This is not really what we are talking about, but everyone else is so I thought I would enter the conversation.
I ran across Donna Otto last year. She was at the Youniquely Woman conference with Kay Arthur and Emilie Barnes. I immediately got her book, Secrets to Getting More Done in Less Time. The title sounds a bit like a method of making your life busier; instead, it is a way to live out the details more efficiently so there is room for God to work through moments of life.
Many of these ideas are simply my interaction with the book. Donna really clarified goal setting to me, and as she points out it begins with priorities.
Priorities are those roles that only you can fulfill. God has given this job to you and only you. They are your core identity on paper. I fought this a little because I did not want to condense myself that far. I thought that I was too complex to widdle myself down, but it is really that simple. When you define who God has made you to be (as you can understand it right now), it can steer every decision and every goal.
So, let me give some examples,
1) I alone am responsible for my relationship with God.
2) I alone am responsible for who I am and who I become. I have to intentionally seek intellectual, physical and spiritual health and advancement.
3) I alone can be my husband’s wife. I am the only one who can minister to him, love him, respect him and care for him as a wife.
4) I alone can manage my household. I am ultimately responsible for every dust bunny and meal with or without help.
These priorities tell me that anything falling outside of God’s jobs for me is not my responsibility, unless He wants to grow my area of influence (add priority). These priorities also tell me that when I do not take care of one of these areas, it is my fault. I used to be full of excuses for the resulting discontent of neglecting priorities, whether mild or extreme. I have found in the last year that when I care for these areas, my God given jobs, I am content and peaceful.
Enter goal conversation…All of my goals stem from my priorities. Priorities help to see where life gets cluttered. There is so much that we are involved in that is not our business. When the clutter was gone, I could set goals that magnified my God jobs.
Saying this, I hold my ideas for 2010 loosely, soliciting God to move as He desires through my life because that is the exciting part. Meanwhile, I am a big advocate of preparation. I tell the high school girls, “You’re gonna’ become somebody, so you might as well have a say in it”. I just can’t get upset when plans change.
And that is all that I have to say about goal setting.
Do you have anything to say about it? Are you sick of hearing about it, yet?
well you've got me motivated!!! :) You're thoughts and ideas about goals for 2010 are awesome and make perfect sense to me! :)
ReplyDeleteI like that SMART. This is my first year of doing something with goals like that and I realized all of my goals followed along that.
ReplyDeleteAs I was reading I realized all of my hopes for this year fall into the first two priorities you wrote about. That is an excellent thing to think about. It's weird because I feel like now that I am really working on my relationship with God...digging deeper and becoming more intimate with Him that I am learning more about me.....who I am in Him and who He has created me to be. I let go of some of those things a long long time ago...and here they are back....but different...better....sweeter. Each of my hopes this year come back to those two things....you mentioned. I know that some of my hopes will probably fall on the wayside. I know that other things will come because He has plans that I am not aware of yet....and I await them.
I am going to add that book to my list.
And personally I am not tired of hearing about goals and goal setting. I have come to realize I am the type of person who needs and wants to set some goals. I enjoy reading about others and learning more goals.
I believe that goals can be very tricky. I do tend to be the kind of person that must set goals in order to accomplish anything; however, once I have set the goals, failure makes me feel almost worthless!
ReplyDeleteI love your approach. Centering our lives on who God has us to be, again as we understand it, is a great way to begin making "goals" for ourselves. The key is to then rely on Him to help us achieve these plans.
Awesome word! Thank you!
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ReplyDeleteI could benefit from being a goal-setter, of that I am certain. Problem is, I'm not a goal-setter, at least as far as "writing it in stone." This is an awesome way to look at the process, and I will ponder it further now that I have room to breathe post Christmas.
ReplyDeleteThanks for visiting the blog; you are welcome there anytime!
peace~elaine