What about goals?

We need a destination before we can set off towards our
destination. We need a purpose in our life to be meaningful.
Something that said: "My presence will make the difference!"
or "I will make others life better." For some people,
religious beliefs that guide them would fulfill this. For
others, it could be achieved through charity or social work.
Many individuals spend their spare time with the aged or the
less fortunate achieved this as well. There is a Chinese
saying "helping others is the source of happiness."

Drawing a plan that includes your goals and aspirations will give you a clear direction in life. People who drift through life without a plan feel helpless and powerless. When you have a goal, you are driven towards success. The goal has to be something that matters and is important to you. It should be something that you are interested in.

When you have a goal and life plan, go on to build a bright future for yourself.
You must believe that life is full of opportunities and it will provide you with an unlimited source of energy. We can have one huge goal in mind but we also need to set achievable goals. It is important to set small, achievable goals. When a target is met, our confidence increase and our self esteem is heightened.

Goals should be specific and have a time frame. A study was done on a class of Harvard students. When they were undergraduates, they were asked what plans and goals they had for their future. Only 3% of them had clear goals while the others were not sure about what they were going to do. After they had graduated for ten years, the 3% that had clear goals made more money than the total amount of the other 97%. This shows that it is essential to have clear goals.
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Goal setting strategies have become a mainstay in success
programs being taught today. Many success trainers propose
that you do everything possible to keep your goal in front
of you... Unfortunately, most success seekers
who follow these teachings only realize after years of
failure and missed opportunities that goal-setting strategies
don't work. In fact, today's goal-setting strategies do more
to inhibit the advancement of your goal than to promote the
realization of it.

Goal setting in the success-training world has become so accepted that very few people have bothered to question its validity. The goal-setting strategists have their facts and figures, and most of the formulas often quote a now familiar study to validate the importance of goals and goal-setting strategies. In this study, the 1953 Yale graduating class was surveyed as to whether or not they had specific goals, and if so, were they written down. A certain percentage said that they had goals, but only three percent of the entire class had goals that were written down somewhere. After twenty years they contacted these graduates and found some amazing results. The percentage who had goals had done decidedly better financially than those who didn't. But more shocking, the three percent who wrote down their goals were worth more financially than the other 97 percent combined! There was only one problem with this amazing goal setting validation study-it never happened! (Fast Company magazine, Dec/Jan 1997)Yale University has no record of any such study being done. When researchers were asked to validate their source, they could not. They never verified the story as true. It never could be true, because as many success seekers have found out the hard way, goal setting doesn't work.

Its not so much having a goal that is the problem, but the meaning today's goal-setting strategists have given to the word "goal". I don't think anyone would argue about having a vision of a possible final outcome. You have to have some idea of where you're going if you want to get somewhere. One of the problems is that goal-setting strategies do not allow for flexibility. When Columbus set out to discover new worlds, he didn't stubbornly decide where he would land his ships. He didn't define an exact course to a well-defined destination. He went with the flow of the winds and the currents and had a general idea of where he wanted to end up....Many successful people will tell you that you don't always end up where you had planned. You have to be flexible, and many of today's goal-setting strategies do not allow for flexibility.

Another problem with goal setting is that every time you focus on your goal, as many strategies prescribe today, you come face to face with the fact that you don't have it. This inadvertently conjures up all the power of negative thinking.
The thoughts you hold in your mind become your reality, for better or for worse. So, if your focus is on failure, it's not surprising that you are unlikely to achieve your goal. Additionally, constant focus on a self-centered goal flirts with the danger of it becoming part of your ego. Until you gain power over your ego, it has power over you. Focusing on what your ego wants, on your goal, creates fear--the fear of not achieving it. Before you know it you start creating excuses that you'll use when your goal doesn't materialize in order to protect your ego. And even if you do accomplish your goal, what will naturally continue is the fear. The fear of losing it. Not a very rewarding proposition, is it?

