Networking has always been one of those things I know I should do, but don’t always know how to, so this week’s lecture from Scott Greenhaugh was actually very useful.  He defined networking as “finding people doing what you want to do, where you want to do it, that you have an affinity with”; this makes a lot of sense when you think about it. For networking within your major or your future career field, it’s very helpful to get to know people and make those connections so that you have more resources and opportunities.  Brother Greenhaugh actually told us that 60-80% of jobs were obtained through networking!  I was pretty surprised by this, but it started making more sense as he went on with the discussion.

       So how can networking help me as a leader?  One of the best things a leader can do for their organization is to network because that is how they can find more opportunities and receive good recommendations.  Networking is all about building relationships.  That’s why Greenhaugh emphasized that you need to have an affinity with the person; you need to create that bond instead of just having a surface relationship.  As leaders, we often have effective people skills, so we need to take advantage of these!

       At the networking lab, I had an awesome opportunity to eat lunch with a Shauna Valentine, professional in a field that was closely related to my major: public relations.  I’m a communications major wanting to possibly do advertising, but I have also thought about PR, so it was very insightful to talk to her.  She told stories about her career, her family, and church callings, and it was interesting to see the type of lifestyle she had lead with this particular career.  That is another one of the biggest perks to networking—you can become familiar with a certain career field through other people.  I not only really enjoyed getting to know her, but we exchanged contact information so I know if I need help in the future with something communications-related, she is a possible resource.  She even mentioned that there are a lot of communications department interns in the PR office where she works on campus, which could be valuable to know in the future.  Overall, the concept of networking just makes a lot of sense, even though not many people realize its importance or know how to do it.  It’s all about just finding people you like who are doing it what you want to do where you want to do it, and creating a relationship with them that can be mutually beneficial in the future.

      Our last lecture was from Dionna Wilson on public speaking, and I really loved her insight and advice.  As much as we do presentations in school or give lessons in church, it’s always one of those things that has the ability to make our stomachs churn and our hands quiver.  I’ve gotten to the point where it’s not too big of a deal anymore, but I definitely know I could improve in this area and even lots of grown adults still don’t have this mastered, but public speaking is a part of everyone’s life in some way or another.

      One of the first tips Sister Wilson gave us was to really know our audience.  If we know their backgrounds, values, and affiliations, we can then find common ground with them and this automatically makes them want to listen a little more.  When you talk to people in terms that they are familiar with, they can understand better and then make connections with what you’re saying.  Along with this, it’s important to get your audience actually involved, whether it’s through a group activity, discussion, or just having them read quotes.  It keeps people’s attention and often, audience members will have very valuable insight that adds to your presentation.

      Another huge part of any speech is the preparation that goes into it.  She told us that during the research process, we should try to find 9 times as much information as we need.  NINE!  At first I was a little shocked at that number and thought it was overkill, but if you really think about it, the better you know a topic, the better equipped you are to teach it, answer questions, and especially in a church setting, start talking about things you weren’t originally planning to talk about (like if the Spirit prompts you to).  She also suggested that we practice a speech at least 13 times before we actually give it.  This number wasn’t as shocking because for really big presentations in school, I’ve definitely practiced this much, but I still think it’s something we neglect.  A lot of times, I’ll procrastinate and run out of time for practicing or just decide to wing it, but a speech will always be so much better if you’re not constantly reading off of notecards or forgetting what to say.

      In the middle of the lecture, Sister Wilson started telling a story.  I couldn’t figure out how the story had to do at all with public speaking, but it quickly captured the attention of the entire class and targeted our emotions.  Afterwards, she told us that she had given an example of an attention-getter, and we all saw that it had definitely worked!  She built curiosity and made it personal to her, and in the example she gave, she used it to also gain credibility with her audience.  Aside from just telling a story, some other effective ways to begin a speech are demonstrations, a thought-provoking question, audience participation, or even a song or dance if you’re brave.  But no matter how you decide to do it, grabbing the attention of your audience is a critical part of any speech.

