When my family was in the car together it was always a teaching moment with dad, whether we were in the car for ten minutes or ten hours he was going to be teaching us something. Sometimes he kept us cultured by listening to a wide variety of music, Mozart to Minnie Pearl to Metallica, we were well-educated in music. It was not just music dad would teach us about but he would share practical ways to live out our faith. In the car is where is he talked to me about smoking cigarettes, not becoming legalistic in my faith, and taught me how to love others well.
But my dad knew I could not love others well if I did not know how to love myself well. My dad knew the importance of teaching me the who I was in Christ and value I had for Christ in this World. One of the ways he would try to inspire my brother and I and help cultivate our world view would be by putting in a cassette tape. He’d push play and we’d hear Zig Ziglar’s voice through the speakers and my brother and I would roll our eyes and say, “DAAAD!!” Zig’s voice would roll on, I may have initially been irritated with my dad but that’s when my eyes would drift toward the window of the car and dreams would start build in my heart and mind.
My entire life I’ve been a dreamer, there has never been a lack of ideas in my mind. But I have learned dreams are good and they inspire us but if we do not do something tangible with our dreams that will be all they ever are, dreams.
Turning dreams in to reality involves work… all work needs a plan… and all plans need a purpose.
At the beginning of every year since I can remember, I set goals. Yep, my dad taught me how to do that too. We would write our short-term and long-term goals, seal them up in an envelope, and the following year we would open that envelope. We would look over what we had accomplished, what we did not, and are we on track for our long-term goals. Then we would write the new year’s goals. I do not know of a year that I have missed setting goals. There have been years I have felt successful at the end of the year and then there have been years I have had to let God encourage me to try again.
As we enter into this new year I encourage you to take inventory of this past year. Celebrate your wins and let go of the failures. And then turn and look at the year to come.
My heart is excited for the dreams that are burning in my heart and mind. But if I chased down every exciting thing that popped into my mind I would never accomplish anything. Thus, the need for PURPOSE!
Each one of us was created by God in His image to do a work He has set for us to do. We each were created for a purpose by God. How amazing is that! But too often we do not know what our purpose is. For the longest time I was unsure of my real purpose. I knew all the things I was gifted at doing and I knew that I had a lot to offer I just did not know how it all worked together. We can read throughout the Bible God revealing purpose to His people. Sometimes, like David, purpose was revealed at a young age. Other times, like Rahab, purpose was found at the start of her destiny. I do not know your purpose, when or how God will reveal it to you. But I do know that you have a specific purpose to impact God’s Kingdom. If you don’t know just ask Him, He is faithful to answer. My purpose was birth out of painful tragedy. It wasn’t until I understood my purpose that the dreams in my heart started to make sense.
As I said before, I am never lacking in the idea department and thus my mind can run wild with all kinds of dreams and I was unsure what to do with my dreaming mind. But when my purpose was revealed then I was able to test the dreams in my heart with my purpose to determine which dreams God was wanting to me to chase.
When we know our purpose, we know what dreams to follow, when we know what dreams to follow we can make a plan to help us achieve what God has called us to do.
Enter GOALS!!
Goals are our game plan for achieving our dreams!
I heard author Tracie Miles put it this way, “Dreams don’t come true on their own. We have to plan for them, strive for them and monitor our progress, every step of the way until God brings our dreams to fruition.”
We must have goals put in place to help us stay on track to reach the dreams God has place in our heart for the purpose He has place on our life to impact His kingdom.
I found a lot of people either do not know how to set goals or others who set goals but do not accomplish them because they seem to big. Setting goals that help us reach our dreams are not as hard as it may seem. We often just need a little guidance.
First, start with two sets of goals, Short-term Goals and Long-Term Goals.
Short-term goals are ones that support our God-given purpose within the next 365 days.
Long-term goals are ones that support our God-given purpose within the next five to ten years. (Long-term is different for everyone so you can set what you believe is long-term to you)
I make a list of my short-term and long-term goals, basically a rough draft. Once I have them listed then I take each goal and turn them into SMART Goals.
SMART is an acronym for…
S- specific
M- measurable
A- attainable
R- realistic or relevant
T- time-bound.
I am going to use a very popular goal as an example for setting a SMART goal.
“I want to lose weight.”
We all know so many people who have this goal every year, who am I kidding this is one of my goals:) It is easy to write down those five words but there is nothing inspiring or motivating about that goal. In fact, it seems quite daunting. But let’s turn this basic goal into a smart one and see what happens.
Specific: We want to avoid really broad goals, when we make it specific it give the goal structure. We can adjust the goal to…
“I want to lose 20 pounds in the new year.”
Measureable: The goal should be measureable so that progress can be tracked.
“I want to lose 20 pounds in the new year. I will measure my weight on the scale and note my progress.”
Attainable: If you struggle with losing weight then losing 20 pounds in one year may be difficult. We have to adjust our goals so they are attainable.
“I want to lose 20 pounds in the new year. I will measure my weight on the scale and note my progress. Once I reach 7 pounds, I will re-evaluate and adjust my goal if necessary.”
Realistic: Our goals must be defined so we can reach them.
“I want to lose 20 pounds in the new year. I will measure my weight on the scale and note my progress. Once I reach 7 pounds, I will re-evaluate and adjust my goal if necessary. I will work out 3 times a week and cut sugar out of my diet.”
Time-bound: A reasonable amount of time should be decided for each goal.
“I want to lose 20 pounds in 12 months. I will measure my weight on the scale and note my progress. Once I reach 7 pounds, I will re-evaluate and adjust my goal if necessary. I will work out 3 times a week and cut sugar out of my diet.”
Initial Goal:
“I want to lose 20 pounds in the new year.”
SMART Goal:
“I want to lose 20 pounds in 12 months. I will measure my weight on the scale and note my progress. Once I reach 7 pounds, I will re-evaluate and adjust my goal if necessary. I will work out 3 times a week and cut sugar out of my diet.”
Applying the SMART method to each goal you have may seem tedious, but when you define exactly what you are wanting to achieve your goals go from words on a paper to aids in reaching your dreams.
I have found that even once I write a SMART goal I can still feel overwhelmed with how I am going to accomplish the goal. So I set milestones to meet along the way to achieve my goal.
Milestones are super simple to write out. For example, if you plan on working out three times a week (per our SMART goal) a milestone would look something like this…
Monday walk 3 miles
Tuesday weigh-in
Wednesday run 1 mile
Thursday weigh-in
Friday walk 3 miles
These weekly milestones give you a checklist to monitor your progress so you can achieve your SMART Goal.
It all goes back to our purpose.
When we know our purpose, we will have dreams in our hearts.
We take our dreams and turn them into goals.
We take our goals and make them achievable by setting milestones.
As Zig Ziglar would say “You were born to win, but to be a winner, you must plan to win, prepare to win, and expect to win.”
We must be good stewards of what God has placed in our hearts and trust that the Lord is faithful complete the work He has started in our lives.
Remember you were created with purpose to impact this world. God has placed dreams in your heart to help you fulfill your destiny. Let’s take on this new year ready to accomplish what God has planned for us!
Proverbs 16:9 “The heart of man plans his course, but the Lord directs his steps.”
Philippians 1:6 “Being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a great work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.”