Tips For Setting Goals

​Tips to goal setting:


 

 

In my practice I set a lot of goals for the clients. Goals are written on the treatment plan, so that we know what we are working on and due to time limitations how we will get there.




Goals are what you want to accomplish. Interventions are how you will get there.


 



Things to know about goals, no matter how lofty they must be measurable. For example; Samaria will be able to decrease depressive symptoms as evidenced by displaying a decrease in crying spells from 7 days a week to less than three days a week. (I know it sounds strange but it is just an example)

 

When it comes to my personal goals I do something similar. What do I want to accomplish? How will I get there? What is the indicator that I have accomplished that goal? For me most of my goals are about my passions, writing, ministry, counseling if you hadn’t already guessed.

 

1. Start with an overall goal. Be careful because when you have a big goal, it is easy to get discouraged before you begin because the goal it so big.



2. What is the time frame? Example: Jane wants to have a 150 page book completed in 6 weeks. This is measurable. If the goals was Jane wants to complete a book, that is not measurable, although it is a goal.



3. Make the goal measurable based upon your own time frame and what you honestly believe you can do. Jane decided that if she writes roughly five pages a day for the next six weeks, give or take a few she will have her book completed by then. (Not including, editing, graphics, etc)

 

Other tips:

1. Have a accountability partner, if you don’t have one post your goals on facebook. I am not that brave yet but it is a good idea, knowing you have supportive people and to be honest some haters pushing you to do it, helps.


2. Don’t give up! Life will happen while you’re working towards your goal, determine in your heart not to give up. Know before going into it that there will be something.


3. For writing I just write first, then I revise what I say to ensure it makes sense. It inhibits the creative process, when you are constantly trying to fix and tweak stuff. Write it as the Holy Spirit leads then go back, read over it and start fixing it.



4. Write it down! Write your ideas down. I carry a notebook and I write as I get an idea. Most of the time the ideas eventually become titles of chapters. It may not be the project that I am working on at that moment but it ends up being somewhere without me trying.



5. Enjoy the process, don’t be so busy trying to get something accomplished that you miss out on the spontaneity of life. Enjoy your life.



6. Learn to say no. Sometimes what you are working on is more important than temporary satisfaction. When people demand your time as much as you possibly can say no. Of course for those who are wives, mothers, husbands etc this may not always be possible. The point is when you are pursing your dreams you must set boundaries. People mean well but your pursuit is more important. Value your time like money, be careful how and who you spend it on.


 

7. Why I do what I do. I remember a few years ago, I was at a job I hated, dreaming that one day I would be able to work on a project God told me to write. I remember being so stressed out from that job by the time I got home, I would go to sleep and pray the next day wouldn’t come so quickly. Thank God for deliverance, I no longer work at that job.

 

 

However it made me think. There will never be the perfect time to pursue your goals never. There will always be something getting in the way. The reality is your current situation is not conducive to your kingdom pursuit. Eventually God will open the door for you to do your kingdom assignment full time. If you wait for the right time it will never happen.

 

I thank God for all the jobs I hated yet had to go to. I believe He allows us to be uncomfortable so we pursue something greater. Are you uncomfortable? I guess not, because it is uncomfortability that will push you to pursue the greater in you. If you’re not pursuing it you are comfortable enough, no matter how much you complain about your current situation.

 

Finally when I am working on a project I never concern myself on who will read it. Who will purchase it, whether or not I will be a New York Times Best Seller. I know it is on the way. I know what God has promised me. My responsibility is to write. So I am pursuing my goals for the right motives not because I am trying to be seen.

 

Do yourself a favor, do it! Go for it! Write it! Your life depends upon it!

 

Remember in Christ we have the spirit of a finisher. He starts something in us and He will complete it. If our Father is like that towards us. We have His DNA in us, in you is the ability to finish what you start. You must start it in order to finish it!


Philippians 1:6

The Message (MSG)

 

There has never been the slightest doubt in my mind that the God who started this great work in you would keep at it and bring it to a flourishing finish on the very day Christ Jesus appears.

 

Samaria M Colbert © 2014

 

www.samariacolbert.com