“A winner is someone who recognizes his God-given talents, works his tail off to develop them into skills, and uses these skills to accomplish his goals.” -Larry Bird

The Scriptures teach us that setting and achieving goals is vital to living the life we were created for!  In 2 Chronicles 15:7 we read – “But you, take courage! Do not let your hands be weak, for your work shall be rewarded.”  The work that we were created to accomplish in this life is meaningful and will lead to reward.

In Habakkuk 2:2-3 it says:  “And the Lord answered me: “Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so he may run who reads it. For still the vision awaits its appointed time; it hastens to the end—it will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay.”  We need to know what it is that we were created for and how to see the dream become reality.  This is what real and meaningful goals are all about.  It may take some time and a lot of effort, but it’s worth the work.

Proverbs 24:27 reminds us to:  “Prepare your work outside; get everything ready for yourself in the field, and after that build your house.”  Nothing significant and meaningful happens by accident.  We have to do our part and when we do our part, then we can rest confident that our Creator is going to do His!

In Luke 14:28 we are asked this important question:  “For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it?  We need to think about what we are going to do and how we are going to do it.  The process makes us better and allows the Spirit to flow to and through our ordinary, so that we might experience extraordinary.

And one of my favorites is found in Philippians 3:13-14, where it says:  “Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.  There is a goal and a series of little goals will hep to get us to the big goal of hearing our Creator say:  “Well Done!  Good And Faithful Servant!”

― John Bytheway, in his book – “How to Be Totally Miserable!” says:  “If you’re trying to be miserable, it’s important you don’t have any goals. No school goals, personal goals, family goals. Your only objective each day should be to inhale and exhale for sixteen hours before you go to bed again. Don’t read anything informative, don’t listen to anything useful, don’t do anything productive. If you start achieving goals, you might start to feel a sense of excitement, then you might want to set another goal, and then your miserable mornings are through. To maintain your misery, the idea of crossing off your goals should never cross your mind.”  You don’t have to do anything to be miserable, but if you want a better and blessed life, then you have got to get you some goals and the right goals at that!

“If you’re bored with life, if you don’t get up every morning with a burning desire to do things, you don’t have enough goals.”   ― Lou Holtz  If you allow life to happen, it will happen and you will totally miss it.  This is why goals are so important.  We need the right goals to pull, push, motivate and encourage us into the direction that we were created for.

I love the conversation between the Cheshire Cat and Alice in ― Lewis Carroll’s, Alice in Wonderland:

“Cat: Where are you going?
Alice: Which way should I go?
Cat: That depends on where you are going.
Alice: I don’t know.
Cat: Then it doesn’t matter which way you go.”

The question we need to answer is this:  “Do You Have Goals?”  I have found that most people can and will make something up.  Most people have goals of some sort, but they are often vague not very powerful!

Are your goals about having or being?  Most people have goals about what they want.  A bigger house, faster car, better paying job, prettier girlfriend, more handsome boyfriend.  But this is not really meaningful and life changing.  

Being Goals Are The Real Deal!  Having stuff does not lead to happiness, but changing your thoughts does, and this is why we need to focus on developing “being” goals, rather than “having” goals.  I am discovering that when we fix the “be”, we will have the “have”!

Goals bring tension into our life and the right kind of tension is a good thing!  When we stretch a rubber band between the pointer finger on our left hand and on our right hand, we can feel the tension.  Think of the left hand as where your life is right now and think of the right hand as where your life needs to be.  Feel the tension?  The tension is created by the space or distance between where you are and where you need to be.

We don’t like the tension, but the tension is good for us!  We try to get rid of it with fill in’s, like tv, internet, drugs, alcohol and etc… All of which are really just time wasters.  

Be honest about where you are!  And get excited about going somewhere better!  Set the goals, take the steps and enjoy the journey to that more extraordinary place that you were created for.  When we move toward our ideal and our ideal moves toward us – it’s magic!

Norman Vincent Peale taught that “What the mind can conceive and believe, and the heart desire, you can achieve.”

And so, I ask you:  What Are Your Goals?  Seriously stop for just a moment and think about it:  What is your most important goal and what is a step you can take toward it? 

A limp rubber band is not fulfilling its purpose! Stretching is the purpose of the rubber band!  If it become too stretched it will snap and break, and what good is a broken rubber band?  What do you do with a broke rubber band?

We need to work for the right stretch zone, because this is really where the fun is!  The space between where we are and where our Creator is taking us, is a fun and magical place where the incredible and unexplainable can take place.  Goals allow faith to show up, show out and take us places.

So how do I figure out my goals?  Start with this question:  “What does the ideal life look like for me?”  We are not talking about some pie in the sky idea of life, or someone else’s ideal.  What does the ideal life look like for you?

We often fail to ask ourself these kinds of questions and miss out on setting and accomplishing meaningful goals for a variety of different reasons and here are just a few:  1. We are not serious!  We think about it, but do not really believe it can make a difference.  2. We don’t understand or believe in their importance!  Our lack of understanding/belief produces a lack of motivation, which keeps us stranded on the side of the road of life.  3. We don’t know how to do it!  We pretend we do and ultimately end up doing nothing.  4. We don’t take the time to do it!  We know it’s important, but never make it a priority.  5. We let fear take over! We are afraid that we will fail of afraid of what others might think.  All of this holds us back and keeps us down.  6. We won’t risk failure!  To move forward, we have to be willing to step out on faith and take a chance.  7. We don’t stick with it!  We often start, but end up not finishing.  What a sad waste!

Let’s Set Some Goals!  Here are five areas to get you started:
-Physical =

-Spiritual =

-Mental =

-Financial =

-Emotional =

Once you’ve got some goals on paper, now take some time to give your goals to God!  If He gives them back to you, then go for them and enjoy living blessed!