By David E Bay, High Councilor

I think I am out of sync with the way things are supposed to work. Many people talk about setting goals so they can get started at the first of the year, but I did not get around to considering what I wanted to do on mine until the last week or so.

In January 2020 there was a great big emphasis and launch of new Children and Youth Programs for the young people in the church. Elder Gong conducted a Face to Face event in November 2019. There was a huge emphasis on setting individual goals in 4 different areas, Spiritual, Social, Physical, and Intellectual. President Shepherd passed out copies of the material to the members of the High Council. He encouraged us to work on those things that we wanted to do as guided by our own personal revelation.

I took the youth booklet and started to write some things down. I felt like it was important, so I kept in my pocket for over a year. The booklet became tattered and worn but did not make any difference in my life because I had never reached the point of making any kind of a commitment as to what I would do.

Eventually, the booklet was so tattered that I threw it away. But there were still no changes in my day-to-day life.

I knew there was value in what the Prophet and other leaders were asking the youth to do, and I felt there could be value to me as well. However, I had not made the effort to ask the Lord what He wanted me to work on. It had to come from the real and inner desires of my heart. I could go through the outer appearance of carrying a goal booklet around with me, but without personal commitment and dedication, my actions were empty.

This year, after the year was already started, I began to work with the Lord to create goals and directions that I am committed to work on. Alas, the booklet had fallen apart and had been thrown away. I needed some way to keep records of my goals and of my accomplishments. Back in November 2019 with the Face to Face with Elder Gong where the Children and Youth Programs were launched, the Gospel Living app was introduced. I did not remember that it included goal tracking back then, but now it is a great digital tool for me to track my goals. Not only that, but there is nothing extra that I need to carry in my pocket because I usually have my phone with me. It is designed to have goals in each of those different areas, Spiritual, Social, Physical, and Intellectual. Goals can belong to any area or combination of areas. They can be short, just for today, or as long as you want. I learned the hard way that the deadline defaults to finishing the goal today.

“Learn from the mistakes of others. You can’t live long enough to make them all yourself.” was something I was told when I was 11 years old. It seems to apply here. What can you learn from my stumbling? You will probably get something more focused for you than I can put in words here, but here is what I learned for me.

Effective Individual Goals must be:

• Individual, custom made for me
• Prayerfully considered
• Adjusted as guided by the Spirit
• Pursued with wholehearted commitment. BE ALL IN!
• Recorded
• Reviewed periodically
• Completed
• Replaced with new goals after completion