2013 April 7

So yesterday, you chose a talent or skill to develop. Today, you need to make a plan to develop the talent or skill you chose*. For Knowledge 2, you can use your judgement on when you feel like you have mastered it. But if you are combining it with a Value Project, you need to record your hours and spend at least 10 hours mastering it.

Let's take a minute and talk about setting goals. There are three important things to remember when it comes to setting goals: 

• Be Realistic. In choosing a talent or skill to learn, consider your schedule and other responsibilities. You aren't going to learn about Nutrition in 30 minutes. But a good "surface" understanding probably won't take more than a month. 
• Set a finish line. Going back to being realistic, you should have a time frame in which you would like to complete your project. Or maybe you'll learn everything you can about that subjuct in the time frame you've alloted yourself. Either way, if you don't set a deadline for yourself you might get too carried away or accomplish nothing. We've all been there....
• Be quantitative. When you set your goals, set them by something that's measurable  Instead of "I'm going to study about Nutrition every day" be specific with how long you will study each day. That's something that's measurable. Understand?

Now, since I'm doing this right along with you, I thought I would share my plan with you:

1. Spend 30 minutes each day practicing the piano (I'm combining this with the Knowledge Project)

2. Use the church's keyboard course

3. Learn to play 3 hymns, using both hands.

*I've helped you with the easy part, choosing a skill or talent to develop and finding resources. The hard part is the developing. I can't do that for you. If now isn't a good time for you to start a project like this, make a plan anyway and start the project another time.