AREAS TO SET GOALS
Setting goals in all areas of your life is an important part of human existence living without it leads to unsatisfied and an unstable future.
It should be clear, written, measurable and time-bounded. It changes your life and it empowers you to make the right choices.
People with goals succeed because they know where they are going and have focused energy. It about your potentials, future, possibilities, and making the right decisions for your life.
Goal setting boosts your faith, it encourages you to move on even in the presence of obstacles. It should be inspired by God!
Whenever you set goals, you decide on what is important for your life or if not, other people will decide for you how you should live your life.
If you don’t have goals for all areas of your life, you are not living you are just existing and reacting!
This was exactly how I felt when it looked like the world was collapsing over my head because nothing was working for me and it literally came out of my mouth, ‘I am not living, I am just existing.
Afterward, I was surprised at this saying, and said ‘where did this come from?’ I believe God was trying to tell me how I was living my life. And from that day forward I began to realize that it was true, I wasn’t living but existing.
Living without goals is like a car moving without any particular destination in focus; therefore it does not matter where it passes. You will have to set goals for every area of your life.
You drift through life when you don’t set goals and you will always go downhill in life!
So you decide for other people to run your life when you don’t have goals, because you don’t know what is important for you, so you let them decide.
And you react to every gossip and circumstance, wasting your life because you have not clarified what is important for you.
It is important to set goals for every area of your life if you want to be successful.
It is spiritually important that you set your own goals as you mature in the things of God. Apostle Paul says, “I strive toward my goal, I move toward my goal, I remain focused on my goal.” (Read Philippians 3:14)
The 7 Most Important Areas To Set Goals in Your Life
- Spirituality:
Goal setting is a spiritual responsibility that God expects us to develop for the fulfillment of His purpose.
It’s a statement of faith that needs to be developed not like any circular business goals.
When a Christian who has a personal relationship with God set goals, you look up to God to help you accomplish that thing at a particular time. The bigger your goal the more you need to stretch your faith to attain it.
It pleases God when we have bigger goals because we will depend solely on Him to accomplish that dream.
You cannot go through life without any faith and goals. Life is full of risk and if you don’t take a risk, you don’t have faith and you’re being unfaithful. You often look at your level in society, the limitations, and your educational level and set your goals, this is not faith.
Acknowledge and involve God in your dreams!
Don’t limit God with your unbelief. The bigger your dream the more you trust God to accomplish it. Think bigger and dream big, dreaming big doesn’t cost you anything.
2. Family
The family is the core of society so when we have a malfunctioning family we have a malfunctioning society.
Before a man and a woman decide to come together to marry, they should have goals on how they want their family to be.
So you think through these questions; do we make God the head of our family or not? How many children will we give birth to? Where do we want to raise our children? The kind of schools the children will attend. The kind of church you want to belong to. How will we manage our finances? Will we have a joint account, a family account or not?
Be specific about your goals. God had in mind the family when He created Man and Woman. Genesis.1:28a; The God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it.
And He expects us to direct our children to serve Him. Have time for those you love and spend time with them, that’s your family.
3. Finance
Setting financial goals for your life and how you manage your finances is very important. “For wisdom is a defense as money is a defense,” Ecclesiastes 7:12a.
So, God wants you to be on top of every area of your life including money; therefore it’s necessary to plan how to make money and how to use it wisely without allowing it to control you.
This is how the money is defined; ‘Money is primarily a medium of exchange or means of exchange. It is a way a person trades what he has for what he wants.
Money has three critical characteristics, a medium of exchange, for economic good and it’s a means of economic calculation.
When you receive your monthly income, give 10% as tithes to God, if you want to receive His blessings on your finance, save 10% and the remaining 80% on your personal needs.
It’s a dangerous mistake not to have financial goals, it will make or unmake you, since it’s a medium of exchange on this earth, and you will need money to be able to fulfill your purpose either through your own effort or help from others.
Even, Jesus was supported financially to fulfill His ministry that was why He had Judas as His treasurer. Paul was a tent builder; he did that to support his ministry and himself. To know how to manage your money and be financially self-sufficient needs an intentional practical step towards this goal, understand your income, save money and start budgeting.
4. Physical
Eating healthy food and exercising produces a healthy body, a healthy body enables you to live for your highest potential.
You can get rid of sicknesses and diseases which prevent you from achieving your purpose.
So you need to set goals on what you put into your body and what not to, developing a good eating habit, setting times to eat and exercise or workout regularly.
Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. God is much concern about what we do with our bodies. “Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you ware not your own, 1Corinthians 6:19?”
5. Carrier
Having a carrier goal is key to your success; choose your carrier according to your God-given talent.
What you love and have passion for, you easily flow with it and do it with excellence is your carrier.
When you identify your carrier, you then make plans on how many days to work in a week and how many hours? It’s important to set time bounds and follow it through.
As you service your car every now and then to make it performs better, so does the body needs breaks to make it perform properly. God created the heavens and the earth in six days and on the seventh day, He rested Genesis. 2:1-2.
So, God expects us to work and whenever we work according to His purposes it brings glory to Him and also has some time off to spend with Him.
If you don’t plan your carrier, your carrier makes those plans for you and your life will be miserable.
You need time to be quiet at least three to four times a week. Find a quiet place; spend about 20 – 30minutes planning for your life. He who does not work should not eat.
6. Mental
The mental stability of an individual determines the level of the capabilities. The soundness of the mind enables you to make the right decisions and the right choices for your life.
And this, of course, is not automatic; it depends on you planning to attain this goal.
In the Bible, it is clear that the will of God for us is to have a sound mind. For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind, 2Timothy 1:7.
It is in Christ alone that you can have a sound mind without Him nothing in this world can bring us peace.
When you allow God into your mental faculty, you begin to think in line with Him and see things through His lenses. Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, Philippians 2:5.
Free yourself from negative emotions. Positive thinking will make you use your ideas. It’s equally important to set goals on your mental stability.
7. Social
Goal setting on your social status is equally important because it identifies you with a certain group of people in society.
Who do you choose to be friends with and allow into your inner circle? You will need people who can influence you positively.
What social circles do you want to belong to? Do you want to belong to a Christian community or a worldly community? These are questions you need to ask yourself before you decide how and where to socialize.
Setting goals in every area of your life focus your energy. It prevents you from wasting time, reputation, energy and money.
In my book Discover to Recover, you find out more about setting goals.
The key to an effective life is the focus, not the number of things you do. The more you focus your life the more powerful and effective your life will be.
If you spread yourself in a whole lot of things, you make no impact at all but when you focus, your life becomes powerful.
You can either waste your life or invest it. To achieve greatness in life you do what matters most. Have the winning attitude, that whatever you do, you will do it to win.
Goal setting gives you a clear vision for your life and builds your character and God uses you to establish it. All we do in life must lead us toward one purpose, to glorify God. God blesses goals that are motivated by love.
Until next time! Live with purpose!
