On Setting Goals

Have you ever realized that setting goals is kinda scary? I get that they are good, and that we all need to have goals, but once you say you are going to do something there is instantly this looming question over your head asking if you will really be able to accomplish what you have set out to do.

There are some goals in life that I have set and have been easy to accomplish, like school. Maybe this is just because there is an expectation you will graduate from high school and college, and that makes the goal easier (not that college was easy! I just never thought about quitting.)Or the goal of owning a home someday, not the easiest thing in the world, but it was easy to accomplish… but then again maybe that was because it was something we both wanted so much.

However there are the other goals, the ones that I find much harder to set and much harder to keep. To be honest, sometimes I will shy away from setting a goal in these areas because I don’t want to feel failure again. Do you know what I am talking about? For me these areas are trying to lose weight, getting in shape, committing to reading my Bible everyday, and other things like this. You see, here is the thing. I can set a goal of finishing school, and I have the support of others in my classes and the accountability of professors and Phil. Quitting, though some days I wish I was not in school anymore, just does not seem like an option. Yet in my personal life, somehow I can justify not following through with things.

Part of the problem is I am so hard on myself. If I miss one day of reading my Bible and journaling, I will be so hard on myself and believe that I am a failure because of this. I have been realizing over the past month, that I need to start giving myself a break. Yeah, I do want to be a person of integrity who follows through with what I say I am going to do, however I am not leaving room for my humanness. The truth is, I am going to set goals that I will falter in. I may have days when I eat junk and don’t work out.

I think the key in all of this is perseverance and grace. Instead of letting one bad day become a week of exceptions, letting the one bad day be one day, and starting over fresh everyday.

So I am going to do it… yep I am setting goals that I am a little scared to do! However I know that I have the ability to do what I have set out to do, and am excited to see what the future holds!

My first goal… I am going to start running again on a very small scale. My goal is to run a race in September and October… Here I go…..

How do you set goals and stick to them?