(8/28/02)
"Set your goals-without goals you can't measure your progress. But don't become frustrated if the victories don't come quickly or easily. Remind yourself that striving can be more important than arriving. If you are striving for excellence-if you are trying your best day by day with the wisest use of your time and energy to reach realistic goals-you are a success, and you can feel proud of your accomplishments." — Marvin J. Ashton, "Be a Quality Person," "Ensign," Feb. 1993, 64

(8/29/02)
"Set clear and specific goals. When you set a goal and when you commit yourself to the necessary self-discipline to reach that goal, you will eliminate most of the problems in your life. Spend your energies doing those things that will make a difference. Then you can become what you think about." — M. Russell Ballard, "Do Things That Make a Difference," "Ensign," June 1983, 72

(8/31/02)
"I believe you can train yourself to become a positive thinker, but you must cultivate a desire to develop the skill of setting personal worthy and realistic goals. I suppose that at about every seminar or fireside you go to at your age someone talks to you about goal setting. Maybe some of you get weary of listening to the principle of setting goals. But let me tell you something about goal setting. I am so thoroughly convinced that if we don't set goals in our life and learn how to master the technique of living to reach our goals, we can reach a ripe old age and look back on our life only to see that we reached but a small part of our full potential. When one learns to master the principle of setting a goal, he will then be able to make a great difference in the results he attains in this life." — M. Russell Ballard, "Do Things That Make a Difference," "Ensign," June 1983, p. 69-70

(9/01/02)
"I would suggest to you that setting goals is a simple process, but there are two or three things about it you have to learn. I learned in my business career that I could get all excited about a principle, or that I could get all excited about trying to do something, but if I did not write it down and if I did not place it in front of me where I looked at it over and over and over again until it really became part of me, I did not accomplish that goal. I would suggest that if you want to have success in the goal setting process, you learn to write your goals down. I would even put them in a very prominent place-on your mirror or on the refrigerator door. Keep your goals in front of you, in writing. Then, with the desire to reach your written goals, you will be more willing to pay the price that successful goal-oriented people must pay." — M. Russell Ballard, "Do Things That Make a Difference," "Ensign," June 1983, p. 70

(9/02/02)
"Happy, fulfilling participation in the Church results when we relate Church goals, programs, and policies to gospel principles and to personal eternal goals. When we see the harmony between the gospel and the Church in our daily lives, we are much more likely to do the right things for the right reasons. We will exercise self-discipline and righteous initiative guided by Church leaders and a sense of divine accountability." — Ronald E. Poelman, "The Gospel and the Church," "Ensign," Nov. 1984, p. 65

(5/26/04)
"It is necessary to prepare and to plan so that we don't fritter away our lives. Without a goal, there can be no real success. One of the best definitions of success I have ever heard goes something like this: Success is the progressive realization of a worthy ideal. Someone has said the trouble with not having a goal is that you can spend your life running up and down the field and never crossing the goal line." - Thomas S. Monson, "In Search of Treasure," General Conference, April 2003

1/4/06
"Now is the time to align our goals with God's goals. His work and His glory—'to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man' (Moses 1:39) —can become ours. Of temple marriage the Savior declared, 'If a man marry a wife by my word, which is my law, and by the new and everlasting covenant,... [they] shall inherit thrones, kingdoms, principalities, and powers, dominions,... exaltation and glory in all things.' (D&C 132:19) We are to emulate the example of the Lord, to love as He did, to pray as He did, and to endure to the end as He did. (2 Ne. 33:4)" - Russell M. Nelson, "Now Is the Time to Prepare," Ensign (CR), April 2005

1/1/07
"It has been said by Bruce Barton that, 'When were through changing, were through.' There is no age when we are too old or too young or just too middle-aged to change. Perhaps old age really comes when a person finally gives up the right, challenge, and joy of changing. We should remain teachable. How easy it is to become set. We must be willing to establish goals whether we are sixty, seventy, fifty, or fifteen. Maintain a zest for life. Never should there be a time when we are unwilling to improve ourselves through meaningful change." - Marvin J. Ashton, "Progress through Change," Ensign (CR), November 1979, p.61

1/2/07
"As you build your lives in obedience to the gospel and strive to achieve your goals, do not become discouraged by temporary setbacks and disappointments. Remember that it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things. (2 Ne. 2:11) You will grow and learn by overcoming obstacles. The Lord has admonished all of us to keep [His] commandments and endure to the end. (D&C 14:7)" - Joseph B. Wirthlin, "Live in Obedience," Ensign (CR), May 1994, p.39

1/3/07
"I must confess that whenever my life has failed to measure up to the standards of my forebears, it is because I have allowed worldly priorities to take precedence over my spiritual ones. But I have learned that it is possible to redirect our goals and to put our sights on eternal values....

"All it takes is desire, obedience, dedication, and endurance. The Lord will do the rest!" - Stephen B. Oveson, "Our Legacy," Ensign (CR), November 1999, p.29

4/15/07
"I have known many great men and women. Although they have different backgrounds, talents, and perspectives, they all have this in common: they work diligently and persistently towards achieving their goals. It's easy to get distracted and lose focus on the things that are most important in life. I've tried to remember the lessons I learned from Coach Oswald and prioritize values that are important to me so that I can keep my eye focused on things that really matter.

"I urge you to examine your life. Determine where you are and what you need to do to be the kind of person you want to be. Create inspiring, noble, and righteous goals that fire your imagination and create excitement in your heart. And then keep your eye on them. Work consistently towards achieving them." - Joseph B. Wirthlin, "Life's Lessons Learned," General Conference, April 2007

5/11/07
"Often we hear folks say, 'I can't see the forest for the trees.' How important it is for us to ascend a vantage point from time to time, above the fog that my friend referred to; there to check direction and relative position, there to decide on things of most importance; there to re-evaluate our goals.

"The Lord gave the key to all men nearly two thousand years ago when he said:

"'Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him and will sup with him, and he with me.

"'To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.' (Rev. 3:20-21.)

"How grateful we should be to have this key to live by. How grateful we should be that as we face the tremendous task of overcoming the imperfections of mortality, he assures us of his presence and sustaining help; but not without one very important stipulation, that the incentive must come from us, for remember he said, 'Behold, I stand at the door, and knock.' In other words he is always there, ready to enter, ready to be with us, but we, too often, fail to recognize the knock." - Robert L. Simpson, "Conference Report," October 1962, Third Day—Morning Meeting, p.99

8/24/08
"It should be the ideal of Latter-day Saints to be at the close of each day one step nearer heaven. They should have in mind the building of more stately mansions, mansions of character, of patriotism, of thrift, of morality. We do not live for ourselves. Every man can wield a tremendous influence for good, more than he thinks." - Charles A. Callis, Conference Report, April 1936, Afternoon Meeting, p.29

2/19/10
“An eminent analyst has said: ‘I have learned in forecasting economic futures that what is going to happen is already happening.’ It is so in our lives. It is so everlastingly, and all of us ought to determine our ultimate objectives as early as possible and then faithfully pursue them. Life is not limitless here. Time soon passes. Every man takes himself and what he is with him wherever he goes, and he takes himself also into eternity.” - Richard L. Evans, “Conference Report,” April 1962, Third Day—Morning Meeting, p. 98