Increasing Awareness

From time to time, PathwayConnect presents you with an optional way of helping others learn more about the program. The optional activity below does not count for a grade but is a great way to reflect on your experience and inspire others to consider the blessings of PathwayConnect.

Optional Activity: Write a Letter to a Leader

By now, you have learned how to write a basic paragraph and various types of essays. PathwayConnect seeks to create lessons that individuals can apply to all aspects of their lives. For example, you have learned that the type of essay you write will depend on your audience and the purpose of the message. Think about the leaders in your life. These may be Church or family leaders whom you revere and respect. Take a moment to write a short letter to one of these leaders. Use the lessons you learned about how to write a basic paragraph to share your personal experience and testimony of PathwayConnect.

For more great ideas on sharing PathwayConnect, please visit byupathway.org/invite.

Things You Will Learn This Week

Goals and Habits
Order of Operations and Variables
How to consider a different purpose and audience when writing your next essay

Things You Need to Know This Week

Continue tracking your expenses.
In this week’s gathering you will learn about top-level goals and lower-level goals. Be sure to review this week’s Gathering Agenda before your gathering.
Devotional this week! Make sure to visit the BYU-I Pathway Devotionals page for more information and to be prepared to participate in a discussion at this week’s gathering.

Goals and Habits

This week, you will focus on the essential tasks that will help you accomplish your long-term goals. In order to help you accomplish these goals, you will need to understand what a goal-hierarchy is. Knowing this can help you create and accomplish lower-level and mid-level goals that will eventually help you accomplish the highest goals that you are most interested in. This week, you will also learn more about the power of both positive and negative habits. These habits have a big effect on your success or failure in accomplishing your goals.

Lesson Purpose: Learn by the Holy Ghost and Apply Learning Strategies

Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin

“Perseverance means to continue in a given course until we have reached a goal or objective, regardless of obstacles, opposition, and other counter-influences. What is our course, what is our goal, and what are the obstacles and opposition that would hinder or divert us? Our course as members of the Church should be compliance with the principles and ordinances of the gospel.

Our goal should be to fill the measure of our creation as sons and daughters of our Heavenly Father—that is, to reach exaltation and eternal life. The obstacles and opposition we meet are the temptations and enticements of Satan that are designed to frustrate the Lord's work and glory: ‘To bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man’” (Never Give Up, Ensign, Nov. 1987).

Consider This:

- - - - How can connecting your goals to your purpose in life help make your daily life more meaningful? How can doing this increase your ability to persevere?

Goals

Preach My Gospel states that “Goals reflect the desires of our hearts and our vision of what we can accomplish. Through goals and plans, our hopes are transformed into action” (2018). In this section, you will learn how goals can be created and organized into manageable steps through a goal hierarchy similar to the one below.

Example Mind Map. Accessible version available.

W06 Mindmap Goal Hierarchy Accessible Version

Our Purpose

You have a potential that you cannot possibly imagine if you only rely on your mortal perspective. In order to see yourself with the same scope, depth, and context that God sees you, you must first develop a stronger, closer relationship with Him. Most of the things occupying your typical day are just scaffolding for the real purpose of your life on earth—to grow and to learn in righteousness so you can one day become like God.

When you earnestly seek a relationship with God, your capacity to understand Him expands. The agency you enjoy in this life is a God-given gift, and employing it for this worthy pursuit is a kind of consecration—an act that can bring with it tremendous blessings and insight. As your knowledge of God increases, so does your desire to keep His commandments and your ability to see yourself through His eyes. You begin to understand the eternal context in which you currently exist and the divine potential within you. Jesus stated, “The kingdom of God cometh not with observation…For, behold, the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:20–21, see also Mormon.org Relationship with God).

You can discover the kingdom of God within you as you live the two great commandments: first, love God with all of your heart, soul, and mind; and second, love your neighbor as yourself.

Ponder & Record

As you review the material above consider the following questions and record some of your thoughts in your Learning Journal:

How can strengthening your relationship with God help you find purpose in life?
How does matching your goals with your purpose help you find meaning in your daily activities?

Top-Level Goals

Loving God and your neighbors will help you develop your divine potential, but you still need to understand the talents or gifts God has given you to help him. Think about your passion in life (in other words, your greatest interests). What can you do to have a positive influence in the world? Your answer to this and other similar questions will help you discover your top level goals. Top level goals are the things you care about the most. These goals give meaning and purpose to your life.