      This lecture actually came at such a perfect time for me, so I was really grateful for all of the advice we were given.  Of course, with finals coming up, I have to give a couple speeches on various topics that count for a large part of my grade, including my book presentation in this class.  And this Sunday, our Relief Society presidency, which I’m a part of, is in charge of teaching the lesson, so I’ll be teaching for about a third of it.  I’m pretty comfortable in front of a group, but there’s a ton to public speaking that we don’t even think of a lot.  I have a lot I can still work on and I think if I apply what I learned in this lecture, I will be much more successful!

      This past week’s lecture from David Hatch and class activity on Monday had a very compelling message; the topic was ethical leadership.  I had a basic understanding of what ethics were, but I didn’t realize how important a role they play.  Tons of decisions that we make are based on ethics, and something we talked about was that moral and ethical values differ from person to person.  And even further, there are a lot of gray areas where we are forced to decide between two things we value.  In class, we did an activity where we were given situations and had to decide if we agreed or disagreed with the decision being made.  I didn’t expect to have such a hard time deciding on so many of them!  The answers were not obvious or clear cut, and they often involved letting one moral standard fall in order to keep another one.  What it all comes down to is what you value, so we were instructed to write a code of ethics for ourselves.

My Personal Code of Ethics:

1) I will always put my family and God as my highest priorities, and anything that conflicts with these priorities I will subordinate.

2) I will consistently put others above myself and find ways every day to serve those around me in meaningful ways.

3) I will always be obedient—foremost, to the commandments given to us by God, and also to the laws of the land or of any organization with which I am involved.

4) I will have integrity in all my endeavors, even if it means giving up something I want to be honest with others and true to my own values.

5) I will have compassion and continually strive to see things through new perspectives so that I can sympathize with others.

6) I will respect my family, friends, classmates, teachers, leaders, employers, and myself.

7) I will be trustworthy in everything I do and follow through with my responsibilities and obligations.

8) I will be accountable for my actions and make any reparations necessary to amend any of my mistakes.

      In leadership, being ethical in all you do is vital to your institution.  First of all, you need to establish yourself as ethical so that people will want to follow you and know that they can put their trust in you.  You need to lead for the right reasons and do what is right for the group, not for yourself.  Furthermore, you need to have a strong moral conscience so that you can avoid many problems that can plague an organization with weak ethical standards.  Aside from internal issues with ethics within a company, unethical decisions can sometimes even lead to financial or legal issues.  And the way that you can lead ethically is by setting clear standards, like this code of ethics, and never wavering from them.  By sending that message early on, people will realize you’re serious about it and won’t change your mind or be easily tempted to break your standards.  Ethical leadership, although it is a concept sometimes overlooked, is crucial to any successful organization.

      “And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them.”

      Ether 12:27 is one of my favorite scriptures and has helped me in times of struggle, so I really enjoyed this past week’s lecture from Vernon Heperi on utilizing strengths and weaknesses.  The concept that through the Atonement, we can overcome our weaknesses has always been a comfort to me, but there is another side to this: strengthening our strengths and using them to do the Lord’s will.  We learned in the lecture that it is important to be conscious of our strengths and weaknesses and to not compare them to anyone else’s.  Instead, we need to thank the Lord for the strengths and weaknesses He has given us because He gave them to us for specific reasons.  We need to have faith that He will bless us through our strengths and weaknesses if we seek to follow His commandments.   I have definitely experienced this in my life and come to realize that our weaknesses and challenges are a perfect opportunity to grow closer to the Lord.

      Heperi also pointed out that we need to be careful not to mistake a lack of confidence for humility.  Of course, we also have to be careful not to be prideful, but a healthy dose of confidence through the Lord is a very powerful thing and can greatly increase our ability to serve Him and build up His kingdom.  He gave us our strengths on purpose and expects us to identify what they are so we can use them for good.

      This week we all did a personal “SWOT” analysis—we identified our strengths and weaknesses, as well as the opportunities and threats to becoming better leaders.  It was interesting to see that all of my lists correlated with each other and they told me a lot about who I am as a leader and where I need to make improvements.  I realized that I am a lead by example and through service type of leader and I am very good one on one and in small groups, but I need to be a more vocal leader in larger groups.  It helps to identify your strength so you can figure out how to apply them to benefit those around you.

