3 TIPS TO HELP YOU ACHIEVE YOUR GOALS
Hello, My Chickadees! Happy New Year!
Don’t you just love do-overs? Especially if you messed up the first time – or if you’re like me, the first few times. A new year allows us to reset the clock and start again. We make proclamations and declarations of being different and making a difference and on January 1st, we have the best of intentions. We may even start off as planned – energized and enthused about our new perspective – but we frequently fall short of our goals because we fail to stay the course in the long run… especially when life hijacks our plans. I have been there and done that so many times that I have formulated an action plan that I will share with you to hopefully assist you (and me) in responding to the challenge of staying the course and meeting our New Year’s resolutions.
#1
Put first things first. I have come to learn that things go better with God. I borrowed that philosophy from the old Coca-Cola commercial which attempted to entice you to buy Coke because “things will go better for you” if you do. Although Coke can’t really promise you that they will, God can and does promise that if you “Delight yourself in the Lord, He will give you the desires of your heart,” (Psalm 37:4). How do we delight ourselves in the Lord? I’m so glad you asked. We do so when we make Him our first priority. When we make time in our busy schedules to allow Him to pour into us daily, as He “gives us this day (each day), our daily bread.”
I am struck with how Jesus always prayed and consulted His Father before He made any major decisions. I don’t know about you, but if Jesus had to go off to a quiet place and pray, I know I do, too. A daily dose of prayer and God’s Word strengthens our spirit man to help us run the race towards our goal. Putting God first makes everything else in our day go better.
#2
I know I’m old-fashioned, and part of that is because I am seasoned with age and have matured, but I have found that if you write out your goals for the year, accompanied by an action plan for achieving them, and put it where you can see it daily, it will help motivate you to stay the course. Every January 1st, I write out the goals I want to accomplish that year and I place that list in my prayer corner where I can see it every day. It has been said that if you fail to plan, you plan to fail. I also made myself of vision scrapbook. Some people make vision boards, but I find that making it into a scrapbook allows me to look at each page every day before leaving my prayer corner. In that vision scrapbook are my hopes and dreams and that I’m praying about and speaking into existence. It has also been said that what you think about, you bring about. God desires to give us the desires of our heart, and by putting them in a vision scrapbook we are reminding God and ourselves of those things we most desire to see show up in our lives. It is such a thrill for me when I see God manifest these visions and dreams in my life and watch thoughtsbecome things. Inspirational things by Gail is one of those dreams I prayed about and continue to pray over daily, but have seen the manifestation of what was once a desire of my heart, and now prayerfully will encourage and inspire the world to do the same.
#3
Get an accountability partner – someone who will hold you accountable and help keep you on task. I have such a person in my life and I call her my consultant. You want an accountability partner who has your best interest at heart and desires to see you achieve your goals. This is a person who doesn’t just tell you what you want to hear, but tells you what you need to hear and know, and offers advice and guidance as you work towards your goals. I thank God often for Kendall King, who was an answer to my prayer for help in bringing the product line of Inspirational Things by Gail into existence. I meet with her monthly to go over where we are in the formulation of my product line, and where we need to go. She is a wealth of knowledge and has graciously shared her gift of wisdom and technology with me. We need one another and God places others in our lives who have gifts that we do not have to assist us in sharing the gifts we do have. Allow your accountability partner to be God’s gift to you in sharing your gifts with the world.
Last but not least…
Never, never, never give up. No matter how hard the task seems to be and often is, keep pushing. God is birthing something special through you and if He placed a desire in your heart, He is able to bring it to pass. Remember, “You can do all things through Christ who strengthens you,” (Philippians 4:13) and “We are more than conquerors through Christ who strengthens us,” (Romans 8:37). If God has placed a dream in your heart or goal on your mind, He is well able to give you what you need to make it happen. My dear girlfriend Rev. René Cole used to always say to me, “Where He leads, He feeds.” I can’t begin to tell you how often I have held on to that statement through the ups and downs and dark days of building both of my businesses.
Things don’t always go as planned, but having a plan is your roadmap to success. When life hurls you a setback, remember your setback is a set up for a comeback. Keep pushing to birth what God has impregnated you with. In the famous words of Winston Churchill, “Never, never, never give up.”
Happy New Year, My Chickadees. Please look for and spread the word about my latest project that God is birthing through me, dedicated to all of you. It is a daily word to encourage and inspire all of us entitled Good Morning My Chickadees: Morning Messages from Mom.
Peace and Blessings,
Gail