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How to Write Down Your Goals and Fulfill Them

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How to Write Down Your Goals and Fulfill Them, How do I keep my goals?, www.IntentionalByGrace.com

In her book Write It Down, Make It Happen, author Henriette Anne Klauser shares a powerful story about the famous football coach Lou Holtz:

“He was twenty-eight years old when he sat down at his dining room table and wrote out one hundred and seven impossible goals. He had just lost his job, he had no money in the bank, and his wife, Beth, was eight months pregnant with their third child. He was so discouraged that Beth gave him a copy of The Magic of Thinking Big by David J. Schwartz to help lift his spirits…”

The book said you should write down all the goals you wanted to achieve before you died and Holts’s list included meeting the pope, having dinner at the White House, and becoming the head coach at Notre Dame.

If you look on his website today, you will see that of the one hundred and seven goals on his list, he has achieved eighty-one. This is a great example of someone writing his goals down, working step by step towards those goals, and achieving them.

(Read the rest over at Intentional By Grace…thanks!)

 

 

 

 

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The Fulfillment of All Our Desires

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fulfillment

fulfillment

I sat on one of the beautiful areas of sprawling, freshly mowed grass on my college campus. Staring at the fountain in front of me with a pen in my hand, I wrote. “Lord, I just want to make a difference in this world for Your kingdom. Please lead me in the direction you have planned for me.”

A college senior with graduation soon approaching, the world was my oyster – full of adventure and intrigue, new places and people to see and to meet. I wasn’t interested in getting a job, buying a home, and settling down just yet. I wanted to explore!

I could hardly contain myself until my exams were finished, my bags were packed, and I was off to see the world! Little did I know that while I would travel some that year, I would also get a very humbling job, get married (which I was excited about!), and live in a pretty little town. And all of it was for my good and for God’s glory.

The Itch for Fulfillment

“Our hearts are restless until they can find rest in you.” – Saint Augustine

We all desire fulfillment and satisfaction in life. We crave meaning, relationship, belonging, and a sense that we have made a difference in the world. And none of this is wrong.

In fact, it is normal and right to desire to use the talents that God has given us to serve others and be a light in the world. The problem comes when we begin to view our life’s fulfillment through a narrow lens that must happen in a certain way. Here are some examples of a few thoughts that demonstrate this:

If I don’t get married and/or have children, I can never be happy.

If I don’t get into _____ school, I will never fulfill my dreams.

If I never leave (in the words of George Bailey) “this crummy little town” and “see the world,” I can’t be content.

If I don’t make ____ amount of money a year, I will never be able to do what I want to do.

If I don’t get ___  job or position, I will never become the person I want to be.

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Fulfillment in Christ

I’m a planner. An organizer. And a Type “A” personality. So I know what it is like to have a plan for my life. But guess what I have realized? God has an even better plan for my life!

True fulfillment comes when we, with trembling hands, place the dearest desires of our lives in the hands of God and say, “Here you go, Lord. These are my greatest desires. Do with them what you will.” We can only do this, however, if we have one desire that trumps all our other desires: Christ – knowing Him, loving Him, obeying Him.

When looking on all the world has to offer: riches, fame, popularity, influence, personal success and even the fulfillment of our dreams, the Psalmist says, “Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever” (Psalm 73:25-26).

Christ Our Portion

“It is easy to want things from the Lord and yet not want the Lord Himself, as though the gift could ever be preferable to the Giver”

~ Augustine

Christ is all we need. His outstretched arms hold the fulfillment of all of our desires. Receive His love, rest in His forgiveness, work and serve by His grace.

Let Him become your greatest desire and trust Him with all the rest. “No good thing will He withhold from those who walk uprightly” (Psalm 84:11).

 

 

 

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How to Let Go of The Past and Live for Today

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HowtoLetGoofthePast


I was sixteen years old and had just broken up with a serious boyfriend in high school. I went on a one-woman road trip with a huge box in my trunk that contained only one thing: hundreds of letters from him.

In those days I had quite a dramatic flare, so I drove several hours to clear my mind of him (while shouting out favorite liberating songs in the car ride) and stopped at the Natural Bridge near the state border.

I opened my trunk, pulled out the letters and walked to a place under the bridge where no one was around. I dug a hole and buried the letters there, covering them with enough heavy Georgia clay to ensure they would never be unearthed again.

I did this for one reason: in my teenage brain, the letters represented a part of my life that I was declaring as “FINISHED.” I wanted those memories buried forever so that I wouldn’t read them again and somehow convince myself that “it really wasn’t that bad” because I now knew the truth: he was wrong for me and I didn’t want to look back.

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Forgetting What is Behind

When God calls us forward on our journey with Him to something new, different, and better – it can be scary. We can be tempted to look behind us and think, “it was better back there.”

An example in Scripture is Lots wife. When God sent angels to lead Lot and his family out of Sodom (because He was going to destroy it due to the pervasive evil there) Lots wife picked the wrong moment to be nostalgic. She looked back and became a pillar of salt.

We can learn one thing from Lots wife – don’t look back longingly on something God has forsaken.

If God has forsaken something and told you to move on, take His hand, walk forward, and don’t look back.

Giving God “The Good Old Days”

Sometimes, however, our past memories aren’t that bad. In fact, when we look back we may say, “I was doing great things for God then and my life was wonderful!” 

There are many times when I am faced with screaming children and dirty diapers that I am tempted to look back longingly on seasons of past “glory days”: You know – those days when the sun was shining, you got 8 hours of sleep, and it seemed that all you touched turned to gold? 

The problem with this kind of reflection is that it only serves to cast a discontented shadow on the present (which God has clearly provided) – and this is not okay.

While it is right and helpful to reflect on and treasure good memories of your past, remember: What God has called you to do today is your greatest gift and you must esteem your work highly. 

Release the painful parts of your past to your Heavenly Father – He has redeemed you and made you a “new creation” in Christ Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:17).

Refuse to live in your past. Your greatest times in life, your greatest adventures and stories have yet to be written. 

Shake off the dust, stand on the starting block, fix your gaze on Christ, and run where He is calling you!

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