      In the lab on Monday, we talked further about strengths and weaknesses and talked in our project groups about our personal strengths and weaknesses.  It’s important to know our teammates strengths and weaknesses so that you can help them utilize them correctly.  When everybody knows their strengths, they can call on the right strength at the right time and it will strengthen the group as a whole.  Like the ingredients of a cookie, different members bring different things to the table.  One person may have the ability hold everyone together and often go unnoticed, like eggs in a cookie, and one person may have a bolder personality that more noticeably benefits the group, like the chocolate chips.  Every person can contribute in their own way, and through this unison and collaboration, as well as through a reliance on the Lord, the group will always find more success and individuals will have more growth.

      This past week’s lecture was from LaNae Valentine on motivating others.  She taught us that before motivating others, we must motivate ourselves, and she really exemplified that message.  She talked a lot about the Women’s Services and Resources center, and you could really tell how passionate she was about it and through her enthusiasm and care for that cause, she was able to motivate us.  She emphasized how we must speak up for our cause with courage and walk your talk.  This is so important because if you are trying to motivate someone to support your cause, they will be watching you to see if you really support it to determine whether it’s worth their time.

      In our lab this Monday, we had a “Time Warp Convention” where we were all assigned a different leader to play the role of and dress up as if we wanted to. (perfect for Halloween!)  Among the list of leaders were Cleopatra, Teddy Roosevelt, President Monson, Marilyn Monroe, Hitler, and a number of others from varying time periods, countries, positions, causes, and most importantly, with varying motivational styles.  It was interesting to hear about leaders that are often overlooked as leaders because they weren’t at all considered good people.  They all had different methods of gaining influence and rallying people up in support of them, and some methods were questionable.  Marilyn Monroe and Cleopatra, for example, used sex appeal and money to win people over, while Hitler used great speeches, propaganda, and charisma.

      The leader I was assigned was Mother Teresa, and unlike some of the other leaders at the “Convention”, her motives were very pure.  She became a nun at an early age and devoted her life to Christ.  She emulated the Savior through selfless service to others, especially the sick and the poor.  She started an organization called Missionaries of Charity, and made such an influence on the world that she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.  It was interesting to learn about her leadership style in comparison with the leadership techniques we’ve been learning over the past weeks in this class. She was purely motivated by charity and love or others and for Christ, and consistently put herself last; she truly led as Christ led.  She had a clear vision and followed through on it despite opposition and challenges, and she knew how to communicate to a group to gather support for her cause.  She was a self-starter and didn’t let others affect her negatively.  Mother Teresa was an awesome example of a divine-centered leader, and we can really learn a lot about leadership through her. 

      For last week’s lecture, Nathan Ward, the Director of Student Leadership, spoke to us on decision-making.  We make hundreds of decisions every day, both in our personal lives and as leaders, and as President Monson has said, “decisions determine destiny.”  Many of these decisions are trivial and won’t have a lasting impact on our lives, but some decisions, like picking a major, really do make a huge difference.  As tempting as it may be to shy away from making these weighty, often difficult decisions, it is always better to make a bad decision than to not make one at all; avoidance never gets you anywhere.  So what makes these decisions so hard to make?  According to Brother Ward, there are five things that make decision-making difficult:

• Limited time
• Limited information
• Fear of consequences
• Disagreement
• Uncertainty 

      I think that in a leadership setting, the thing I worry about is finding a balance between being decisive and bossy.  In most cases, I would be fine with just making the decision myself, unless I am missing vital information, but that’s not what a leader should ideally do.  It’s important to hear everybody’s point of view, consider all of the possible outcomes, review everything that you know, and identify any holes you have in your information.  Like Brother Ward said, decision-making is a process, not an event.  So I think that while in some situations it is crucial to make a quick decision, even if it is uneducated, most of the time it is more beneficial to the group to hash out all of the details and come to an informed consensus.  And sometimes as a leader, when you’ve evaluated your options, you might realize that the best decision for the group is actually the riskiest, or it might involve a few negative (but necessary) consequences, but that is the decision that you must make.  A real leader has to make tough calls.

