432: Goals

Happy New Year!  I trust 2010 will be a great year for you, filled with exciting purposeful activities and relationships.  As you know, I set a goal to have 1,000 friends on Facebook by 12/31/09 (or 31/12/09 if you live outside the U.S.).  As of this writing, I am at 936 and counting.  I thought it would be good to examine this goal and the results and see what there is to learn as we enter this New Year.

THE GOAL

Why did I choose this goal?  When I joined Facebook last year, I thought it was a good means through which I could "broadcast" some of my devotional writing.  Since it is no more difficult to write for one that it is for 1,000, I randomly chose that number as something that seemed do-able but beyond my knowledge of how I would do it.  It seemed to capture everything that a goal should be, so I set it and now I am almost there.

I define a goal as a "vision of how it is before it is." It is an end result to be achieved through dreaming, planning and diligence.  If there is breakdown in any of those three, you will never reach your goal.  First, you must dream it. Then you must put some kind of plan together to do it, even if it is by faith.  Finally, you must go for it with an active and not a passive faith. 

WHAT THERE IS TO LEARN   

So what can we learn from my goal of 1,000 friends?

1. I created urgency by putting a date with the goal.  There was nothing special about 12/31/09.  I just randomly chose it.  I am not upset in the least by the fact that I came short of my goal.  I got closer to it than if I had hoped to have 1,000 friends one day.
2. I trusted what was "in" me.  I didn't waste any time wondering whether or not this was a good or perfect goal.  I set it and went for it.
3. My goal was ultimately to help others.  I don't really care how many friends I have. I do care how many I can reach with what God has given me to say and write.
4. The answers are "out there."  When you set a goal, you should not have any idea how you will accomplish it. You simply have faith that the answers are somewhere out there.  Your goal is creating the need and your sensitivity to the answers for that need.

Goal setting is not to be an event, but a lifestyle. You should create urgency through goal-setting in any area of life that is important to you. Today I am sending my publisher my next manuscript, this time a verse-by-verse devotional from Revelation called The Revelation Project.  I spent about 50 hours this past week getting it finalized and ready to go after spending hundreds of hours over an 11-month period. I could do that because my goal was January 1, 2010.  Yes, I missed the goal by a few days, but I don't feel bad at all.

2010 is here.  What are you goals?  If you don't have any, then you are saying that there is nothing in your life worth exerting supernatural effort to achieve?  If that's true, and I refuse to believe it is, then you are not swimming through life - you are just treading water.  Eventually you will get tired from doing nothing.

Spend some time this week and get your goal-groove on for 2010.  Don't worry whether or not they are perfect. As long as they mean something to you, they are fine.  Then tell someone and begin to look for the answers out there.  And oh yes, you can tell your friends to be my friend on Facebook.  I only have 64 to go!  Thanks and have a great week.

    Feel free to post your comment to this Memo on the site where it is located.

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THE SOPHIA FUND:  $1,300 come in for the Sophia Fund at year's end and some money and supplies for the Deborah Foundation continue to arrive.  My response to all this is:  THANK YOU AND PLEASE DON'T STOP.  I leave for Kenya on February 5 with 14 others and we want to take as much stuff and money over with us as possible. 

If you haven't already done so, please take the time to read my latest update on the Sophia Fund and the Deborah Foundation here. As you read, you will understand what a difference you can make in a child's life with very little effort or investment. 

After you read these updates, I hope you will act to help as my trip approaches in four weeks.  I need money and supplies to feed and educate the children in a difficult environment. If you need more background or information, go to my blog to see my latest posts or go to my Facebook page. I will figure out a way to get everything to Kenya.  You just figure out a way to get them to me. 

KENYA: The finest training in goal setting and personal development I have ever received was through an organization called The Pacific Institute.  I am going to do a three-day Pacific Institute seminar while I am in Nairobi from February 8-10 at the Serena Hotel in Nairobi. This training is not inexpensive, but it has paid for itself in my life over and over again.  Be watching for updates in the coming weeks and then be a part of this historic event when I come over in February.  It will change you and your life forever.

Comments

[Karanja Njenga]

I love this first memo. Some time in December I was listening to a motivational speaker on 93.3 hope fm and a word came to my spirit - " Talents are turned into gifts only when they are offered to other people". In my pursuit for my God given purpose, I have chosen this as my life theme. Like you have confirmed in learning no. 3 - my goal in life (business, church, at home etc) is ultimately to help others. God indeed bless you.