Update: Vote in this poll: Still Working on Your 2012 New Year's Resolutions?
Making and keeping goals is an important aspect of developing and improving ourselves. Thinking about our New Year's Resolutions is the perfect time to reevaluate our lives and select new goals to work on. For me, I've found that writing down my goals, making charts, starting with smaller goals, and not giving up, is how I achieve my goals.

Elder M. Russell Ballard of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles said:
"Often the lack of clear direction and goals can waste away our time and energy and contribute to imbalance in our lives. A life that gets out of balance is much like a car tire that is out of balance. It will make the operation of the car rough and unsafe. Tires in perfect balance can give a smooth and comfortable ride. So it is with life. The ride through mortality can be smoother for us when we strive to stay in balance. Our main goal should be to seek "immortality and eternal life" (Moses 1:39). With this as our goal, why not eliminate from our lives the things that clamor for and consume our thoughts, feelings, and energies without contributing to our reaching that goal?"1
One of my goals for this new year is to memorize the Book of Mormon Scripture Mastery Scriptures. After that, I will select and memorize 10 additional scriptures from the Book of Mormon.

Another of my goals is to run a 5K (3 mile) race. I've never run a race before so this is a very new goal for me. In addition to my regular kick-boxing class that I take twice a week, I'm now running three times a week. Here are some of the things I've been doing to achieve my goal:
  • Selected a specific race and date (Race for the Cure on May 12, 2012)
  • Found a friend to run with (my sister-in-law)
  • Researched training plans (my sister-in-law found Couch-to-5K ® Running Plan By Josh Clark)
  • Put the running plan into an easy-to-follow chart that I printed and put on my treadmill
  • Created a goal chart to keep track of my daily/weekly progress.
I actually set this goal a few weeks ago and am now on week three of the running plan. I'm really enjoying this challenge and am looking forward to running my first race. For those of you who have run a marathon before, what advice would you give to a newbie?

What goals do you have this year? Keeping track of your goals will help you achieve your New Year's Resolutions this year. Also see these goal making calendar and bookmark tools.

Notes:
1. Keeping Life's Demands in Balance, General Conference April 1987; May 1987 Ensign.
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