From now on...

Lately, I have felt that my life needs to change. I've felt stuck, as though I'm not moving forward. It's pretty disheartening, and makes it hard to get through the day sometimes.

Tonight, as I have been lying in bed, my mind has been racing, making it difficult to sleep. What areas of my life do I want to change? Where do I want to see myself in one year? Five years? Ten years? Of those dreams, what can I do to make them happen?

As I realized sleep wasn't going to come easily, I got up and started writing down goals. I searched for suggestions to goal setting and came across some interesting thoughts. I found a quote that says, “Until you commit your goals to paper, you have intentions that are seeds without soil.” Maybe that has been my problem...but then I realize it's not. I have written goals down a lot, but then they get put away in whatever notebook I had at the time, and I forget about them. I write them down, figuratively putting those seeds in the soil, but then I leave them. I don't water them or nourish them or do anything with them. I try to grow a garden without the work. No wonder nothing happens.

Tonight that will start to change. It won't come all at once, because that's only slightly overwhelming to any human being, but it will come. One tiny, baby step at a time, it will come. I will focus on one thing, one action, one detail at a time until I'm ready to move on to the next.

Now, basically, I have a goal to set and really follow my goals. In the new goal-setting methods I found, this requires writing my goals down in present tense, specific statements. For example, my goal-setting goal is as follows:

I have specific goals for certain areas of my life, written down, with simple steps to accomplish them by June 26, 2011.

There! It's written down, and I can look at it and remember it. My steps to accomplish this goal are: 1- Decide what I want to work on and change. 2- Word goals in present tense, specific statements. 3- Describe 3 to 5 steps of how to accomplish each goal. 4-Write down goals and steps and place them in areas to see every day.

Attacking multiple areas is hard, and I am aware of that, but I am also aware that I want to change my life. I will not change everything overnight, mostly because I can't, and I may not be able to work on every area at the same time. But I can work on every aspect and change over an extended period of time...one tiny, precise detail at a time.

Another quote I came across says, “Choice, not chance, determines human destiny.” When I read that, I immediately thought of Elder Dallin H. Oaks' talk from April conference of this year. He said, "Desires dictate our priorities, priorities shape our choices, and choices determine our actions." I take these two quotes and describe the steps to change as:

Desire --> Priorities --> Choice --> Action --> Change

So, there you have it. My late night, sleep-avoiding thoughts have placed me on the path to change. It will be a long path, but I'm excited!

And now, I really am tired, so I'm going to turn on some soft piano music and attempt to rest my brain.