Figuring out your top-level goal can be difficult. To help with this, think about your highest professional goal. What do you want to do for work? What do you enjoy so much that you would be willing to invest thousands of hours practicing? The answers to these questions are your top level goals. You should only have two or three top-level goals because of how much time, effort, and focus it takes to achieve them. If you have too many top-level goals, you may not be able to accomplish them as effectively.

As you think about your top level goals, consider what you are passionate about, or what you would like to become passionate about. Often your passion changes over time as you develop your interests and try new things. Sometimes it helps to write a statement that describes your personality. Something like the following:

“I am kind and observe the needs of others. It is important to me that others feel loved and cared for.”

You can use this kind of personality statement to help you discover top-level goals. It will also help you understand your passion and clarify your divine gifts and talents.

Ponder & Record

As you review the material above consider the following questions and record some of your thoughts in your Learning Journal:

What do you feel passionate about?
What would you like to become a professional in?
How would others describe your personality?

Mid and Lower-Level Goals

Mid-level goals support your top-level goals by breaking them down into major themes. For example, in the chart above there are three mid-level goals for each top-level goal. Being a great parent was broken down into:

Have a healthy diet
Spend time together as a family
Obtain a good job

Helping children succeed in school was broken down into:

Establishing relationships
Understanding learning strategies
Earning a degree

Notice how the mid-level goals relate to the top level goals? Top level goals are more general, but smaller goals are more specific. Lower-level goals are even more specific and tend to be linked to certain everyday tasks. It is through these tasks that the larger mid and top-level goals can be met.

Top level goals rarely change, but mid and lower level goals can change from time to time as you evaluate your performance and adjust your plans to your current situation. The scriptures are full of stories of people who changed their tactics to follow their passion for becoming like God.

One such person was Nephi. Consider the example of him acquiring the brass plates. Nephi’s stated his top-level goal (or his strategy to become like God) when he said: “I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded.” (1 Nephi 3:7). Having a strong top-level goal was the foundation for Nephi’s passion so that he was able to persevere despite difficult circumstances.

However, his top-level goal did not provide him with the tactics to get the plates; he had to work that out for himself. His first tactic to simply ask for the plates was unsuccessful, and the second tactic to buy the plates left him running for his life. It wasn’t until his third attempt that he was successful. In that attempt, Nephi said that he was “led by the Spirit, not knowing beforehand the things which he should do.” Nephi could not have been led by the Spirit unless he was applying the daily tactics of righteous living. We can see evidence of such tactics (mid and lower level goals) throughout 1st and 2nd Nephi in the following statements:

“I did frankly forgive them” (1 Ne 7:21).
“I sat pondering in my heart” (1 Ne 11:1).
“I, Nephi, did exhort my brethren, with all diligence, to keep the commandments of God” (1 Ne 16:4).
“I, Nephi, did strive to keep the commandment of the Lord” (1 Ne 17:15).
“I did pray oft unto the Lord” (1 Ne 18:3).
“I did look unto my God, and I did praise him all the day long; and I did not murmur against the Lord because of mine afflictions” (1 Ne 18:16).
“I did liken all scriptures unto us, that it might be for our profit and learning” (1 Ne 19:23).
“I know in whom I have trusted” (2 Ne 4:19).
“We talk of Christ we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins” (2 Ne 25:26).

In this example, we see the power of connecting top-level goals to mid and lower level goals in daily living. It was Nephi’s top-level goal to be obedient that connected him to his love of God and his passion to be like Him. It was his mid and lower-level goals of studying the scriptures, praying, forgiving, pondering, prophesying, and rejoicing in Christ that gave him the power to persevere. This is the process that helped Nephi to be successful, despite Laman and Lemuel’s bad examples and actions.

Remember that mid-level and lower-level goals are specific. They are also measurable— you can see if you are making progress or not. Mid-level and lower-level goals are not too difficult to achieve; you can achieve them with effort. They are also related to your top-level goals. In turn, these top-level goals are connected to your purpose in life. Finally, mid-level and lower-level goals have due dates—you know when you’ll accomplish them. This is an important step in creating your goal hierarchy. A simple acronym to help you remember these steps is S.M.A.R.T. which stands for:

Specific	What will be the specific result of your goal? What are the specific steps needed to achieve it? Is the goal too general?
Measurable	Do you have a way to measure your progress? When will you review your progress?
Actionable	Will you be able to achieve this goal? What are the reasons you believe you can accomplish this goal? Have you spoken to people that have achieved the same or similar goals?
Relevant	Does this goal support a mid-level or top-level goal? Is it connected to who you want to become? Is this a goal you want to make into a habit?
Time Bound	Do you have a specific date you want to accomplish this goal by? Is there a time period that you will work in to accomplish the goal?

