Setting direction for the New Year

Image credit: iqoncept/123RF

Life has a lot of distractions. Sometimes the biggest distraction is our own ambition.

We make big goals – goals so big that they just sit someplace in our  future, waiting to happen. These goals are often so big that we feel like they are impossible.  Here are some goals that might feel so huge they will have to happen “someday”:

  • A dream of recording or public speaking
  • Of developing a ministry
  • Of going back to school
  • Of losing 50 pounds
  • Retirement

All these are big goals.

When I was a teenager, two summers in a row, my pastor took us on week-long backpacking trips. We prepared for the trip by meeting two or three times so he could paint a picture of what life in the wilderness would be like.  Then, personally, I walked about 3.5 miles a day (around the block in the country). This preparation was good for us, but it wasn’t backpacking. Yet, without the preparation, we wouldn’t have reached the mountain lakes or hilltops.

The preparation phase was just as important as the trip. We didn’t start the trip until we packed our backpack with enough food and clothes for a week. We didn’t start the trip until we left the house, met at the pastor’s house, and got in the back of his truck for the long drive to the mountains. We really didn’t start the trip until we left the parking lot high in the mountains. It didn’t feel like we really started until we hit the first big hill.

Your goals are a bit like my backpacking trip. You won’t reach them by sitting at home and planning for them. Consider this: what three little things could you do in 2013 to start (not finish, but start) the journey to your goal?

  • Write them down.
  • Then, plan WHEN you will do them. Put it on the calendar.

You were created for a purpose, and 2013 will be a great year for you.

You were created for a purpose, and 2013 will be a great year for you. Your goals don’t have to wait for “someday”. You can start today. They say that a journey begins with that first step – you are creating your future today. Will it be what you hoped?

Take this opportunity to sign up for a free 1/2 hour of coaching to talk through your plans for this new year and get off to a great start.

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