New Year-New Goals
I don’t know if it’s just me, but has the whole world jumped onto the “New Year-New Goals” bandwagon? You may have noticed my social media feed has been littered with thoughts of dreaming and making plans for doing. Turning the calendar page on a new month, new year, new decade all at the same time inspires us to look more intentionally at where we are and imagine something more is possible.
Now that school buses are running on schedule and Christmas decorations are secured in their storage bins, it just feels like time to organize closets, drawers, or calendars. A quick Google search tells you to make SMART goals to ensure that the change you make today is lasting rather than a flash in the pan. We want our effort to matter, otherwise, it just seems to be a waste of time and Netflix is calling our name.
Leadership Mentor Micheal Hyatt recommends making SMART-ER goals. In working with executives who wanted to excel in their leadership, Hyatt noticed that people were getting stuck in the same patterns of behavior and not able to experience the difference positive change makes in their lives. So, he tweaked the SMART goal process and began teaching people to dream about goals that were:
Specific
Measurable
Actionable
Risky
Time-Keyed
Exciting &
Relevant to Your Values and Current Stage of Life
I don’t know about you, but my soul often gets left behind when I am making my to-do list.
There are plenty of articles online to help you set and maintain goals toward your health or business goals. But, how often do you consider making goals to nurture and restore your soul? Life has a way of inflicting bumps and bruises. Rocking merrily along, we don’t notice them. It is not until some external force upsets our balance and we can’t quite find our way back to even that we realize we need help. We might think we are lacking in self-control or strength when in fact our soul may be dehydrated or under nourished.
We neglect our souls because it is difficult to measure soul health.
There are any number of measuring sticks out in the world. We need only glance to the left and the right to see how we are doing in relation to our neighbors. Do we have the most up to date outfit, car, or phone case? Are our shoes in or are out this season? Are we making more progress than our neighbor where we spend most of our time: at the gym, in the car pool lane, in our career or in volunteer roles?
If you look around you will be able to find some other person against which to measure yourself and discover a discrepancy you previously did not know existed. This is the beginning of anxiety and a sense of not being enough.
In measuring ourselves against other people, our deficiencies are glaringly apparent. When this “not enough” aspect of our lives is highlighted we are inspired to set a goal to improve so we can be better than some mythical idea of success. Anything to not feel this way for a minute longer.
A one way ticket away from the land of scarcity.
What if there was another way? What if shifting your perspective on your goal setting stance could change the outcome of the process altogether? You can experience change from a place of peace rather than scarcity. It is absolutely possible to chart your course forward with hope and abundance.
Goal Setting Reorientation
Goal setting needs to begin with looking up rather than left and right. Know that you can enter into change with Jesus, rather than by yourself. When you start your goal setting process from a place of receiving love, mercy, and compassion rather than a posture of competition and comparison— you recognize that God wants to RESTORE you so that you may in turn RESTORE your community and build the Kingdom of God right where you are.
It is entirely too easy to get distracted and lulled into building our own fiefdoms. By remaining focused on Self-Care and Self-Help it is hard to remember the Love which created us. In figuring out how to fulfill ourselves, we neglect the One who created us in the first place and knows what will actually fill us. Looking around, measuring ourselves against our neighbors, encourages our minds to become so focused on what we lack that we are unable to recognize and enter into the needs/pain of other people. By focusing all of our attention on our feelings and bodies, we become less sensitive to the eternal indwelling within our souls making it difficult to discern our right next step toward soul nourishment.
December was filled to the brim with activity while January opens with an invitation to silence and stillness, the latter two being more conducive to pondering.
Would you like to set Smarter Goals to RESTORE your Soul?
Instead of setting goals based upon your assessment of the external trappings of other peoples lives, imagine your SMARTER goals while in the merciful gaze of God.
Dedicate time in the coming week to rest with Jesus. Allow Him to point out the cracks He wants to fill with gold, the bumps and bruises He wants to mend. If you can, set aside 15 minutes each day to allow Him to love you. This time will give you the first inklings of the Soul Goals He wants for you to set.
Setting goals that nourish your soul is never a waste of time. The Holy Spirit longs to partner with you to make the Unfailing Love of God known to each person you encounter. What are you doing in the coming weeks and months that allows the Spirit to nourish your soul?
I would love to hear about your Soul Goals. If you struggle in this area, I would love to help.