Life Goal List, The Circle Maker and Me

Do you have a life goal list?  I do not.  I henceforth will after I pray and write through this post.  I used to set life goals when I was in high school and college in my head and on paper.  I met all of those goals!  Now, it’s time for a rewrite…

I’m reading Mark Batterson’s book “The Circle Maker.”  It is phenomenal for me.  He speaks the word of God and includes his own stories of prayer, life lessons, and dreaming big with God’s glory in the forefront.  He has a chapter in the book toward the end entitled “Life Goal List” (Chapter 15, pg. 177 in the paperback version I’m reading).  I am nearly done with the book.  If you follow my blog you know I have more than one book at a time going.

Going forward with the Ten Steps to Goal Setting by Mark Batterson…the cliff notes version if you will:

1. Start with Prayer.  “If you set goals in the context of prayer, there is a much higher likelihood that your goals will glorify God, and if they don’t glorify God, then they aren’t worth setting in the first place.”

2. Check Your Motives “If you set selfish goals, you would be better off spiritually if you didn’t accomplish them.” also “Start setting giving goals.”

3. Think in Categories “…five…1) family 2) influential 3)experiential 4) physical 5) travel” also “All my goals have a spiritual dimension to them.”

4. Be Specific.  “If a goal isn’t measurable we have no way of knowing if we accomplished it.”  As a speech therapist I totally get this one, and I apply it daily when I write a plan of care for a child.  I will think of my goal list in terms of my own plan of care!

5. Write it Down … “it’s God’s idea–Record the vision and inscribe it on tablets.”

6. Include Others “Goals are relational glue.”

7. Celebrate along the Way “When God answers a prayer throw a party.”  Love, love, love this idea literally and figuratively!

8. Dream Big “You need some God-sized goals that qualify as crazy.”  As a part of Holley Gerth’s God Sized Dream Team…I understand this concept, and I am still applying it to my own writing, prayers, and life goals.

9. Think Long “If you want to dream until the day you die, you need to set goals that take a lifetime to achieve. And it’s never too late to start.” I like this concept because I often become impatient with God and myself when dreams are not fulfilled or prayers answered.  Thinking long gives hope.  It also defers to His strength and plans not my own.

10. Pray Hard  “Goal setting begins and ends with prayer.”  Learning more about prayer through books, prayer, and life is incredible.  I have opened my eyes so much more to it this year being that my God Sized Dream presently is to start a Moms in Prayer group for our community this fall in September 2014.  This has been a long prayer…this has been a hard prayer.  I am still praying it through. 

Dear God,

You are All Powerful and All Knowing.

Forgive me when I try to take control of goals and dreams.

I ask that you guide me today.  Give us strength to dream big and trust in Your will.

I yield my heart and my life goal list to You.  It is written by You ultimately.  Thank you for the goals in my life that have all ready been fulfilled.  I celebrate them in my heart today.

Amen.

 

My Life Goal List, Created by JKC on 5/16/2014 at 4:47 a.m.

Family Goals

1. Celebrate our fiftieth wedding anniversary. 

2. Be present at our son’s weddings.

3. Celebrate an anniversary in Italy.

4. Celebrate an anniversary in Paris (and kiss DAC at the top of the Eiffel Tower).

5. Celebrate a birthday in London by attending Wimbledon.

6. Accompany each of our son’s on a mission trip (domestic or foreign).

7. Celebrate DAC’s birthday in England.

8. Find and visit an ancestor’s grave in MA, ND, OH, and TN.

9. Celebrate a family reunion on a cruise ship

10. Be present at the baptism(s) of our grandchild(ren)

Influence Goals

1. Write and publish (in print) a non-fiction book.

2. My husband or I to speak at Grad’s Made Good (FSU)

3. Start a Mom’s In Prayer Group in 2014 and meet annually for 10 years or more

Experiential Goals

1. Take our boys to a Broadway Play in New York City.

2. Hike the Grand Canyon rim to rim with DAC.

3. Go to a Super Bowl.

4. Go to all four tennis Grand Slam Tournaments in one calendar year (Austrailian Open, French Open, Wimbledon, and U.S. Open)

5. Go skydiving.

6. Go paddle boarding in fresh water.

7. Go paddle boarding in an ocean.

8. Go surfing.

9. Learn how to snowboard.

10. Go snow skiing in Utah as a family.

11. Read the Bible from cover to cover.

12. Learn to play three or more praise songs on the guitar.

Physical Goals

1. Run a half marathon in December 2014 (first one post children).

2. Complete a sprint triathlon (post kids)

3. Run a 5K with each of our boys.

4. Bike a century (100 mile trip)

5. Touch my toes when I’m in my seventies.  (My grandma Dora said this kept her young.)

Financial Goals

1. Be debt free by fifty five.

2. Give 50-50 from my personal paychecks.

3. Pay for our children’s college education.

4. Donate $1,000,000 in a lump sum to a charity or institution

5. Pay back the scholarships given to me in 1997 by organizations in our community.

6. Build or buy a vacation home to share with our family and others

7.  Own a restaurant or business

Travel Goals

1. Take an RV vacation as a family.

2. Visit all 50 states.

3. Hike to the top of Half Dome in Yosemite National Park

4. Return to Hawaii

5. Visit Yellowstone

6. Sail overnight in a small sail boat with DAC

7. Visit Jerusalem

8. Snorkel at the Great Barrier Reef in Austrailia

9. Visit each of the continents

10. Visit Germany again with DAC

11. Travel to Norway

12. Travel to Denmark

 Life Goal List Completed on 5/16/14 at 5:11 a.m. by JKC