      In making decisions on a personal level, I think that I have done a good job so far, but then again, I haven’t had to make that many critical decisions.  Obviously, the decision to come here to BYU was life-changing, and even though I have basically known I was coming here since I was three, I still made a chart that evaluated all the different aspects of the different schools I was considering, and when I came to a decision, I brought it to the Lord and I felt a clear confirmation.  However, I know that I have much more complicated decisions ahead of me that are equally important: picking a major and later on, a career, deciding who to marry, how many kids to have, and the list goes on.  It will require me to do much more than a simple pros/cons list. 

      Lately, I have been trying to decide if I really want to be a communications major.  I am trying to become as informed as I can by taking some of the pre-requisites, attending events within the department, and asking lots of questions to the right people.  I have been thinking forward to when I enter the work field and will probably be a wife and mother, and have factored in time commitment, salary, and the likelihood of me actually being successful.  I need to look at other options in greater detail so I can know my alternatives, and I need to further research the requirements within my specific program.  I know that I don’t need to decide quite yet, but it is such an important decision that I need to keep it in mind constantly.  Some of the decisions we make really can determine our destiny, so it is so important that we take the right steps, be informed, and of course, always ask the Lord.

      After only two months of college, I have already identified what I know will be my biggest challenge over the course of these next four years: time management.  With homework constantly piling up around me, exciting social opportunities literally every night of the week, intramural sports, too many different clubs to count, and a time-consuming (yet spiritually rewarding) church calling, I haven’t had a moment to catch my breath since I’ve been here.  This past week, our lecture was about time-management, and our speaker, Tamara Gray, offered some great insight and useful ideas.  She outlined four “to-do list” items that we should focus on in order to make the most of our time and find a healthy balance:

1) Change your attitude: She emphasized that our life should be like an orchestra, and we should strive to find a harmony between all the different aspects of our lives. 

2) Check your motives: This tied in to the lecture from a couple weeks ago about vision and goals—everything that we spend time doing should have a purpose, and should bring you closer to reaching your overarching vision. 

3) Simplify: There are so many “good” uses of our time, but we need to seek only the “better” and “best” uses of our time, and remember “not to get caught in the thick of thin things.”

4) Be intentional and accountable: It’s important to schedule things out and when you make mistakes, instead of finding excuses and avoiding blame, you should honestly reflect on your actions and even pray over your goals.

      One of the ideas that really stuck with me from the lab on Monday is that “it's not the hours you put in your work that counts, it's the work you put in the hours.”  I think that I do a good job at blocking out plenty of time to get my schoolwork done, but I know that I could be more efficient and save myself a lot of time.  First of all, I have a really sporadic sleep schedule; I’ve already pulled a few all-nighters and I procrastinate often, so I’m usually up very late and take naps throughout the day.  I’ll often get so tired when doing homework in the late hours of the night that I take twice as long to read a passage, or I’m not able to write as well as I could if I had lots of energy.  I also get distracted very easily.  And while Facebook is one obvious time-sucking distraction, I get distracted by tons of other things as well, even if t’s just my mind trailing off topic.  I think that to fix this problem, I need to start going to bed earlier and maybe waking up earlier if I have a lot of homework.  I also need to make a solid effort to stay focused, perhaps by setting mini-goals and rewarding myself when I meet them.

      On Monday, we also filled out a worksheet called the “Wheel of Life Reflection”, where we gauged how much time we spend on these categories: friends/social, family, schoolwork, health/exercise, church/spiritual, ourselves, work, and improving our physical environment.  It created a strong visual that represented how we used our time.  Of course, the top use of my time was schoolwork, which is okay for a college student.  However, I realized that while I am spending lots of time on friends and church, I’ve neglected to spend enough time on my family.  My family is more important to me than anything else on that wheel, so I really need to adjust how much of my time I give them.  Time really is the most precious commodity; we can’t create more of it, we can’t slow it down or speed it up, and we can’t control it.  It’s so important to prioritize the uses of your time and consistently evaluate how you’re managing your time so that not a single minute is wasted.

