Most of us set goals too large. Too loose. Too undefined. Like, "I want to be rich by the time I'm 35." Okay, cool, what's the plan?
Or, "I want to get married and have kids." Awesome. Family is the fabric of life. What's the plan to marry a good, compatible spouse? How do you plan to feed, cloth and educate your children?
Me? Those big long range goals and plans hardly ever pan out. I mean, do you see my name on the New York Times Bests Seller List? Or has Oprah called? Hollywood -- well, once but that's another story. More to come on that hopefully.
So, we set these big goals and we end up disappointed and discourage because some pie in the sky didn't land on our plate. More likely, it landed in our faces.
When I asked my good friend Stuart Greaves how he set his heart for the big things God has for him, he said, "I just don't picture the outcome."
So wise. So much truth. I've begun to offer up the large expectation of my heart back to Him and forget about the out come or what "that" will look like.
In my gut, I know there's more to come. I know God has more for me. I've felt it. I've had people mention pretty incredible things to me, things they see or feel from God for me. But I cannot make any of them happen. I cannot!
I can only do what God gives me to do today.
And what is that? Finish a book. Help a couple of writer friends with ideas. Write a short piece for Southernbelleview.
This week, I know I have to finish The Wedding Dress, keep up exercise, hang with Jesus and clean my house. That's it. I have room to juggle in case something unexpected comes my way, but I know what this week is about. That's what God has for me. That's my goal. That's what I'm doing.
Set goals you can see and obtain. Do what you have to do so you can do what you want to do.
Next week, I'll reassess, set new goal, start thinking of things I can't think of when I'm finishing a book. Getting to The End is pretty consuming -- time, heart and mind!
Don't live by the tyranny of the urgent. Live a designed life!
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5 comments:
LOL..tyranny of the urgent has been a phrase I've used a lot lately....putting out lots of small fires...it's the season of life.
I read "Biblical Productivity" over the weekend...36 short pages of CJ Mahaney's blog....very insightful and wise. One quote he used was from C.S. Lewis and really spoke to me:
"..if one can, is to stop regarding the unpleasant things as interruptions of one's "own", or "real" life. The truth of the course that what one calls the interruptions are precisely one's real life- the life God is sending one day by day; what one calls one's "real life" is a phantom of one's own imagination."
:) Check it out...some great stuff!
http://sovereigngraceministries.org/blogs/cj-mahaney/post/Biblical-Productivity-Series-PDF.aspx
I love CJ. I'm not sure what he's talking about, but yeah, I think we do have to adjust to the "life" God sends us. But there's also the life God administrates for us to live.
I think we get so focused on considering those interruptions "God" we don't do the other things He's called us to do.
Like, pray, be in the Word, give ourselves to something like... going to school, or writing, or raising our kids that take a lot of focused time.
I suppose I disagree with CJ. I think the phantom is that we think we can live without administrating and organizing our lives. That God only sends us interruptions. Granted there are those. But I'd consider those NOT the norm. But the good being the enemy of the best.
XO!
R
Before I start my day, I make a to-do list and commit it to God, asking for his favor. Since I've put him at the top of my list, my tasks have been getting done so much better.
Many times we focus on the prize and forget to enjoy the journey.
Great post, Rach.
Ah, yeah, Lisa, enjoy the journey! But what a great way to start the day!
I think we both interpreted Lewis' quote diferrently. I saw it as "live in the present"...yes, we are to plan for the future but be sure you aren't living a "phantom" life of "what ifs" and missing what is happening here and now. Like, daily interruptions for a mom...changing diapers, cleaning up spills, diffusing sibling arguments, etc. That is part of the life God is handing you daily..it is the calling of motherhood....just one example.
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