SMART Goals
4 Tips for GOAL SETTING
We’ve all heard that SMART Goals are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. But I don’t know if you’ve given much thought to the power of goals in your life…I’m not sure I fully understood the power of goals until several years ago when I read the results of a study that absolutely astounded me. The graduating class of Yale was surveyed and asked specific questions about their goal including.
- Do you have goals?
- Have you written your goals down?
- Have you made plans to accomplish your goals?
Only 3% of the class said yes to these three important questions. Then twenty years later this same Yale class was surveyed. Here’s what’s so fascinating… this group was the most happily married; the most successful in business; had a better family life; and had the best health. Even more unbelievable is that 97% of the net worth of that graduating class was in the hands of those 3%.
Friends, that’s the power of SMART Goals! While we all know the power that goals can have in our lives…. spiritually, relationally, professionally, financially, and physically studies indicate that 95% of us have never written down carefully crafted goals around the things that we say matter to us. Worse we have no concrete plans to accomplish those things.
There is someone who is known for goal setting, leadership, and learning how to harness that power. Who you are wondering? It’s not Tony Robbins, Daymond John, John Maxwell, or any of the other motivational gurus in the marketplace today. This specialist is someone we find in the Bible named Paul. He unpacks some great truths found in Philippians 3:10 (NLT) …I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead.
- I want to KNOW CHRIST... His teachings, His Word, His example, His love, His servanthood.
- And I want to tap into HIS POWER in my life…power that raised Him from the dead forever; power that transformed all who came in contact with Him; power that can help me face life’s challenges.
Defining Goals
Soaring
Now how would Paul pull off this goal? How would he reach this goal? How can you craft and accomplish some significant goals in the coming year? Download this smart goal guide as we draw out four 4 key principles for creating goals.
#1 ASSESS WHERE YOU ARE
When you ask your phone for directions, it not only needs to know where you’re going but it needs first to know where you are right now. If the phone can’t tell where you are, you’ve got a problem! It can’t tell you how to get to where you want to be until it knows where you are. You can’t get to where you want to be in your future unless you assess and understand where you are right now. Paul says in Philippians 3:12-13 “Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal… Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it.” This is an amazing statement to me because at this time in his life, Paul is an old man and was probably the most successful Jesus follower in history. If anybody had the right to claim that he had arrived, it would be him. He’d written most of the New Testament of the Bible, and almost single-handedly spread Christianity throughout the Roman empire.
#2 FORGET WHERE YOU’VE BEEN
The second principle Paul gives us for setting goals is to forget where you’ve been. You’ll never find joy as an adult until you let go of some of the wounds of your childhood. We must learn from the past; appreciate the past; but not live in the past… and there’s a big difference. So you may be wondering what things do we need to forget from our past.
- Forget our failures. It just makes me sad that there are so many followers of Jesus who continue to be paralyzed by the failures from their past, wrong-doing in their past, that God has long since forgiven and forgotten. Every single one of us here has blown it. We all have so many, “If-I-had-it-to-do-over-again” incidents from our past. Maybe this past year you’ve been dishonest in some areas at school, at work, on your taxes. Maybe you haven’t been the parent you want to be. Maybe you lied when you should have told the truth. Maybe you promised someone you love you weren’t going to take another drink. Maybe you slept in the wrong bed. Maybe you hated when you should have loved. But Jesus died so we could forget our failures. Maybe you need to begin right now forgetting the past.
- Forget our successes. There’s an old African proverb that says the trouble with finding ivory is that there’s usually an elephant attached to it. The trouble with success is that it brings satisfaction, and satisfaction tends to be the death of any future progress. After experiencing success it’s so easy to live on your laurels; to live in the past; to base your security on past performance.
#3 ENVISION WHERE YOU WANT TO BE
A graduate student was riding her bicycle across a university campus one day. And someone noticed on the front of her T-shirt read, I am going to be a doctor. Then hanging from the back of the bicycle was another sign that read, I am going to be a Mercedes. Now that’s a person with goals and envisions where she wants to be. Let me ask you. If you had a T-shirt with your vision for your life, what would it say? Notice Paul says, “But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal.” His focus is this one thing I do, he doesn’t say “These 40 things I dabble in…” Paul’s goal was very clear in his mind.
Many of us are fuzzy about our goals, aren’t we? We just have so many choices, so many options that we can pursue, and we get distracted by things that aren’t necessarily bad, evil, or illegal, but just things that are not what’s most ultimately important. If your life is like mine, it’s full of many good things. There are so many activities, sporting events; invitations to have dinner with friends; hobbies, movies, clubs, vacations, seminars and other events. It would be so much easier to sort through our goals if it were all these bad things that were pulling us away from what’s most important, but truthfully its a lot of good things that can pull us away.