S.M.A.R.T. goals are more effective because they provide the structure that mid-level and lower-level goals need to help you accomplish your top-level goals. For example, in the chart above a lower-level goal of having family home evening can help you accomplish a higher goal of spending time together as a family. If you don't use the S.M.A.R.T. process for your goals, then it may be difficult to accomplish them. However, if you were to turn it into a S.M.A.R.T. goal, it might look something like this:

Specific: Have Family Home Evening one night during the week at 6:00 p.m.

Measurable: It can be observed, recorded, and scheduled on a calendar.

Actionable: Everyone in the family can adjust their schedule to this time.

Relevant: It directly relates to the goal to spend time as a family and be a good parent.

Time Bound: Occurs every (night of the week), for 60 minutes.

Ponder & Record

Try creating one S.M.A.R.T. goal in your Learning Journal. Make sure it is a mid or lower-level goal.

Habits

Habits are key to accomplishing the goals in any goal hierarchy. In this section, you will learn about the power that habits (both positive and negative) have in determining success or failure. Good habits are essential for making life easier and more productive.

How Habits are Formed

Habit Formation Cycle: Trigger, Routine, Reward. Understanding how habits are formed will give you the power to create or change your behavior. The following list will help you create a habit:

Identify a goal that will help you repeat a necessary behavior on a daily basis. It could be an a more immediate goal, or it could be a goal that is accomplished over time (like scripture study).
Decide which routine is best. (For example, if you are trying to get in the habit of studying your scriptures, the routine could be reading the Book of Mormon every morning.)
Finally, create a trigger to prompt the action by setting an alarm on your phone or by placing your scriptures next to your bed. If you repeat this pattern long enough, it will become a habit.

Changing Habits

Your brain is creating habits all the time, so you may have developed a few negative habits along the way that could prevent you from achieving your goals. In the lesson about learning strategies, you learned that there are two elements to memory. One is how well you remember something (how well it is learned). The other is how easy it is to recall. Habits operate on the same principle. Habits are routines that you have learned so well that they are permanently stored in your memory waiting for the right trigger or cue to activate it.

Since habits are permanently stored in memory, when you change a habit what you are really doing is rewiring your brain to use the same triggers and rewards from the old habit to cue a new routine. You learned in the lesson on mindsets that when you do challenging tasks, your intelligence grows as you strengthen and form new neural pathways. Neural pathways are also strengthened by repeated use. Thus, habits are essentially the heavily used neural pathways in your brain that form your thought patterns and behaviors. The following video illustrates how you can rewire the neural pathways in your brain to trigger the habits you want.

(02:03 mins, Neuroplasticity Transcript)

“Brain Animation Series - Take a Tour of Your Brain.” Sentis. January 4, 2016. https://sentis.com.au/articles/brain-animation-series.

Changing habits is sometimes not easy. Consider the habit of eating too much. If you have this habit, then you have probably included a few items on your list that have now become mid and lower-level goals to help you lose weight. You may have even placed reminders on the fridge to eat less each day. All of these are positive steps in the right direction but you may find yourself continually fighting against the habit to eat too much, despite all the reminders and goals you have set.

How then are you going to stop your habit of eating too much? Having a strong desire will help, but you also need to identify the trigger (or cue) for this behavior. In his book, The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do In Life and Business, Charles Duhigg recommends four steps to change a habit.

Identify the routine.
Experiment with rewards.
Isolate the cue.
Have a plan.

In the case of overeating, the routine is easy to identify—you are eating too much. The next step is to understand the relationship between the reward and the routine (overeating). Through experimentation, you can try using different rewards to isolate your craving. When you identify the reward and its routine, you can change the habit by establishing a different routine (for example, socializing with friends, exercising, or reading a book). The activity itself is not important—you are just experimenting with rewards to identify your craving. If you were craving socialization, then visiting with friends should work. If you are looking to relax for awhile, then reading a good book can help you avoid the bad habit of overeating.

