Stick to your plans

Our Heavenly Father is a great example to us of someone who has made goals and kept them.  He has made big plans and has followed through on ALL of them and will continue to do so until everything He has promised will be fulfilled.

We know that God's work and glory is to "bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man"  This is His purpose and goal.  He came up with a plan to help us obtain all that He has and He taught it to us and gave us the opportunity to gain a body and tons of experience,  and His plan is AWESOME.

Part of His plan included our Savior, Jesus Christ who has also been an amazing example of someone who has done what He said He was going to do and will continue to accomplish His goals which are the same as our loving Father in Heaven.

Many prophets and leaders before us have also given us great examples of setting goals and accomplishing great things.

SO, we have these great examples and I want to be just like them, but what about the reality that I can't even get out of bed sometimes at an appropriate hour of the morning to get some simple scripture reading done before the kids wake up?  How come I can't seem to stick to a diet plan long enough to see real and lasting results?  Why do I sometimes forget that I made a plan and goal to not yell at my kids?  You know, the whole, I want to "change the world...instead, I sleep" thing.   I sometimes have feelings of despair  because of my inability to achieve perfection and for sure there have been times in my life where it felt like

"my life is a perfect graveyard of buried hopes and dreams"  

But as most of my bosom friends know that

"To despair is to turn your back on God"

I think the devil likes us to despair and lose hope of accomplishing our righteous goals.  He wants us to wallow & dwell in our failures in hopes that we will abandon our attempts at improvement and progression.  He HATES it when we have feelings of hope and excitement for living life to our fullest potentials.  In other words, he hates goals and he loves to ruin our good plans, especially temple attendance, serving others, making our homes more peaceful, etc.

I remember on my mission, having to make goals with my companions and really trying our hardest to accomplish those goals, whether it was how many people we would talk to or invite to come to church, or how many people we would invite to be baptized.  It was something that I struggled with because I sometimes felt, it was in vain, even when we had great faith.  BUT, looking back now, I realize how valuable that goal setting and planning was because it gave us great purpose and focus.  Maybe we didn't  always accomplish everything we set out to do as missionaries, but we sure tried and that gave us power and strength, and a unity of mind and spirit. Looking back at the companionships that I set the most goals and made the most plans with, those were the most successful times of my mission.

What's my point?  I think we should look at goal making and planning with more of a, sorry to sound cliche, but a journey and not a destination.  Kind of like - checkpoints, landmarks, scenery, taking pictures, stopping to smell the roses and really noticeing how far we've come in our journey and how much closer we are to our destination because of the goals we've implemented in our life.  Enjoy the process and the development more. 

Ask yourself:   Where is this goal taking me?  What benefit will this plan bring to my life and to the lives of others?  Are my goals and plans in line with my divine nature and individual worth?  Am I on the right track or do I need to change course a little bit?  Are my plans in line with God's plan for me?  What is God's plan for me?  Do I need to set smaller, baby step goals?  Which goal can I set that will lead me to my next goal?  Is my family happy?  Is my marriage working?  If not, what goals can be made individually or together that will help get us to where we want to be? Are we being true to ourselves and each other?  Am I putting the essentials first?  How can I help my children set and keep their goals? These questions and so many others are productive questions to ask ourselves and have a little inventory with ourself from time to time.

Goal setting, goal keeping, and even goal breaking isn't about creating feelings of guilt -   though guilt can be a motivator for change, it's not necessarily a great place to linger longer. Sometimes, it's meant for a short quick visit and then a kiss goodbye.

Setting goals and making plans is about creating passion, drive, aspirations, hope, effort, recognizing weakness and then turning it over to God for help. It's about trying.  It's about recognizing our strengths and how much we can accomplish with the help of our Savior and His atoning sacrifice.  It's about being deliberate.  Writing things down and remembering.  Goal setting is not setting ourselves up for failure, it's about setting ourselves up for a greater purpose and focus. Sometimes, failing can be part of that purpose to give us experience and learning.  God wants us to make goals and He wants to help us achieve them.

Because I mess up on my diet plan for a couple of days or even months, doesn't make me a failure and doesn't mean I should just give up on my goals, it's about adjusting my mindset and realizing,

it's about progression, not perfection.  I can simply move on quickly, adjust anything I might need to adjust and stick to my goals and plans.

I'm sure grateful Jesus stuck to the plan!  

We can too.

Today's giveaway is about sticking to your plans and so I'm giving away a lot of things that stick.

Stickers from Farmwifebre that are made specifically for MMP planners.  Glue sticks, re-positional glue, cute glue gun, lots of washi tape, sticky notes, cute scrap paper, cute fridge magnets, motivational stickers and a cute storage box to store it all in.  Wahoo!

To enter today's giveaway is easy.  If you have already purchased an 2016-2017 academic planner or a yearly 2017 planner you are automatically entered into this giveaway.  For anyone that purchases the planner today, they will also automatically be entered into today's giveaway as well.