Goal Setting I

“The plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance, but everyone who is hasty comes only to poverty” Prov.21:5 [ESV]

Sit down with God, come up with goals, and write the goals down. Writing down a specific goal will increase your odds of achieving it by about ten times. In other words, a written goal is ten times more possible to come to pass than goals that are not written down. “The plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance, but everyone who is hasty comes only to poverty” Prov.21:5 [ESV]. So you can either live by design or live by default. You can either live by design or just wish. Anyone that is accustomed with goal setting and planning would be familiar with what they have coined S.M.A.R.T goals. S.M.A.R.T is an acronym for how to set goals. However, as a church we have E.R to come up with our own S.M.A.R.T.E.R goals to suit our own context as believers.

#1. S is for SPECIFIC; the goal must be specific. We are going to adopt this because it is scriptural, the goal must be specific. And the key to specificity is clarity. If it is not clear it cannot be specific, when you are specific you are achieving clarity. What is that goal, what do you want to achieve and how? You are running a business, what is that goal and objective for the business this year? It has to be clear. How clear should it be? “The Lord gave me this answer: “Write down clearly on tablets what I reveal to you, so that it can be read at a glance” Hab.2:2. The Word of God is amazing! So that it can be read at a glance that is how clear it should be. Another translation reads, “Write my answer plainly on tablets, so that a runner can carry the correct message to others”. So that he that is running when he looks at what you have written he gets it. And even though he is running he doesn’t need to stop to read it. That is how clear it should be. Amazing!

#2. M is for MEASURABLE. Measurable simply means ways to measure success. How do I measure success, how do I know that I have reached the goal? I want to drive east until I get to point A [that is measurable], so when I get to point A I can celebrate a win. “ It is pleasant to see dreams come true, but fools refuse to turn from evil to attain them” Prov.13:19.

#3. In the SMART goals, A stands for achievable but we have changed that to ACTION plan. What steps do I need to take to make this a reality? What are the action steps I need to take to go from point A to point B? If I have a car, the first action step would probably be to find my keys, gets funds to buy petrol for the car, drive to the station fill up my tank, then set out. This is an example of an action plan.

Prayer: Holy Spirit, please guide me as I plan before the Lord and cause every one of my plans to lead to abundance, in Jesus Name.