      One of the most important keys to success as a leader is teamwork.  Having been a competitive soccer and basketball player for most of my life, I can really attest to this, so our lecture this past week from Tom Homloe, BYU’s Athletic Director, hit home for me.  He actually played football for BYU and later in the NFL, as well as coached, so he had some interesting stories to share with us.  He told us that there are two kinds of people: firelighters and firefighters.  Firelighters make a visible effort to help you “keep your fire hot”, while firefighters will put out your fire with discouragement and negative ideas.  Behind every successful person is a firelighter.  He also shared with us a very remarkable study: The Encouragement Experiment.  It proved that an average person can tolerate pain for twice as much time when someone is by their side encouraging them.  Being a leader means being that encouragement, it means being a firelighter.

      Last year, my basketball team was filled with talent and potential.  Some of my best friends my senior year were from the team, and I had a really great year.  However, from the get-go, there was something missing from our team.  We never reached our full potential, and game after game we ended up disappointed and discouraged.  I’ve never really been able to pinpoint what exactly went wrong on our team until now.  In talking about teamwork this past week, we learned of the 5 dysfunctions of a team:

      I actually don’t think we had an issue with the first dysfunction, inattention to results.  We set very specific goals for each game, and ran plenty of sets of lines to pay it when we didn’t reach our goals.  Our coach helped us reevaluate our strategy and work ethic in response to our performance, and so we did pay a lot of attention to our results.

      Avoidance of accountability, however, was a definite problem on our team last year.  Some of the girls who got plenty of playing time thought that they didn’t have work as hard in practice, and didn’t take the blame when something went wrong in a game.  Likewise, the girls who only played a few minutes (if any) didn’t feel accountable either because they knew they wouldn’t be playing in the games anyways.  Nobody stepped up as a leader, and we never stepped up as a team; unfortunately, we stayed at mediocre.

      Next comes lack of commitment, which I think was another one of our problems.  We all committed a huge chunk of our time and energy, but mentally, we were not 100% committed to the team.  In basketball, commitment means diving on the floor after a loose ball.  It means when you do a set of lines, you actually touch the line.  You give it everything you have, and you show up to every practice with the intention of making yourself and your teammates better.  I’m not saying that I did this perfectly, but our team as a whole wasn’t always committed to getting better.

      The next level of the triangle is fear of conflict; I really don’t think we had a huge issue with this.  We had an awesome coach who confronted conflict head-on, and we consistently had team meetings to address our problems.  We would sit for hours trying to come up with ways to make our team better and to get everyone on board, and we would usually emerge from meetings reenergized and refocused.  However, it never lasted very long before we sunk back into our old ways.

      At the base of the triangle is absence of trust.  While I hate to talk down about my teammates, I know that this was the basis of our problems as well.  Right at the beginning of the season, we had issues with rumors and gossip, and I think it set the season off on a bad course.  While we all got along on a superficial level and had fun together, there were cliques and with the large amount of time we spent together, we got tired of each other.  I actually think that our avoidance of accountability and lack of commitment were a direct result of our absence of trust.

      While I obviously can’t go back and fix my basketball season, it’s beneficial to reflect on what went wrong because I now know how to recognize these dysfunctions in the future.  As a leader, I need to be a firelighter, encourage others to be firelighters as well, and most importantly, remember that the basis of a successful team is trust.

      For this week’s lecture, Adrian Klemme, the Student Leadership Coordinator, spoke to us about conflict management.  He repeatedly emphasized that conflict was not a negative thing.  In fact, it is inevitable.  The reason that conflict has such a negative connotation is that many of us don’t know how to properly handle it.  But if conflict is approached the right way, it can result in strengthened relationships, growth and understanding, and ideally, an agreement that satisfies everybody’s interests.

       As part of the lesson, we each took a short test to evaluate what strategies we use to manage conflict.

