Setting goals...

It's been drilled into my head for as long as I can remember, the tricks to success.  Oft repeated are:

• Make sure your goals are measurable
• Set goals that are bite sized (if you set a big goal set smaller "check points" so you don't get discouraged)
• Get people to work with you
• Have some form of accountability
• Celebrate your successes

The tricks help, but it seems to me that the real key to success is WORK even though none of us want to hear it or do it. The key to success is finding a motivation that makes the work worth it.

Things that have helped me do that.

• Prayer
• Listing all the good reasons for it
• Don't give in an inch when you want to get lazy you will take a mile

I'm excited about my progress too!

Willpower Diet

I've started the Diabetic Diet.  I've been on diets before, but this is different.  I'm having more success and I'm set up to actually accomplish my goal.  What are the things I did differently?

1. Get a friend who actually cares. 
• They want to hear about your successes and your failures.
• If they will work with you on it that's awesome.
• Physical restraint from sweets may be necessary from time to time.  Like in Costco when there are free samples of cheese cake...
2. Get properly motivated.
• Why am I doing this?  Who is this for?  How much do I want this?  What do I get out of it?
• Again, get friends who will help you. (and want to)
3. Follow the rules.
• Exceptions... often when we think we are on a diet we make exceptions... well your body is losing weight but also making exceptions. Give yourself at least 2 weeks of solid following the "rules" without breaking them.
• The success will drive you to continue.
4. Make your goal measurable.
• My goal I am supposed to eat less than 1400 calories and cut out processed sugar completely for a while.  So I write down all the calories I eat.  I also measured my waist and weighed myself before I started.
5. Embrace change.
• Your eating habits and exercise mentality is going to have to change, have an open mind.
6. Make small good choices and relish little successes.
• If you need to work on your will power, work on it one decision at a time.  Your will power will get stronger as you exercise it.

I am so excited about my progress!  I've also inspired friends to do the same!  I will be sharing my successes and food substitutions in the future as well.

Feeling Lethargic

How you eat affects how you feel.  It's been drummed into our heads... but it's true!  This week my classes have had all kinds of junk food and parties and I've eaten basically nothing but crap.  I feel lethargic.  Last week I was eating good and feeling good.  I'm going to go back to that starting tomorrow.

Buying something nice

Something that doesn't work on me because I end up splurging like crazy, but may work for some people is. Buying something nice for yourself.  It doesn't have to be fancy or intricate it just has to be something you want. Maybe it's a pack of gum, maybe it's a beautiful blouse.

Captain Moroni in the Book of Mormon

(For more about the LDS faith click here, To request to meet with the missionaries click here, to request a free copy of the book of mormon click here)

(this picture is probably historically inaccurate but it is a great image of the Standard of Liberty and Captain Moroni)

I was thinking about the scripture in Alma 48:17
where it talks about if all men were like unto Moroni, Hell itself would be closed...
I want to be like that.
So I decided I'm going to study Moroni. I looked him up in the index and Captain Moroni first appears in chapter 43. So in the first 24 verses, which is as far as i got I made some observations.

Captain Moroni:

1. It says in Alma 43:17 that he took command when he was 25.  I feel this is significant but I’m not quite sure how yet.

a. Ambitious?

b. Close to my age?

2. Verse 19 says that he prepared his people with breast plates and other defensive armor.

a. This scared the lamanites.

b. This could be a metaphor for spiritual armor.

c. It says that he prepared his men.

                       i.   How do I apply this.  It means I need to help someone… but who exactly?

3. Moroni sent spies after the opposing army.

a. Didn’t depend on might.

b. Even when he was winning he didn’t get cocky.

c. Gaining knowledge was important.

4. Sent men to the prophet to seek counsel about the armies.

a. Had a plan and then asked for more help.

b. Knew where his strength came from.

c. Again, this shows humility.

Me time

I've been researching other rewards and I like the idea of actually scheduling some "me time." Not just giving myself a Mani & Pedi because I do that anyway therefore it's not much of a reward, but going somewhere. For Example, Balboa Park for those of you who live in San Diego area, or Yellowstone if you live in Idaho Falls area.  I also like "order in." (what can I say, I'm a food person)

Rewards

So I've created my personal Goals. Now I need a way to make it worth while. Achieving the goal is not enough motivation to get me to the end. So I thought, "what do I really want?" Then it came to me. I've been thinking about going to Olive Garden for a while. I want it but I can't just have it for no reason, it is too expensive, so I decided that that would be my "reward." Things to take from this. Make your reward personal and desirable to you. Make your reward something you won't treat yourself to normally.

Goals

I wasn't perfect, but I feel like I did significantly better.  I've been making scripture study a bigger part of my life and I've found scriptures come into my head more.  The scripture that came into my mind is Alma 48:17 It's about captain Moroni, how if every man was like him, Hell would be closed.  I want to be like that, so I figured I ought to study him, his life, his choices and his character.  I was also thinking about the scriptures where it says that God "giveth liberally" to those who ask.  that has a lot of implications to me.  I have to figure out what it is that I need to ask for.  More importantly however, I need to "pray in faith"  I've been thinking about faith and what that means for me.  Faith is an action (not an inaction). Which means I need to do something.  I figured out the things that would really help.  (Also I was thinking that personal progress really worked for me so I wanted to create goals that mirrored the program)1. being geneology and indexing because the general authorities in the last conference said it strengthens and protects us against temptation (10 hour project). then there were some other ones that were less important.  I had an interesting discovery, I came to the "avoiding bad habit" part and realized that it wasn't an action, it wasn't something I could do.  I decided I needed to find a replacement activity.  I decided that When I get in the mindset that I end up in bad habits, it might be "easy" (with some practice) to divert this mindset into a good channel by writing letters.  

Back to the "giveth liberally." It gave me a different picture of Heavenly Father.  As if he is just waiting to give me these blessings and he's not going to skimp on them either.  He is generous in his gifts. This is a huge perspective change for me.

I figured all this out by reading and keeping a journal.