Connect with us

Articles

Baby Steps Toward Big Goals

This year, set goals in five areas of life … and then make baby steps toward reaching them.

Spread the love

Published

on

I have sat in the same room with some truly inspirational people like Neil Armstrong, Zig Ziglar, Jack Canfield, Bill Cosby, and Jim Lovell to name a few. Of course I use the word "room" rather liberally, since there were a few other thousand people with me.

My husband and I have attended this star-studded annual Mastermind conference for the past eight years. Three days of phenomenal speakers, interesting workshops, and nonstop motivation. It’s like drinking from a fire hydrant. Yet some people I know are skeptical about the lasting effects of motivational conferences like this. They wonder how many times does one really need to hear "think positive," "never give up," and "set ambitious goals?"

As my husband loves to say, "We leak." I constantly need to be redirected, re-energized, re-inspired, and put back on track. Every time I’ve gone to a seminar with an expectation to hear God’s voice, He speaks ever so clearly. The Book of Proverbs tells us that "wisdom calls aloud" (Proverbs 1:20). The question is will I recognize wisdom’s call? Will I listen to God’s instruction and actually follow through with actions?

I’ve been given a treasure at these conferences that I’d like to pass along. Every year, I sit with 5,000 of like-minded people in a convention center. Beautiful classical music plays and everyone journals. I’ve been taught to set goals in five areas of life: spiritual, family, business, financial, and personal. Here are some examples of my goals from a few years ago:

Spiritual

To teach a Sunday school class

Family

To read three excellent books about parenting

Business

To write a book

Financial

To cut unnecessary spending

Personal

To lose my baby weight

I love these five areas because they encourage balance. If my spiritual life is packed with great Bible studies and service opportunities, but my husband feels ignored, something is wrong. And if my kids have all the attention in the world but I haven’t prayed in days, my priorities are out of line.

So I write down annual goals, which is really the easy part. Accomplishing the goals … now that’s a different story. Maybe that’s why so many of us drag our feet about writing goals because we figure, why waste time writing something down that we’re not going to actually accomplish?

Our culture doesn’t exactly exalt commitment and a disciplined life. It’s more like, "Why make a promise you’re just going to end up breaking?" or "Bail out when the going gets tough." This hardly sounds like what the Apostle Paul wrote about in Colossians 3:23, "Whatever you do, do it heartily as to the Lord."

Baby Steps Toward Big GoalsNow I’d be lying if I said reaching my goals was a snap. Many days I felt completely overwhelmed with the thought of writing a book when there was laundry stacked up, dinner to cook, and a toddler pleading, "Mommy, will you draw me a train? Please…!"

But since I had made the big audacious goal of completing a book, I kept taking baby steps every day. I wrote for half hour segments during naptimes and tried to focus on accomplishing one thing during the day and finishing instead of trying to do twenty and feeling utterly defeated. I’m extremely grateful to say one year almost to the date of writing my goal down, I finished my manuscript, Losing Weight After Baby: 31 Days to a New You. And you know what? I would’ve never found the determination to write in one year with two small kids around my computer without that goal setting process.

Once the manuscript was complete, you would think it would have been time to celebrate. But no! Now there were a million new goals on the horizon. Marketing the book could easily have become a full-time job in itself. So I constantly reminded myself, baby steps. To me, goal setting is dreaming with a deadline, and breaking up the dream into doable parts.

One woman at church told me, "If there’s nothing in your life that scares you a little, you’re not really living." I don’t think she was talking about monsters under your bed. She was talking about pushing yourself beyond your abilities and trusting God for seemingly impossible things.

So with a little healthy fear, I’ll set goals once again with my husband. Remember the five areas? Spiritual, family, business, financial and personal. In about six months, we’ll go to dinner and review our progress. Sometimes there’s no progress at all (did I really write that goal?) and other times there are great victories to celebrate. Either way, we’re growing and that’s exciting.

One of my favorite sayings about dreaming and goal setting is from Brian Buffini, the man who created the Mastermind conference that I’ve attended. He says, "We overestimate what we can accomplish in one year, and underestimate what we can do in ten." Read that one more time. Wow, that inspires me to dream big. Where do I want to be in 10 years? In 20? Then when all my goals don’t come to fruition next week, I don’t beat myself up about it. I just take a baby step forward.

Spread the love

Arlene Pellicane is a speaker and author of 31 Days to Becoming a Happy Mom and 31 Days to a Happy Husband. She is also the co-author of Growing Up Social: Raising Relational Kids in a Screen-Driven World (with Gary Chapman). She has been a featured guest on The Today Show, Fox & Friends, Focus on the Family, FamilyLife Today, The 700 Club, and Turning Point with Dr. David Jeremiah. Arlene lives in the San Diego area with her husband James and their three children. To learn more and for free family resources such as a monthly Happy Home podcast, visit www.ArlenePellicane.com.

Welcome to Ungrind!

Do you want to be inspired, motivated, and equipped to live the everyday story of your life well?

If so, you’re in the right place. Whether you need encouragement in your relationships or in your faith, I hope you’ll find the transparent voices of mentors and friends here at Ungrind.

So, grab a cup of coffee and keep reading. We're so glad you're here!

Ashleigh Slater, Founder & Managing Editor

Get Our Free Ebook!

Sign up to receive weekly emails from Ungrind and you’ll get the free ebook, Better Together. Be encouraged by stories of hope from women just like you!

Latest Articles

What Women Are Saying

"Thank you for having me as your guest... Awesome design, awesome content, awesome website!!!"

-- Darlene Schacht, author of Messy Beautiful Love: Hope and Redemption for Real-Life Marriages and co-author of Reshaping it All: Motivation for Spiritual and Physical Fitness

Featured Resource

"Real life is not always pleasant. Every marriage experiences disappointments, misunderstandings, sickness and financial crisis. Ashleigh doesn’t camouflage the pain in her own marriage, and offers practical ideas on how to walk through the difficulties and find intimacy on the journey. If you are anything like me, I predict that as you read, you too will find yourself laughing, wiping tears, and saying 'Oh, yes.'"

-- Gary Chapman, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The 5 Love Languages

Disclosure

We are a member of the Amazon affiliate program and regularly use affiliate links. If you purchase an item from an Amazon link we provide, we will receive a small referral commission. This doesn’t cost you anything additional. We only share books, music, and products that our writers personally have used and highly recommend.

Trending

Ungrind

Baby Steps Toward Big Goals

by Arlene Pellicane time to read: 4 min