Do any of you ever get the feeling that you’re already so far behind compared to where you wish you were, that you wonder if you’ll ever catch up? You suddenly realize “Wait a second! I’m ‘this‘ many years old. How did I end up in this place without doing something really great?”
Recently I’ve been looking at my life, what I’ve accomplished and what I wish I’ve accomplished, and I get this feeling of urgancy, like I need to really step it up. I hear about people who had a publisher by the time they were 15. People who were running full hospitals by the time they were 25. People who were pastoring one of the largest churches in the United States by the time they were 35, and I feel waayyy behind. Maybe it’s just because I’m an overachiever.
I wish I could sit down today knowing that I have books out there in bookstores. Wishing I have a publisher waiting for me to finish my next series. Wishing I had a stack of letters from people who’s lives have been changed through my books. Wishing I had made it big so I could support hundreds of needy children in third-world countries.
In reality though, I’m just me. The girl who feels a call to write and change the world through her words. A girl who has so many great ideas but is limited by her lack of energy. A girl who is actually doing better than she realizes most of the time, because she does have two e-books and a soon-to-be-released print book.
I’m happy with my life, I really am. I’m working each day on learning new things. On writing. On growing as a person. I just wish I had started earlier. I wish I had sat down and thought seriously about my goals when I was eight. When I was ten. When I was twelve. I don’t mean I would do away with my childhood, because I wouldn’t. Even back then though, if I had a better idea of where I was going, then I would (in all likelyhood) be further ahead than where I am now.
Let me ask you some questions. How many of you out there have written, measureable goals? How many of you work on accomplishing your goals at least once a month? Once a week? Once a day? When someone asks you what you want to do with your life, are you left shrugging your shoulders and mumbling something that you hope will change the subject? Or do you have to calm yourself down so you don’t talk their ears off because you’re so excited about life?
I don’t mean just saying ‘I want to be a writer’ (etc…), but knowing what you want to write about. Why you want to write. How you’re going to accomplish your dream of getting your books into other people’s hands so they can read them. And on, and on, and on.
If you had five minutes right now to write down what you think you’ll accomplish if you live a regular-length life, would you know what to put on the paper? If you do know, are you working towards those things?
From the polls I put up on my blog last month, it seems that a lot of the people who read my blog are below the age of 25. In my mind, the only time that would be better to start working on your goals than now would have been five years ago… And since we can’t do that, why not start today?
I’m not saying that I think you should stop having fun with your life or grow up too fast, but really, ten years from now are you going to look back and think ‘Wow, I’m thrilled that I spent all those years playing video games (watching TV, reading books, surffing the web, etc…)!’ Or will you be thinking more along the lines of ‘If only I had worked harder back then, I’d be so much further ahead now!’
I would love to see what some of your goals are if you have them written down. And if you don’t, why don’t you take two or three weeks (or several months) to really think about them and begin coming up with a plan for your life. And of course goals aren’t unchangeable, but if you’re going to be working on them every day, you need to make sure that it’s seriously what you want to do.
For me, I want to make sure that all of my goals are God-honoring and focusing on what He wants me to do with my life. I want to serve Him, and therefore my goals need to reflect that. I need to use my time and energy to do what He created me to do. Praying and asking God to help when you’re working on goals is really important, because even if you accomplish really great things, if it’s not what God wants you to do, then what’s the point? So, here’s what my dad would say if he were talking to y’all: Pray, Think Big, Set Goals, Be Amazed!
{I would be delighed to hear from you. If you’d rather not leave a comment with your goals, you could email me at aidylewoh(at)gmail(dot)com}
“You can’t hit a target you cannot see, and you cannot see a target you do not have.”
Zig Ziglar
Commiting your goals to paper increases the likelihood of your achieving them by one thousand percent!
Brian Tracy
“People with goals succeed because they know where they are going… It’s as simple as that.” Earl Nightingale
“There is no achievement without goals.”Robert J. McKaine
Goals in writting are dreams with deadlines.
Brian Tracy
I find it fascinating that most people plan their vacation with better care than they do their lives.Perhaps that is because escape is easier than change.
Jim Rohn
“Without goals, and plans to reach them, you are like a ship that has set sail with no destination.” Fitzhugh Dodson
“Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goals.” Anonymous
“Goals that are not written down are just wishes.”Anonymous
“The goal you set must be challenging. At the same time, it should be realistic and attainable, not impossible to reach. It should be challenging enough to make you stretch, but not so far that you break.” Rick Hansen
“If you don’t know where you are going, you might wind up someplace else.” Yogi Berra
“You must have long term goals to keep you from being frustrated by short term failures.”
Charles C. Noble
“What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals.”
Zig Ziglar