There are five methods of dealing with conflict:

      So what were my results? Competing came in at 17 points, followed by Accommodating and Compromising at 12 points each.  At first, I was a little confused because these traits seem contradictory of each other.  But the more I thought about it, I realized that I use these different methods in different situations. 

       When I really feel strongly about something and it is personal to me, I am competitive.  I hate to say it, but this side of me comes out at home the most, and it has turned many conflicts into more than they needed to be.  However, it’s not always a bad thing.  I’m a natural debater, and it is easy for me to think of and organize counterarguments in my head quickly and defend my position.  But it’s equally important to listen to others’ ideas and opinions and be able to take constructive criticism, so I know I need to work on this.

       When it comes to everyday conflicts and annoyances, I usually try to let things go, so I guess this is where I am accommodating in my conflict management.  I try to pick my battles wisely, so most of the time if a friend or roommate does something to make me mad, I let it go for the sake of the relationship.  While this has benefitted me in many situations, it has also caused a few problems.  For example, in high school I had a few friends whose “teasing” got to the point that it not only annoying me, but was starting to hurting my confidence, but I would laugh with them and tried to act like it was not a big deal.  But the more it built up, the worse it got and when the issue was finally confronted, it was much more difficult to deal with.

       We were told that collaborating was the ideal method of handling conflict, so it was reassuring to realize that I do manage some conflicts well.  I think that I am a great collaborator in more formal situations like committee meetings, within my church calling, for class projects, or in leadership roles—I am a natural problem solver, so I usually can come up with effective ways to reach our overall goal and include everybody’s ideas in some way.  Now what I need to try to is incorporate this into my everyday conflict management.

       In class on Monday, we each came up with an individual conflict management plan. 

My physiological response: I can’t listen to the other person without constantly thinking of counterarguments for every little point they make

My thoughts during a conflict: Frustration, wanting to get my point across without listening to the other person’s.

Steps to manage my thoughts/emotions in a productive way:

• When the other person is talking clear my mind and actually try to understand their perspective.
• Wait my turn to talk and don’t interrupt.
• Don’t shoot down their ideas.  Instead, share mine calmly and if needed, constructively criticize. 
• Find ways to acknowledge the other person and identify common goals/ideas.
• Look for ways that both objectives can be reached and be willing to give up a little.
• Be receptive to the other person’s response to my ideas.

      In doing this, I think I figured out how I can overcome my competitive side and become a better collaborator. This will require me to let down my pride and be open to new ideas, but that’s okay.  One of the quotes shared with us was “define success in real gains, not imaginary losses”, and in this case, letting go of my opinions is definitely an imaginary loss.  It just doesn’t matter in the big scheme of things. The most important goal in a conflict is not to protect my own ideas, but to come up with a solution that is mutually beneficial for everybody.  I’m excited to try this new way of approaching conflict and see the positive sides of conflict when it is managed appropriately.

      Brittanie Steele, the BYUSA Executive Vice President, spoke to us last week about communication; being a communications major, I found many of her ideas really interesting.  I could tell that she was an excellent communicator herself, so I enjoyed not only listening to the message she brought us, but watching how she conveyed it to us. 

      One of the most memorable parts of her lecture was when she demonstrated the concept of innovation in our communication.  She had a volunteer come up, and she instructed him to take a can of beans, place his finger on the edge of the table, and smash the can down onto his hand as hard as he could.  She assured him that if he made sure that the exact middle of the can hit his finger, the can would be dented but it wouldn’t hurt his finger at all; she told us she had tried it the night before.  He was hesitant and refused to try it, even with her persuasive words.  After he sat down, she put her finger on the table and slammed the can onto it with a loud “BANG!”  Our jaws all dropped in shock, but the can was indeed dented and her finger unharmed.  “You’ll never forget that communication is hard”, she told us.  This was her example of innovative communication, and it is one I won’t easily forget.

