Can you believe it’s mid-February already! I feel like Christmas was yesterday because I’m still humming Christmas songs. It’s crazy how time flies when you’re busy, and even when you’re not too, lol! Time is our greatest commodity, so that’s why I want to use it wisely this year.
I’m sure that you have set your goals for the year already, and hopefully you’re following through. For one thing, I have accomplished some already, like starting this blog, and I’m super excited to see how God moves with it.
But not all the goals that I’ve set for this year have been as easy as that to accomplish. I’m sure you can all relate.
I was thinking about this topic of goals because the other day, my husband and I were sharing our goals for the week; it’s something we do from time to time to stay focused during the week, and as we were sharing, he said something that made me think; he said: “Let’s not say I’ll try, let’s just do.”
He reminded me of something that the Word says: Let your ‘yes’ be yes and your ‘no’ be no (Matthew 5:37). There’s no ‘maybe,’ no hesitation, no open door for backing out, so that makes my word as good as a contract!
Are you keeping your goals or quitting?
As I was meditating on this, I realized that I avoid committing to certain things for myself because I like having the option of backing out if it gets too hard. How many of you avoid committing to a plan or a goal just because you know it will get hard or because of fear of failure? Raise your hand!
This is not a shameful moment but a moment of honesty! I’m the first one to admit that it’s not easy and I tend to avoid.
So, stop for a moment and ask yourself, am I avoiding committing to my goals because of fear of failure or because I think it’s too hard?
To be honest, I’ve done both, and all these excuses do is lead to compromise, mediocrity and sometimes quitting before even trying! But this year I really want to start fresh and do things differently, don’t you?
I understand that throughout the year, there are things that could come up and change our original game plan, and that’s ok, we can move things around, restructure, and adapt.
Maybe your issue is not fear but not knowing how to stay motivated and follow through. That’s a very valid point and it happens to more people than you know. It happens to me every year. I tell myself; this is the year to get back in shape and stay consistent, but I end up getting lost along the way.
I know that last year, for example, I couldn’t stay motivated. I felt like I didn’t know my purpose or why I was doing things anymore.
And I think this stems from not knowing who I really was. But you and I know that our identity is found in Christ. So, the more we come closer to Him, the more we will know Him and the more He will reveal who we are.
It’s a beautiful thing that takes time and relationship with Our Creator, which is something than I’m still learning and loving it!
How to set SMART goals for the year?
Now, going back to the subject of goals, I thought it was good for me to write what I know about the subject and share it with you, not because I’ve been so good at accomplishing goals, but because I haven’t lol. But it’s a good place to start!
The first thing about goals is that we need to WRITE THEM DOWN.
Like the Word says, “write the vision and make it plain, that he may run who reads it.” (Habakkuk 2:2) And it never fails! Once you write down a goal, it becomes more than a thought.
So that leads me to the next thing I want to share with you that I’ve learned from my husband and also reading about it. When setting goals, they need to be SMART! That is:
SPECIFIC
MEASURABLE
ACHIEVABLE
RELEVANT
TIME-BOUD
This way, we can make sure that our goals are attainable and not just a wish list.
SPECIFIC
The first thing we need to do is define our goal and think about what we need to do to accomplish it. For example, I want to lose weight, which is one of the most common ones. Then this leads us to our second step.
MEASURABLE
We need to be able to track our goal. That’s why adding a number to it will make it even more specific. So, if we take our example above, losing weight turns into “losing 15 lbs.” This way, we’re able to measure it.
ACHIEVABLE
This is where we make our goal realistic and attainable. It’s not the same to say, I’ll lose 15 lbs in a month than in 1 week, which would be very unhealthy by the way. The objective must be reasonable.
RELEVANT
Here’s where we think about the why of our goal.
Personally, I’ve realized that when I don’t know my why, it’s easy to get lost along the way, and I may even lose motivation to keep doing what I’m doing. So, it’s important to think about this and keep it in the forefront of our minds.
TIME-BOUND
The last step is making sure we define a deadline to accomplish this goal.
With all this being said, some of my goals have been restructured which include working out twice a week after work as well as going to Krav Maga lessons with my husband at least twice a week and reading the Word every night before bed!
So now that you have read this, are you ready to set your goals or restructure the ones you have?
