From Dallin H. Oaks book ‘Life’s Lessons Learned’:
I believe in setting Goals, especially the right kind of goals. I have learned that some goals can be an impetus for progress, but others can be little more than a source of frustration.
To be most effective in furthering our progress, goals should concern things that can be attained by our personal efforts. They should not depend upon the agency or efforts of others. This difference is important. If we pursue a goal that concerns what we can do, our commitments and standards can be constant whatever the circumstances beyond our control. In contrast, when goals depend upon the agency and action of others, the failure to attain them can only produce frustration to the one who set them.
Examples of goals depending upon the agency and action of others include goals to marry a particular person, be married at a particular time, or be employed in or called to a particular position. Goals attainable by personal efforts include the lists we make of what we will do on a particular day or the resolutions we make for what we desire to accomplish in a new year. Even more significant goals of this kind concern our desires, which dictate our priorities and shape our choices, actions and feelings.1 Relying on scriptural direction to pray to be filled with love toward our fellowmen (Moroni 7:48), my mother taught her children that when we had negative feelings toward someone, we should pray to have those feelings turned to love.
Missionaries can apply this principle to emphasize goals they can accomplish by their own efforts, such as hours worked, concepts taught, rules kept. These goals are not dependent upon the exercise of someone else’s agency, such as an investigator’s decision to be baptized.
Effective goals should always be accompanied by plans to accomplish them, so goals are not something abstract or academic. Goals with plans to accomplish them will lead to momentum and success.
We should be willing to amend our goals or their timing, according to the inspiration of the Lord or the direction of His servants. Pioneer Anson Call, June’s great-grandfather, demonstrated this principle of adaptability. He was a leader in a wagon train Brigham Young organized and sent west from Council Bluffs on July 22, 1846. The goal was to reach the Rocky Mountains that year. After they had traveled more than 130 miles, they were overtaken by a messenger directing them to return. They retraced their steps. Nearly two years later, under priesthood direction, Anson Call was finally authorized to proceed to the Salt Lake Valley in June 1848.2
The ultimate goal for personal effort is to put the Lord first in our lives and to keep His commandments. Attaining that goal requires personal effort and does not depend on others. It can be pursued without regard to circumstances and is independent of what others decide to do. Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and trust in His commandments and His will for us to deal with life’s opportunities and circumstances—to take advantage of those that are received and to persist through the disappointments of those that are lost. This gives us direction and peace.
To be most effective, goals should concern things that can be attained
by our personal efforts and should always be accompanied by plans to accomplish them.
Dallin H. Oaks, Life’s Lessons Learned (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2011), 78-80
