Spiritual Goal Setting for the New Year

By Carmin Wharton, e-BlackWomenNetwork.com

You’re in the midst of the holiday season and while you are busy preparing for gatherings, in the back of your mind, you’re thinking “There is so much I didn’t accomplish this year.  However, a new year is before me and there is a lot I want to accomplish.  Where do I even start?”

You start now while you’re in the midst of the holiday hustle and bustle.  That’s right, take a break from the baking, shopping and wrapping and put your plan in motion for next year. 

The first step to putting your plan into motion is to set goals.  Now I know there’s a lot of information and websites dedicated to just that – setting goals.  Toward the end of this message, I’ll even share some of these helpful resources with you but for now, there are three things you must do that no other person, website, e-book, or coach can do for you. 

You must:

•  Dream Big; take limitations off of yourself and step boldly into your dream and aspirations.  You do this by either taking time to decide what it is you really want or if you already know what you really want, give yourself permission to have what you really want.  God wants you to have the desires of your heart.
• Be Specific; don’t be vague about what you really want.  When people are vague about what they want, it’s because they don’t believe they can have it.  If you don’t know what you want, how will you know whether you’ve received it or not?  Jesus could have healed every sick person he met but he only healed those who initiated a healing.  You have to initiate your blessing.  You initiate your blessing by asking specifically for what you want.
• Do You; give up people-pleasing and make sure that your goals are your goals – not your significant others’ goals, your boss’ goals or anyone else’s goals.  Do you and be you – be true to yourself.  God gave you this dream – no one else.

Now that you’ve completed these things, you can move forward with achieving your goals.   Things you must do if you are going to be successful in goal setting and achieving:

• Get yourself a notebook devoted to your goals and write them down.  I suggest starting with three goals.  Writing your goals down sends a powerful message to God, the Universe or whatever you call your higher power and to you – that you are serious about achieving your goals.
• Immediately decide what steps you can take to achieve the goals and start taking the steps - immediately.  It may be that all you can do right now is pay for a domain name for your website.
• Decide upon and commit to changes you will have to make to achieve your goals.  This may mean missing your favorite weekly television show or spending less time with friends.
• Decide the date by which you will achieve your goals and write that date down.  Just like you write down when bills are due and you pay them, write down when goals are due and pay yourself by taking action toward achieving them.
• Read your goals three times each day (morning, midday and at night before you go to bed).
• Imagine yourself achieving the goal – really allow yourself to feel in your mind, body and spirit how you are going to feel when you actually achieve the goal. 

I want to take a break here to give you additional assistance with this step because this is a critical step.  This is where a lot of people lose ground fail to achieve their goals.  Most people say or think, “How can I really feel it?”  Well, when you watch a heart-wrenching drama on television or at the movies, do you find yourself crying or find yourself rooting for the underdog or find yourself wanting to do harm to the bad guy?  When this happens, you have allowed your imagination to take over and you actually experience the physical, mental and spiritual feelings as if this drama is real.  The same imagination that you use when you are viewing a drama, a sporting event or comedy can be used to actually feel what you will feel like when your goal is realized. Use your imagination.

• Act as if you have achieved the goal.  For example, pay for your domain name even if you don’t know how you are going to get your website built.  Buy business cards with the website address on them even if you don’t know how your website will be built.  You will be shown the way and resources will appear.
• Don’t share with others.  Your family and friends really do love you and want the best for you but a person driven by a vision is hard to understand and you don’t need anyone to talk you out of your dream.  We entrepreneurs are odd birds and the average person just doesn’t “get us.” Now, there may be some people that you have to share your dream with to accomplish some concrete things.  For example, you’ll have to tell your web designer about your dream to get your website built. 
• Cross of your goals off your list as they are reached and replace the goal you have achieved with another.
• Give thanks to God, trust in His guidance and walk in total faith even if it seems that nothing is happening.
• Rinse and repeat.

Resources:

http://www.mygoalmanager.com/

http://www.lifetango.com/

If you’d like to use this article on your website, in your newsletter or anywhere else, you may do so as long as the information below is included in its entirety.

Carmin Wharton is a home-based business expert and the founder of e-BlackWomenNetwork.com, a membership community designed to take businesses owned by women of color from start up to prosperity. Carmin's mission is to help women earn what they're worth and make it big in their home-based business on their own terms.