Tuesday, July 22, 2014

Goals

"Goals reflect the desires of our hearts and our vision of what we can accomplish. Through goals and plans, our hopes are transformed into action. Goal setting and planning are acts of faith." (Preach My Gospel pg 146)

I have been nervous about this summer's plans to travel for six weeks because all routines the kids and I have fine-tweeked to keep this ball rolling will be sacrificed to survival mode. 

Then I remembered a little gem from missionary life. Key Indicators. 

And I quote "Perhaps you have wondered which of your many duties are the most important. To be able to answer this question, you must understand your purpose and know how effective use of time can help you fulfill this purpose." (PMG pg 138) Enter Key Indicators, the metrics which measure your progression towards your goals. SO I need to figure out:

My purpose is:

My key indicators are:

I'm hoping this will simplify the ENORMOUS guilt complex Satan seems to love flinging in my face as each day passes and "nothing" gets done. I'm excited to sling my own metrics of success in his face and know when I'll be satisfied with my day. Hope this helps someone else in their own situation. Because time has become such a commodity in our fast paced culture, I'm constantly judging if I use mine wisely. I'm also ticked when I waste it, but sometimes I confuse myself on what 'wasting' time really is. Like- spending NON structured time with my kids is not wasting time. Or meditating is not wasting time. Laundry is and always will be a waste of time though. And especially ironing. Who irons anymore right?? (Only those who leave their clothes in the laundry basket so long they are a wrinklly mess. SO yeah we still iron a lot.)

4 comments:

  1. You're spot on with the ironing! Love reading your thoughts. Worrying is definitely the biggest time-waster.

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  2. I got irked about my hubby washing the normal dishes with the "bottle only" scrubber. I was freaking about my precious liquid gold breast milk potentially getting contaminated with bacteria from gross dishes. Well, in his wisdom he made a point that totally resonated with me. He said "I haven't harmed the baby, I feed him and clothe him and play with him and show him lots of love. This isn't that important." I could have reacted like a total lunatic (which I usually do) but somehow it made sense. When I start to get uppity about stuff like letting the baby get covered head to toe in puree or having stuff absolutely everywhere because Turbo has explored his heart out and made a mess of things, or even how I should handle a certain situation. It only matters if it will matter eternally. Did I do my best and make my choices prayerfully? Did I respond with love and compassion? Will my children remember good emotions when they remember their life? Then that's what matters. I think the internet has actually taken us farther from our parenting goals by making us question everything and invest far too much time and energy into things that we should be letting the Spirit tell us. It hasn't let me down yet!

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  3. What you’re saying is right on track with what my Aunt and I were talking about last night. She has a friend, 25 years old, who just lost her two year old son to some disease Doctors could not even diagnose. One day he was running around making a loud mess and a week later he was in a coma on life support. They also have a 6 month old baby. While she stayed with her son in the hospital that week, watching him slowly slip away- the Relief Society in the best intentions went and scrubbed her house top to bottom. They scrubbed off all his hand prints. They scrubbed away every sign of a toddler living there. When she came home from the hospital to the surprise of a clean house- she was devastated. He was gone. Every little handprint was gone and he wouldn’t be replacing them. So her clean house would stay clean, which in different circumstances she probably would have hoped for in exasperation. She said as she looked at pictures of him, one in particular is her favorite. He had spilled a glass of water from the countertop and was standing under the running stream of water laughing. Instead of yelling at him to move so she could clean up, she had the thought to grab the camera and laugh with him instead. Those are the moments that matter. That is the kind of parenting that leaves you with no regrets. So, I want to weave what you said into my mind- that the Spirit is the answer and has the best inspiration for what matters and what doesn’t.

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  4. Nikki did you read that article going around about the man who said he blamed his wife for the messy house and he was wrong? The part of it that stuck out to me most was, “Sometimes it comes down between cleaning the house, and taking Tristan and Norah to the park. Or spending time having fun with them, or teaching them to read or write. Sometimes I can either do the dishes, or teach our son how to ride a bike, or our daughter how to walk. I’d rather do those things, frankly. I’d rather not be that mom who ignores our kids, and myself, because I’m so busy worrying about what the neighbors might think of our messy house.”

    LOVE.

    The full article is here:
    http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/parenting/wp/2014/07/21/i-blamed-my-wife-for-our-messy-house-i-was-wrong-for-many-reasons/

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