Duhigg suggests using an old trick to identify patterns by writing down the first three words that pop into your head after you do the activity. Then set an alarm for fifteen minutes and ask yourself: Do you still feel the urge to eat? Writing down the words has two benefits. First, it forces you to become aware of what you were thinking and feeling. Second, it will trigger your memory when your alarm goes off. By waiting fifteen minutes you can verify that the craving has been satisfied, if on the other hand you’re still feeling the urge to eat, you should keep experimenting with rewards.

Duhigg’s third step—identifying cues, can be difficult because there are many potential triggers. Is it boredom? Stress? Time of day? Being alone? Socializing with friends? Watching TV? Being near food?

What about the reward? Is it the sugar you like? Socialization? Or escaping from stress?

Fortunately, science has shown that almost all triggers fall into one of the following five categories:

Location
Time
Emotional state
Other people
Immediately preceding action

By writing down the answer to each of these prompts every time you have a craving, you can begin to identify a pattern. Consider the following example:

Category	1st Urge	2nd Urge	3rd Urge	4th Urge
Where are you?	At work	In my bedroom	On the bus	In the kitchen
What time is it?	4:12 p.m.	11:37 p.m.	10:03 a.m.	6:58 a.m.
What’s your emotional state?	Bored	Tired	Stressed	Happy
Who else is around?	No one	No one	No one	No one
What action preceded the urge?	Read email	Got in bed	Sat down	Just finished exercising

In this example, it is obvious that the trigger for overeating is being alone. Habits like overeating usually have multiple triggers but by using this process you can identify your triggers for bad habits.

Now that you have identified the routine, reward, and the trigger, you can make a plan to replace the routine with the good behavior you want. Please note: you might be able to avoid triggers, but you cannot eliminate them completely. So the best approach is to change the routine so that the same trigger will cue the new routine (habit) and provide the same reward. In our example, if the reward your body is craving is socialization, then visiting with friends could be the new routine. To associate socializing with your trigger of being alone, you can create a plan to call a friend by setting an alarm to remind when you know you will be alone. Bad habits can be difficult to overcome, so it is important to have several plans in case one is not successful.

Keystone Habits

It’s not possible to make every goal and item on a goal hierarchy into a habit, but there are some habits that lead to a lot of good changes. These habits are called keystone habits. Keystone habits are the small and simple things by which great things are brought to pass (Alma 37:6).

It may not seem possible to achieve better results through simple keystone habits. Sometimes it seems like only great changes in habits will lead to desired results. This is often the case with people who are trying to lose weight. They radically change everything at once, such as going to the gym, adopting a new diet, taking the stairs, and getting counseling. After a while, however, when they lose their enthusiasm for the new routines, they become exhausted from the difficult schedules and they begin their old habits again.

Research has shown that simple keystone habits, such as journaling, are more effective in enacting change than these multifaceted radical approaches. Duhigg recounts a 2009 study from the National Institutes of Health to illustrate the power of keystone habits. In the study, people were asked to write down what they ate for one day each week. As the participants started to make a habit of food journaling, they began to change certain aspects of their lives automatically. The participants noticed patterns of when they ate snacks and started to keep healthy food around. They also started to plan more meals. The participants in the study who kept food journals lost twice as much weight as people who tried more radical approaches even though the researchers had not given them any instructions about weight loss.

Establishing keystone habits is one of the most powerful ways to change your life for good. Up to this point, you might have reviewed and prioritized a list of activities, created a goal hierarchy, and were about to launch into a radical change to your daily routines. This approach, however, could have left you exhausted and feeling deflated, like the radical dieters, when you discovered that it would be too much to change at one time.

Establishing keystone habits is one of the most powerful ways to change your life for good. Instead of making many big changes in your life at one time, review your goal hierarchy and priorities and identify one or two keystone habits that will lead to your desired results. Examples of keystone activities that you might choose include reading your scriptures, or having daily prayer. Tracking how you use your time and money are also good keystone habits because they make you more aware of your stewardship and encourage good behavior. Exercising is a wonderful keystone habit that brings along a whole host of good habits.

Ponder & Record

As you review the material above consider the following questions and record some of your thoughts in your Learning Journal:

What habits do you currently have that support your goals? What habits do you have that are inhibiting your goals?
What keystone habit should you choose to more effectively use your time and be a better steward?
How has the Lord blessed you through small and simple things?

Want to learn more about these topics?

Below are some of the resources used in this lesson.

The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business

by Charles Duhigg

Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance

by Angela Duckworth

Mark as done once you have completed all the reading and ponder activities on this page.