Back in the late 1990’s, I had a defining experience where this got crystal clear to me. I was at a Franklin Covey time management seminar and the instructor a former successful NCAA Division 1 basketball coach was trying to help us clarify what was most important to us in life. He said, “Let’s pretend there’s a 140-foot I-beam laying on the ground that’s 9 inches wide and the top of the beam is about 12 inches off the ground. Let’s say that I’m standing on one end with a $100 bill and you’re standing at the other. Now how many of you would be willing to come get that $100 if all you had to do was walk across that I-beam to have it?” Well everybody raised their hand. Then he said, “Now let’s hook that I-beam to a helicopter and lift it up between two buildings. How many of you would walk across the I-beam now for that $100 bill?” Nobody raised their hand. “How about for a $1,000?” Nobody raised their hand. “How about for $10,000?” Nobody raised their hand. Then he pointed to someone and said, “What if I were holding your 2-year-old on the other end of that beam? Would you be willing to come then?” The person replied, “I would run across that beam..” And the instructor said, “What you’re willing to walk across the I-beam for tells you what your priorities are.”
Friends, that reduces it down pretty quickly, doesn’t it? I’ve thought a lot about that conversation. Having clarified these priorities means there’s a lot of good things that I’m not going to invest my time, energy, or resources in. These good things won’t show up on my calendar; or in my budget. Someone has said, “Great leaders are great eliminators.” People with goals have to learn to say no to many “good” things to say yes to the most important things.
#4 PERSEVERE TOWARD YOUR GOALS
Nothing worthwhile in life happens without daily perseverance. Notice the perseverance found in Philippians 3:12-14… I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. Do you sense Paul’s intensity there? “Press on” in the original Greek text means, “I overextend myself. I go for it with all I’ve got.” Now is that you, or do you just kind of coast through life? The enemy of perseverance is procrastination. The motto of the procrastinator is “Never do today what you can put off until tomorrow.”
The reason a lot of us never move toward our goals is that we want everything to be easy. We don’t want it to be hard, or difficult. But anything worthwhile in life takes perseverance. I’ve watched marriages break up because of a lack of perseverance. –It was just too much effort to read a book; too much effort to plan a get-away weekend; too much effort to get involved in a small group; too much effort to go to counseling…. That’s a lie.
Now let me just be real practical for a moment and tell you 3 habits I’ve developed over many years that have been a big help in my life to help me persevere, to press on toward my goals, and maybe they’ll help you.
- Spend some time in reflection every day. Without some time of reflection each day, we live an unexamined life. One of the habits I’ve had for over 30 years now is to carry a journal with me almost everywhere I go. I write down notes, reflections, post-game analyses, successes, failures, evaluations, prayer requests, feelings, and promptings.
- Keep a calendar and schedule goals in advance on your calendar. If I don’t do that, urgent things always have a way of squeezing out important things. I’ve learned if I say “I’ll do it when I have time that time never seems to happen. I’ve learned family and marriage get squeezed out if I don’t lock it in on my calendar with regular days off, date nights, family outings, and vacations. I’ve learned if I don’t schedule, in advance my quiet times with God; the priority of relationships that help me grow spiritually…. spiritual pursuits can really get back burnered. In fact, my wife and I sit down for a couple of hours and map out 6 months in advance of things that are priorities for us and it keeps us moving in the same direction and on the same page.
- Make a To-Do List every day. I’ve been making a to-do list for 40 years because I’ve discovered without one I meander through the day with little focus on my goals. Every morning I make a to-do list and then I go by each item and give a star to anything that has to be done by the end of the day. Then I number the items that I’ve starred in order of importance. That way the things I’ve said are important that day get my primary and best energy.
What goals are you envisioning for this year? Can I make a suggestion? How about taking your assessment of where you are right now and determining some steps you could take this year to move forward a couple of notches? Please download this free goal-planning guide.
Our team has compiled some of the most challenging, difficult, controversial, frequently asked questions we get about faith and Christianity as it relates to life, morality, current events, the end of the world, sexuality, and more. Week by week we’ll unpack seven of these questions in ways that I think you’ll find fascinating and informative. These questions are often the roadblocks for people when it comes to faith and Christianity. We’ve even titled the final week of the series, the subject you thought we would skip and not have the courage to address. You can check out all the messages at eastside.com/you-asked-for-it.
Author: Gene Appel
Eastside Christian Church
Anaheim, CA
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