Instead of setting goals, try establishing objectives. Objectives allow for flexibility, while goals are more rigid. However that is not the greatest difference between setting goals and establishing objectives. The major difference between them is how they're formulated. The goal setting strategies today teach that when a person sets a goal, he or she should begin by deciding what they want (desire) and then figure out how to get it (thought). The strategy and the resulting goal has its roots in desire and is followed up by a thought process. Using that process, the goals are usually self-centered and egotistical. Establishing an objective is different. In formulating an objective, the thought comes first, and then you back it up with emotion (desire). It's exactly the opposite way that people are instructed to formulate their goals. The thoughts by which you establish your objective begin with the good you can bring to other people, the world, or the marketplace. You can set a goal to start a business to become rich, and you'll probably fail (nine out of ten do), or you can start a business to help people by delivering the best (product) to the marketplace, and as a result, have a much better chance of becoming wealthy. In this way your objectives are no longer self-centered. They are other-centered. With other-centered objectives, the ego no longer has reign over your success. It may seem like a fine point, but it makes all the difference in the world. Goal-setting strategies don't work because they are rigid and self-centered. Establishing objectives allows for flexibility and, more importantly, the focus is on helping others. If you have an end result that helps people, in the end you will be helped.

So stop setting goals!
The next time you set out on a new endeavor, establish an objective with the benefit to others as your guide. Accept new opportunities and challenges with an open mind. You may not end up exactly where you had planned, but you
will end up enjoying true success!
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A POINT TO PONDER:
Have an end that helps people, and in the end you will be helped!
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Reprinted from "The Spirituality of Success" Newsletter, a free monthly ezine published by Vincent Roazzi
For more information visit http://www.spiritualityofsuccess.com

Spiritually, success can be defined as "becoming the person
God desires each of us to be and accomplishing His goals
for our life." Scripture shows us that much of success begins
with proper goal setting. In fact, Hebrews 13:5 indicates what our
goals should NOT be. "Make sure that your character is free
from the love of money..." Notice that the writer of Hebrews
did not say "Let your character be free from money." Instead,
he is warning that our life and character should not be driven
by the LOVE of money. In other words, if your idea of success is accumulating as much wealth as possible so you can feel secure, then you have missed the whole point. So what is meant by "goal"? It is a purpose, aim, or sense of direction toward which we move all our energy, desire and effort. A high priority goal will motivate, gearing our entire life toward its accomplishment. Throughout Scripture, God gave His followers a specific purpose. As they pursued the aim, He always gave assurance He was with them and would provide the resources to accomplish it.

EXAMPLES:
.Noah is one instance of someone putting all his energy into achieving a goal. God instructed him to build a seaworthy vessel and provided all the building instructions. Therefore, the goal that Noah had set for his life was actually determined by God--constructing an ark in order to save civilization.
.David is another example. He stepped up to face Goliath, who was threatening God's people. Because the reward for killing the Philistine giant included great wealth (I Sam 17:25, some people assume David entered the contest for personal gain. However, his own words reveal his ultimate incentive was to glorify almighty God(I Sam.17:46-47.... David courageously faced Goliath because he was confident of what God wanted him to do, how God wanted him to do it, and the result God wanted to produce(I Samuel 17:34-47). David's brothers and King Saul tried to persuade the young shepherd not to face Goliath, but he could not be deterred (vs.28-33). He was determined to carry out the task God put before him.
.One of the most goal oriented people in the Bible is the highly motivated apostle Paul. Not one to waste time, he had an overwhelming sense of purpose, direction and commitment. Prior to his conversion, he was doing everything in his power to destroy Christians....As soon as he was saved, his goal changed to proclaiming the name of Jesus...to as many as possible as quickly as possible. ....
Despite the fact that Paul vigorously pursued his goal, he wrote about the importance of learning contentment (Philip. 4:11-13). At first glance this passage may sound contradictory to the idea of reaching a goal--does this mean I am to settle for less than I am capable of achieving? No, it is possible to be extremely content with my life and at the same time to have goals that I believe God has laid upon my heart--goals I desire to achieve and toward which I am working. ...It is quite possible for me to be extremely contented with what is mine at the present moment even while I am in the process of seeking, searching and moving toward particular goals that God has for me. Some people believe the Bible says we should not set goals for our live, but that is erroneous thinking. Nowhere does God tell us to stagnate and keep things exactly the way they are. The scriptures talk about growing in grace (2Peter 3:18)... Are you satisfied with what you currently know about God?...God places in every...heart an insatiable hunger for Him. Our relationship with the Lord can bring about genuine fulfillment and contentment, even while there is at the same time an undercurrent of dissatisfaction--a yearning to know more, to grow deeper.... Some people incorrectly assume that goal setting does not apply to them...your heavenly Father has a purpose for your life and He has planned the best for you. He desires that you succeed in whatever He has called you to be and to do. When your purpose and priorities are in line with God's and you set goals accordingly, He will do absolutely amazing things in your life.
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Taken from the May 2004 issue of "In Touch" a monthly
devotional magazene published by "In Touch ministries",
Charles F. Stanly, President and publisher