How many parents would say to their child – “I sure hope you mess up and fail big time today!”?  I hope that we would not know of any such parents.  Parents want their children to grow and succeed in every area of life.  No parent wants their child to settle into a life of mediocrity.  We see in our children with an almost unlimited potential.  We know in our hearts that there is so much that they can do and be, if they will just believe in themselves and give life their all!

Just as you want you child to experience success and not failure, our Heavenly Father wants us as His children to succeed in this life and the life to come!  We must believe and buy into this amazing truth!  Success occurs for those that truly believe that God wants them to succeed!  God has a plan for you life and it is a plan for you to be happy, fulfilled and blessed!  You and I need to believe in this plan and believe that we can tap into it!

God wants you you to reach your potential and contribute to the world!  Not a one of us would ever pray a prayer and ask God to allow our lives to fall apart!  When we pray, we ask God to be with us, help us, give us strength and allow us to achieve victory.  If we are going to have this amazing life that we pray for and that God wants us to have, we must take some steps that we help us to get there!

Step One:  Set Goals!  Where is it that God wants to take you and where is it that you want to go in this life?  Your goals help you to know how are going to get there!  Step Two:  Build Confidence!  When you begin to set and reach goals, you begin to see that more is possible than you realized!  You can do this thing!  Step Three:  Strive For Greatness!  You are a child of the Most High God – never settle for anything less than God’s absolute best!  Step Four:  Improve Your Self Image!  As a child of God you and your life matter, never forget it and never take it for granted!

Take some steps today to believe what God says about you!

Success occurs when you take the time to figure our what’s important!  You and I have to take some time and ask ourselves some questions, if we are going to figure out what our goals are!  What does success mean to you?  It is different for everybody!  What does it mean for you?  What would your life look like and be like, if you were successful?

The most successful people in life have figured out what they want to become and what they want to achieve!  God want’s each of us to be successful and I believe that there are at least five principles of Godliness that lead to our being the success that He has created each of us to be!  They are focus, hard work, growing relationships, perseverance and blessings!  We need to focus our lives and head in the right direction – what is the point of wandering through life aimlessly?  We need to work hard and smart because this is the primary place that we find personal fulfillment!  We need to pursue and cultivate growing relationships, because we were not created to do life by ourselves!  We need to persevere, because God gives us the strength to face and be victorious in anything that the world might throw our way!  We need to bless and be blessed, because God created us so that He could bless us and use us to bless others!

You have a choice to make – you can live life according to circumstances and excuses or you can live life according to purpose!  Figure out what your purpose is and pursue with everything that you’ve got!  How do you define success?  Take and make the time to figure this one out and it will change your life!

Success occurs when you develop and chase after the right goals!  First, we must realize and accept that God wants each of us to succeed!  Second, we must take the time to think about what success means at this time and place in our lives!  Third, we must develop a set of goals that will cause us to move toward the success that God has for us!

Realistic goals help us to live life on purpose!  The people that I know that are happy and fulfilled are people that set and reach goals!  We should set goals in every area of our life!  A goal is an invitation to get better and do better!  To set goals effectively, we must take some time to think through and about our lives – where they have been and where they are going!  We need to exercise our brains and think about what it really means to move forward into the places of blessing that God has created for us!  As we set goals in the different areas of our lives, we will discover an internal motivation that pushes us toward a permanent and growing success!

Goals are important because they help shape the future on purpose, rather than by accident!  Goals help you to live life, which is much better than managing life!  Goals provide you with a continuous source of motivation!  Goals will help you to stay focused, so that you can concentrate on what is really important!  Goals will help you to make better decisions and quicker decisions, because you have something to base you decision on!  Goals will require you to be confident in their setting and will cause you to grow in confidence in their achievement!  Goals are the only way I know to create an amazing future right now in the present!  Goals help you to control change, rather than allowing change to control you!  Goals help you to become aware of opportunities and give you the clarity of mind to take advantage of them!  Goals help you become the person that God created and gifted you to become!

Take some time to develop the goals and chase after some meaningful goals in your life.  It will grow you, bless others and honor God!