“If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading.”  Lao-Tzu

Where will you be one year from today if you do not change your direction?

And now, dear brothers and sisters, let me say one more thing as I close this letter. Fix your thoughts on what is true and honorable and right. Think about things that are pure and lovely and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.  (Phil. 4:8; NLT)

What life goals are you pursuing?  Are you wanting to shed some pounds, or perhaps wanting to lower your blood pressure, or just have fewer and fewer headaches?  Or, are you simply wanting to attain good health?  Can you see a difference?

Look at another major area of challenge for many folks–finances.  What financial goals are you going after?  Are you wanting to get out from under all these bills that seem to come in so frequently, or are you wanting to reduce your large mortgage or monthly car payment?  Or are you simply wanting to achieve financial freedom–whatever definition you put on that term?  Can you see the difference?

Yes, the differences are subtle.  They are small.  To some they may seem trivial, largely semantical, and maybe even nonsensical.  But I would like to propose that the differences are huge and will have a major impact on whether or not you ever attain your goal.

You see in one case they are stated as what you are running from, trying to avoid, unsatisfied with, etc.  In essence, they are stated from a rather negative point-of-view.  On the other hand, the other goals are stated in a more positive manner, i.e., what it is that you are running toward, wanting to bring into reality. 

Did you know that most people can’t answer the simple question, “What do you want in life?”  They can easily tell you what they don’t want, but can’t begin to tell you what they do want.  Their response to the question will always be stated in terms of what they don’t want.  Isn’t that sad?  Where is their focus?  Obviously, it’s on what they’re dissatisfied with.  We’ve talked before about how what you focus on multiplies and grows.  Are you beginning to see the problem here?

When defining a goal, you want the focus to be on where you want to be rather than on where you are.  Don’t misunderstand me, both are important, and in one of the upcoming DG’s we’ll talk more about the importance of really getting a handle on where you currently are.  But for the goal articulation step, the focus should always be on what it is that you are wanting to see.

Prayer Power
Lord, help us see that how we say something can be even more important than what we say.  Sometimes our rational minds just can’t grasp that something so insignificant as how we say something can possibly have any bearing on the outcome.  Give us the grace to recognize that we don’t have all the answers just yet, and begin to accept the reality that our subconscious mind is orders of magnitude more important in our daily lives than is our conscious mind.

Link of the Day
Personal Goal Setting

Blessings on you as you rephrase some of your goals in terms of what you want rather than what you don’t want.