GOALS…does this word fill you with excitement? Dread? Discouragement? Hope?
We are at an exciting time in history–the beginning of a new decade! What better time to decide to set and use goals the right way to help us live with more intention, thoughtfulness, focus and direction?
Setting goals helps us in three major ways:
Goals help us prioritize what matters.
Have you ever noticed how your day gets away from you when you don’t plan it out? Other people’s “emergencies” or plans take over, or maybe your 10 minute Instagram break turns into 30 minutes. Perhaps the things you thought about doing that day get pushed to tomorrow, then next week, then next month.
Our lives can pass us by in the same manner when we don’t set priorities. Goals help us to prioritize what matters most in our lives. We all have hundreds of tasks on our to-do lists, but goals help us narrow our focus to the most important ones.
Your priority might be about striving to reach a lofty goal, or it may be about infusing more fun or rest into your life. The beauty of goals is that they can change as life and our priorities change.
Goals help us get things done.
Without goals, we tend to meander, procrastinate and stagnate. You may think about doing something year after year without ever doing it. You might stay stuck in an unhealthy routine because you don’t have the motivation or accountability to change it. There might be a dream in your heart that has remained dormant because it feels too big to tackle. You might even be telling God “no” to His request because you don’t see how you can make it happen.
As we pray for guidance, determine our motivations and write our goals down, they become real. When our goals are no longer a passing “should” thought, we are more apt to make them happen. Our goals become targets that we feel accountable to reach.
Goals help us live the life we dream of.
Remember when I encouraged you to dream big? Goals are where we can break those dreams down into smaller, manageable steps and begin to make progress toward them.
Goals shouldn’t be about perfection, comparison or stress. They should be about making progress toward the abundant and joyful life God intended for you. With the right planning, prayer and follow through, what might 2020 potentially hold for you?
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Friends, let’s make this our year! Let’s be intentional about setting goals, following up each month and living with purpose.
I have created a tool to help you along the way. In my Goal Setting Worksheets, I walk you through setting a focus word for the year, setting your goals for the year, and then setting monthly goals to help you along the way. Click here to sign up to receive the worksheets!
I want to encourage you to thoughtfully live life with intention as we love God, live better and shine our light in 2020!
Lord, we thank you for placing the desire in our hearts to live better. Please give us wisdom as we set intentions for the coming year. Guide our hearts to align with your purpose for our lives. Help us to fix our eyes on Jesus and run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Amen.
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