Got Goals?

There was once a Peanuts comic strip that described how some of us set goals:

Charlie Brown was practicing archery in his backyard. Instead of aiming at a target, he would shoot an arrow at a fence and then walk over and draw a target around wherever the arrow stuck. Lucy walked up and said, *Why are you doing this, Charlie Brown?* He replied, *This way I never miss!*

We sometimes shoot our dream and goal arrows all over the place. If they actually hit something, we explain to ourselves and possibly others that that was our target all along. In reality, however, there had been little planning or strategy behind our efforts and we had not actually aimed at any specific target.

I have written this article to help you do three things:

• discover why it is important to set goals
• determine how to choose specific goals
• develop strategies to follow through and achieve your goals

1. WHY GOAL SETTING IS IMPORTANT

There are many reasons for setting goals, and they can differ from person to person. Here are a few basic reasons why it can be important for you to have a particular set of goals for your life:

• Goals provide direction and purpose for your life.
• Goals define what you are aiming for so that you will know when you have reached it.
• The goal-setting process helps you identify realistic and unrealistic expectations.
• Goals contribute to a positive self-image by providing a sense of accomplishment and confidence once they are attained.

2. HOW TO CHOOSE SPECIFIC GOALS Ask yourself what the overall purpose for your life is (i.e., raising a family, operating your own business, etc.), and then begin the process by following these steps:

• EXPERIMENT. Explore several possibilities, and avoid "putting all your eggs in one basket" by limiting yourself to just one goal.
• ENJOY. Determine what you like doing or what you would like to learn to do, and set your goals accordingly. It is best to not choose things you have no interest in doing.
• EXCEL. Discover your God-given talents, develop those talents by improving or learning related skills, and then use those to help accomplish your goals.
• ELIMINATE. Give yourself the freedom to let go of any endeavors that are not satisfying or enjoyable to you.

3. STRATEGIES FOR FOLLOW-THROUGH Achieving goals is like a race, not in contest with others, but it is a race from your past and present to your future. Setting goals is meaningless if you do not follow through and actually reach them.

• REACHABLE. A reachable goal is a realistic goal.
• MEASURABLE. A goal must be measurable so that you will be aware of when you have reached it.
• DATED. Open-ended goals that begin with *someday I would like to . . .* generally are not attained. Establish a time-frame during which you want to reach each of your goals.
• WRITTEN. Committing your plans to paper makes them visible and provides a way of reminding you on what you need to focus. If goals are not reachable, measurable, dated, and written, they may fade away with the rest of our good intentions and New Year*s resolutions.

I you would like to receive a free Spiritual Goals Worksheet template on which to record your goals and progress, please send an e-mail to me and type SPIRITUAL GOALS WORKSHEET in the subject line. lj@lynnjacobs-christianlifecoach.com

Simplifying the Goal-Setting Process

Three primary components are involved in order to accomplish a goal: imagination, planning, and action. This article focuses on the planning process.

When using the term goal-setting, many people have only a vague idea about what they hope to accomplish by setting a goal, and even fewer have developed a strategy to get the process started. But the idea of setting goals need not be so obscure. Here is a simple plan that will take the mystery out of the process of setting and accomplishing goals.

Begin by identifying your goal. Once identified, start brainstorming and write down all of the steps that you can imagine it will take to achieve that goal. During a brainstorming session, it is not important to think through the steps but simply to get them down on paper. Later on as you review the list, you may wish to remove or combine some steps or include additional steps that may not have been written on the initial list.

Now that you have listed the steps, each one can be broken down into various tasks. In addition to the tasks required to complete each step, potential obstacles should also be considered. Reflect on each obstacle in order to discover possible ways to overcome it—breakthroughs to get back on track toward accomplishing your goal.

Once you have completed the first draft of your goals checklist, review each step and place them in a logical order, chronologically or by level of priority, whichever makes the most sense for your particular goal.

As each task is completed, mark it off the list. As you complete more and more tasks, you will be able to mark off the respective steps, as well. Finally, after all steps have been completed, your goal will have been accomplished and you are ready to move onto the next one. Systematically tackling each goal using a simple method such as this helps facilitate the goal-setting and goal-accomplishing process.

For a FREE goals worksheet template, please send an email to:
lj@lynnjacobs-christianlifecoach.com