake of keeping a journal, I think I'll include it.

I know for New Years everybody has resolutions that they'd like to accomplish for the following year, ie. losing weight, finishing school, new career, having kids, etc. I don't know why but I've never been too much a fan of resolutions, probably because I never reach them or care after the first few weeks.

I do however, like goals. I think they're more reachable (if that's even a word), they have more meaning, and they're more personal. Every Sunday I tell myself I'm really going to do better at my personal scripture study and then find myself the following Sunday promising the same thing. This year I have decided to be different. I've never studied along with the Sunday School lesson, ever in my entire life (no, not even when Lance was teaching in Charleston, I'll admit), but this year I'm going to. I believe the new book to study is Doctrine and Covenants (someone correct me if I'm wrong) and to ensure that I'm focused and getting something out of every weekly lesson, I'll read everyday right along with the manual like I'm supposed to. That's going to be one of my goals, because ever since I've been married I just lean on Lance's reading. Right, like I'm going to get something out of verses I haven't read! When I was single I read and read, and couldn't read enough, I just starved for it. For whatever reason, being married makes me lazy and I lean on Lance too much. So I'm going to set my goal and actually achieve it this time.

The second goal I have is to read more. I've recently finished a series by Anita Stansfield and I could not set the books down, they were fantastic and engrossed every part of me. I am now reading a book called The Peacegiver by James Ferrell and so far, it's excellent. I look at our stacks of books and compare them to our stacks of DVDs and came up with this conclusion: I have seen almost every single DVD we own, but I've not read more than one shelf of books on our five-shelved bookcase. That's pretty sad and pathetic! We have wonderful books, most of them very educational and spiritual in nature, being written by prophets. Why have I not picked one up to even glance at the title? I am losing so much knowledge in letting my brain being sucked into TV and DVDs. I honestly don't watch that much TV (besides The Office, I try not to miss an episode) but I don't do that much reading either. How foolish of me! That's goal number two, to read more.

Another goal I want to set is to get my jewelry making going into an actual business. I love to design and make jewelry, thanks to Amelia who taught me in Charleston. It's a stress reliever, it's creative and time consuming. Seriously, I don't know if I've ever sat at a table for 9 hours straight and not complained about it, than when I'm beading. I have a few ideas of where to start so I'll keep you all updated as I progress in that direction.

Believe it or not I used to play the piano really well. I absolutely loved it, my whole being was consumed in the piano. I started taking lessons when I was 13 and continued for 4 years until my first year of college. My teacher was awesome, I loved the songs he picked for me to practice, I loved the way I felt when I played and heard piano music, it was my passion and I practiced for 3-4 hours every day. But then I focused on college and boys and didn't practice a whole lot, matter of fact I lost a lot of what I had known. Therefore I am now a piano loser which brings me to goal number four: to keep up my practicing so that I can play more than the hymns and Mary had a Little Lamb.

I think four goals will more than keep me busy and bustling. I love this quote by Elder M. Russell Ballard, "I believe you can train yourself to become a positive thinker, but you must cultivate a desire to develop the skill of setting personal worthy and realistic goals. 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."