I Learned French in 12 Months

Re:I Learned French in 12 Months by ngngngng on Sunday February 16, 2020 @11:59AM (#22342427)

“I am so thoroughly convinced that if we don’t set goals in our life and learn how to master the techniques 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 principles 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

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Re:I Learned French in 12 Months by hrktb on Sunday February 16, 2020 @01:13PM (#22342886)

How do you see this quote relative to your real life observation ?

I always wonder why people post out of context quotes without commentary, when arguably their interpretation is the most interesting part. I care a lot more about what you think than what that religious leader says.

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Re:I Learned French in 12 Months by ngngngng on Sunday February 16, 2020 @02:09PM (#22343211)

That's fair. My Dad always taught me that life is a series of distractions. A few years ago when I was single and college age I would always approach him with opportunities to change my major or accept some cool job. He'd never tell me what to do, but instead would have me write down (or review) my goals in life. And then ask myself, "does this fit within my goals?"

In following this philosophy I turned down many opportunities that seemed too good to be true because they didn't fit my life goals.

This is the main benefit I see in the quote, goals help with stretching yourself, sure. But I think it's far more valuable to stick to something instead of chasing every distraction that comes your way.

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Re:I Learned French in 12 Months by hrktb on Sunday February 16, 2020 @04:18PM (#22343819)

That’s great of your dad, and it seems it was well fitting with your personality. Did you ever want to change your goals based on opportunities, once you got out of school and your dad had less influence ?

I rarely met people that had actually viable goals while in school (not that their goal was unrealistic, just missinformed and ill fited for them), and we all took our first years out of school as a discovery period to find something that was working for us.

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Re:I Learned French in 12 Months by electriclove on Sunday February 16, 2020 @02:38PM (#22343350)

What are/were your life goals? How did you come to discovering/defining them? I find that to be quite difficult.

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Re:I Learned French in 12 Months by mythrwy on Sunday February 16, 2020 @01:32PM (#22343009)

I personally suspect it's an attempt to "sell" the religion. Someone can google Ballard and find out all about Joseph Smith!

But the quote is sort of bland and not that insightful anyway.

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Re:I Learned French in 12 Months by dang on Sunday February 16, 2020 @02:43PM (#22343374)

"Please respond to the strongest plausible interpretation of what someone says, not a weaker one that's easier to criticize. Assume good faith."

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

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Re:I Learned French in 12 Months by ngngngng on Sunday February 16, 2020 @01:59PM (#22343153)

> I personally suspect it's an attempt to "sell" the religion

You can think whatever you want. It's a quote that I enjoy that came to mind while reading the parent comment. I was going to leave the name out because inevitably anything Mormon on the internet gets bombarded with comments like yours, although yours is fairly benign compared to most. I decided it was odd to quote someone and leave out the citation.

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Re:I Learned French in 12 Months by mythrwy on Sunday February 16, 2020 @03:07PM (#22343469)

Proselytizing is annoying. If this wasn't that then apologies.

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