She outlined for us seven characteristics of great communicators:

• Build integrity and trust
• Involve others
• Translate messages to fit your audience
• Take initiative
• Analytical skills
• Innovation
• Positive optimism 

      Since the lecture last Wednesday, I’ve been looking for ways to apply these strategies in my everyday life.  I'm in the Relief Society presidency in my ward, and as part of this calling, I am over the teachers.  After attending stake leadership training on Sunday morning and collaborating with the rest of the presidency, I came up with a whole list of things I needed to communicate to my teachers.  It included instructions for guiding discussions effectively and keeping comments on topic, using positive reinforcement to encourage participation, coordinating with the other teachers, teaching through the Spirit, and a number of other topics.  I realized that not only was I teaching them how to communicate more effectively with the class, but that it was also important that I improve my communication with them.  So I held a meeting with the three of them that night, sought their input, and tried to use positive reinforcement by pointing out what they had done well at in the first lessons they’d taught.  After they left, I created a Google Doc that included everything I’d taught them and allowed them to post their comments and ideas.  I think that through using Brittanie’s seven strategies, I will be able to enhance the teaching within our Relief Society and hopefully help build the girls’ testimonies as a consequence.

      In my communications major, I will be dealing primarily with mass communication rather than interpersonal communication; however, these same approaches to communication will still apply.  I’m interested in advertising, and one of the main goals is to creatively convey your message in a way that your audience will notice and remember.  You also need to gain credibility and trust with your customers, involve your audience by appealing to their senses, and analyze who your audience is and determine how to best fit connect with them. Even though the dynamics in mass communication are a lot different, these goals all go right along with what Brittanie taught us.

      Communication is critical to every aspect of our lives—strong communication skills will bring us success in a variety of venues and enhance our relationships with others.  We need to communicate “powerfully and prolifically” in our leadership positions and church callings, our majors, our families, our sports teams, and even just with our friends and roommates.  I have really put a lot of thought into Brittany’s seven tips, and I’m eager to put them all into practice and improve the way I communicate.

Last Wednesday, we were lucky enough to hear from BYU’s student body president—Ryan Greenburg—on the topic of establishing a vision and setting goals to reach it.  I’ve heard a lot of different lessons and lectures on goal setting before, but the idea of having an overarching vision was new to me.  A vision is much more vague than individual goals, but it is really the ideas behind the words that make it strong.  Here is the vision I came up with for myself:

         My vision is to develop and maintain strong relationships with my Heavenly Father, my Savior, and my family, to live in complete accordance with the laws and principles of the gospel, and to continually strive to serve those who I come in contact with.

     When I put my vision into writing and really thought about what’s important to me, I realized that I need to readjust my priorities.  I have always been a competitive athlete, taken the hardest classes in school, and tried to participate in as many extracurricular and social activities as I had time for, and while these aren’t bad things, they also aren’t directly helping me achieve my vision.  My top priorities need to be tied to the gospel, my family, and service because those three things are the most important aspects of my life when I really think about it.

    After establishing a vision, the next step in the process is to come up with goals.  Ryan presented us with a clever way to formulate our goals: the SMART goal method.  The goals we set should be Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timely.  You need to be able to identify the purpose and the intended outcome of each goal, and be able to evaluate your progress along the way.  Your goals need to actually be within your reach, otherwise you’ll either become too overwhelmed or you’ll just neglect the goal altogether.  Here are the goals I came up with to help me achieve my vision:

• Study (not just read) my scriptures and pray personally to my Heavenly Father on my knees everyday
• Write in my journal for five minutes daily
• Keep the BYU honor code and encourage others around me to as well
• Attend the temple at least twice a month
• Fulfill all the responsibilities within my church calling with a positive attitude and make an effort to get to know the girls I am serving/serving with
• Talk to each member if my family at least once a week, whether through the phone or Skype

   I’ve always been an avid list-maker and used my planner to keep track of every little thing I do, but I’ve never really set goals for myself.  So that is my new goal: to set goals. :)  I am going to have at least five goals for myself every month that I will post on my wall so that I see them everyday and at the end of the month, I will evaluate myself and possibly adjust these goals.  Hopefully, in doing this, I will be able to refocus and come closer to fulfilling my vision.