Effective Communication

This week in my Institute class the professor started out the lesson by talking about the differences in how men and women communicate. For example, to women, nodding shows they are paying attention. Men think they are agreeing, which leads to misunderstandings. We discussed how even though we speak the same language, our communication is different. He applied this to the language of the Spirit. We must work hard to be able to really communicate with God, just as we have to work hard to make sure we have effective communication with each other. In fact, we should put the same effort into learning the language of the Spirit as we would learning a foreign language.

What am I going to do with this? I will work harder to understand how others communicate so I can effectively communicate with them. I will also put more work into understanding the language of the Spirit and having more effective communication through prayer.

Elder Scott's talk at the regional conference last Sunday (9/14/14) here in Provo also discussed communication through prayer, and is similar to this talk he gave in the LDS Conference in October 2009: To Acquire Spiritual Guidance

Leaving Behind Mediocrity

Now on the second week of school this semester at BYU, I have learned some important things. For most of my academic career I have been able to squeak by, putting forth the bare minimum required effort. I have even done well doing this in the past. Especially this last week I have quickly learned, however, that this is no longer the case. As I am now in a very rigorous major I need to work hard to perform my best.
This is a lesson, that I need to work hard and put always do my best, is one I have tried to learn for a long time. What I will be doing, having learned this lesson, is putting forth more effort to perform my best in all I do, not just things I enjoy or when it is easy to do. This is something that applies not only to schoolwork, but to life in general.
Why be mediocre when you can by amazing? There are many things I am good at, and many areas in which I can improve. No longer putting forth a mediocre performance and working to become better in all areas of my life are two of my main goals for this semester.