Fine to Finer to Finest

Setting goals is very important to our well being; mental, physical and spiritual.  If you just let life happen you will get what you deserve.  It is better to aim at something and miss than never to have goals at all.  If you set your goals too low you will never amount to much.  Goals need to stretch you to become more than you expect.  If goals are too low and are obtained too easily then you will become bored.  Goals need to be short term (ones that can be accomplished in 6-12 months) and long term (those which are to be accomplished over a 3-5 year length of time).

Goals are important for you to measure how balanced a life you live.  They need to be written down and updated as time and circumstances change in your life.  You can probably think of many goals including physically, mentally, and spiritually.  Write them down.

You become what you think about so think noble thoughts.  Everything in life begins with a thought.  Once the thought is conceived, then you have the duty to accept or reject it.  You can also replace it with an alternative thought.  Circumstances or people can challenge the thought but no one can control the thought except you.  This can be proved in many ways such as prisoners of wars who survive because they resolve to think about home instead of their circumstances.  Another example is movies that make you feel what is on the screen as being real so you feel scared even though you know it is not real.  So purpose to get up each day with positive thoughts about the day.  This is the day the Lord has made so rejoice and be glad in it!  You have been given another day to live so don’t take it for granted.  Reading a short, positive story before sleep time can help in this process.  Count the blessings you have in the midst of bad circumstances.

Use bad circumstances to learn life lessons.  The purpose of learning is to prepare you for better things.  Every problem has an opportunity.  Sometimes we have to look hard to find a better outcome, but it is there.

We learn more from defeats than victories.  There is an old Peanuts cartoon that has Lucy saying to Charlie Brown that you learn more from defeats, and he responds, “that must make me the smartest person in the world”.  Defeats do not equate to failures.  A failure only occurs when we quit or give up.  Vow to never stop trying or believing in the things important to you.

Never quit learning because it makes you a more interesting person and life more exciting. You are the same today as you’ll be in five years except for two things, the people you meet and the books you read.  Also, there is an abundance of information available on the internet and other sources.

Remember that winning and losing are usually short term experiences.  If you encounter hostile or unfriendly people, ask yourself if you will allow them to have a lasting impact on your life or if what they are saying or doing will be meaningful to you six months down the road.  We control our thoughts and make decisions.  This perspective will allow you to remain cool under unfavorable circumstances and will help you be more objective in making the experience a learning one.  This is a long term project which takes practice.  It gets easier the longer you try until it becomes second nature.

Form good habits, break bad ones.  It takes at least 21 days to replace a bad habit with a good one.  Try it.  Habits define you.  They determine how successful you will be in attaining your goals mentally, physically, and spiritually.  If you keep active in forming good habits, you will be happier and healthier.

Success is a few good habits practiced daily over a period of time.  Failure is a few bad habits practiced daily over a period of time.  Consider if you decided to eat an apple a day for three years and then if you replaced that habit with a candy bar for the next three years.  What difference would that mean to your health and well being?  Consider replacing 30 minutes of reading a novel with reading the Bible or non fiction books on subjects which are of interest to you.  I have read that if you spend 30 minutes a day studying any subject for a year, you not only will become an expert in a field but will be in the top 10% on the subject.

Success is a journey not a destination.  Decide what you will take on the journey and who you want to share it with.  I recommend that you get a blank piece of paper and draw a circle that covers most of the page.  Make it like a large target.  This circle represents your life.  Now start in the center going outward with the items, goals, topics, and people most important to you.  Start filling in the circle with everything you want out of life (bucket list), and the names of people that you want to be a part of it.  This exercise will get you on your way to setting goals for your life.  The items you want but don’t have will indicate the habits you will need to develop in order to reach your goals.

We owe ourselves and others our best effort.  Life is not just about me and making me happy.  Proverbs 11:28 in The Message says “A life devoted to things is a dead life, a stump; a God-shaped life is a flourishing tree.”  There is a real joy in helping others achieve their goals.  I believe that is what is meant by the scripture that tells us it is more blessed to give than to receive.  Try this just for today:  Do a good turn for someone and don’t let anyone know about it.  Don’t be disagreeable, critical or find fault with others just for today.  Give yourself a quiet time to meditate on your life, on God, and the direction for your life, just for today.  Have a good attitude toward everything that happens just for today.  Work harder on yourself than on others just for today.  The result will be ‘Living a happy life’.