A Lifetime Commitment

I made a list of some goals, some lifetime commitments I want to acheive. Many of them are family history oriented, as they should be, others are just goals I've developed in my mind for my current time frame. These goals shift many, many times. But they're goals, and writing them down always makes them more achievable! I also try to break them down into steps, or things I can check off. I'm a list person for sure!

Short Term: Go to the temple at least once a week and participate in more than just endowments
Medium: Begin a habit of doing indexing or simple family history work on Sundays instead of napping or watching a movie.
Long-term: Discover the broken links to my grandfather’s Cherokee heritage and perform ordinances for them in the temple

Some challenges to my short-term goal are simply being busy and letting school and work overwhelm my sweetheart and I, to where we don’t go. Challenges to my medium goal could include the desire not being present, motivation being gone, and justification in not actually doing it. Challenges to my long-term goal could include disappointment if I don’t find anything immediately, loss of motivation, lack of appropriate energy expenditure, and lack of willingness to go the hard extra miles.

For my short-term goal I plan on setting a specific day and time to go every week and then write it on our calendar. I also plan on telling our family and friends so they know not to contact us and to encourage us to remember. I also plan on making sure that day we both have everything done on time in order to enable us to go. For my medium-term goal I plan on setting aside a certain amount of time every Sunday. I also want my sweetheart and I to be held accountable to each other. I also think putting notes around the house or putting it on the calendar would help. Maybe a note on the T.V. so when we go to watch a movie we are reminded to do something else. Finally, for my long-term goal, I want to put a picture/description of my goal where I can see it on a regular basis. I want to find a way to build my motivation. Also, over the years I want to work on my self-control so I can go the extra mile because I make myself actually do it. I plan on breaking this large goal up into little goals over the years, like contacting relatives, doing internet research, going to family history centers, one step at a time.

My Dreams	Goals
---Goal 1--- Build 400+ volunteer hours	Daily: --- Plan out my day --- Work on self-control and time management --- Go to bed early/rise early Weekly: --- Contact various agencies for permission to volunteer for them --- Volunteer for at least two hours once or twice a week --- Record hours and evaluate experience Deadline: --- Accomplish 400+ hours before my internship so I can have a jumpstart on my internship hours as well.
---Goal 2--- Continue to receive Academic Full-Tuition Scholarship	Daily: --- Do homework the day it is assigned --- Write daily assignments in planner --- Turn in homework early --- Do more than required on each assignment --- Go to bed/rise early Weekly: --- Check with professors on ways to improve --- Follow grades & GPA --- Plan ahead for future classes --- Manage time/extracurricular activities Deadlines: --- Be granted the Academic Full-Tuition Scholarship by next winter semester by keeping GPA above 3.7
---Goal 3--- Find the broken linkage to my Grandfather’s Cherokee lineage	Daily: --- Keep FamilySearch as my homepage; use free time looking up ancestors, not Facebooking --- Check my Google alerts for new ancestral records online Weekly: --- Keep in contact with living relatives to see what they find --- Spend 1 hour every Sunday doing family research --- Record all findings in research log and pedigree --- Go to Family History Center to learn about Native American researching --- Perform in-depth Internet research Deadline: --- No specific day, but in the future (at least 10 or 15 years) I would like to have some sort of lead or breakthrough on finding names in that lineage. There is no information currently and I want to have some! And then eventually, I want to go back as far as I can and perform all of the ordinances.

 - Olivia

love yourself :)