Setting Goals

All of us dream of achieving or gaining something, even if we don’t always know what it is, how to achieve it, or even if we can identify it, but it’s there, it exists.  A dream doesn’t have to be something big, something fantastical, or unrealistic – those are just types of dreams.  A dream is something to aspire and desire to achieve in our life.  It’s good to dream.  It’s good to want to aspire and desire – well, sometimes. Sometimes we want something that is detrimental, destructive and dangerous – and from those dreams we need to learn to identify and protect ourselves.   Everything, like the force, has balance: positive and negative, black and white, yin and yang, destructive and productive, love and indifference, etc.  Dreaming is good.  Chasing that dream is even better – it’s the first step, and it’s often the first stumbling block the common person never surpasses.

A dream takes vision, takes a focused mindset, takes planning, takes calculations and demands cost in time, money, patience, and endurance in order to achieve.  It takes sacrifice – many of which most of us are unwilling to pay. We want the fulfillment of our dream to be like making a wish, or saying a spell and it magically appears, with no real effort on our part. We live in a Burger King society that wants what we wants, we want it now, and we want it our way, and we want it cheap. We’ve become obese, fat, and lazy in our efforts – and then we want to complain when we see others achieve what we didn’t have the time, patience or endurance to complete.  “It’s not fair!” we chant.  We’re right - It’s not – so we need to shut the fuck up.  It’s not fair the Spoiled feel entitled to what we’re not willing to work hard for, to sacrifice for, to suffer for, and to do what it takes in order to make happen.  

One of the best ways that has led me down the path of dream fulfillment and success has been in setting goals. But – before we get ahead of ourselves – before I even write the vision on the wall of what I want, what I dream, what I desire – I have to first take a long, hard, honest look in the mirror and assess WHO I am. The truth of who I am, not the lies I tell myself or what I want to believe, but WHO I really am.  Once I’ve seen the truth and know the tools I have to work with, know the condition of my foundation and the storehouse of my supplies – THEN and only THEN am I now ready to start setting my goals.

Luke 14:28 tells us, “For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it?”  Take stock of what we have, who we are, and where we are – then make a list of what we need, who we need to be to complete our task, and where we need to be to achieve success.  Break those goals down into increments – Point A – to – Point Z, then Point A to Point M, and then Point A to Point G, and then Point A – to Point D,  and then finally, Point A to Point B.  Break them down, and then ONLY start with Point A to Point B until it has been completely fulfilled.

Don’t give up, don’t try to jump to another point (we’re not ready for those points yet) before we’ve completed the goal before. Be faithful to the dream and to ourselves.  It’s supposed to be hard. It’s supposed to push us outside our comfort zone, past our governors, past what we thought were our capabilities. 

It’s good to dream. So, get busy setting those goals. We need to write them down every day until they get into our souls. Count the costs – and then pay them. Change the Burger King mentality and it’ll change lives.

Till next time,

~T.L. Gray