Lord of the Castle

The cold weather has broken. The snow is melting. The four foot pile of snow at the bottom of the stairs has shrunk to three feet.

Anyway, as I was saying until the weather so rudely hijacked this blog…

Zig Ziglar says that when you set a goal, you go from being a wandering generality to being a meaningful specific. Instead of merely floating along wherever the current takes you, you aim for a specific destination.

Most people don’t set goals for several reasons. The first usually is that “It’s too hard”.

That is partly true. It is hard…just not “too” hard.

It requires that you get in touch with your heart. What makes you tick? What do you really want to do or be? Do you like where you are heading? Are you really happy with your life as it is? If not, what would you like to change? Why? Etc, etc.

While I am not a “happy” type of person by nature, I have noticed over the years that I have become progressively happier. I think there is a reason for that…

For the most part, I like how I have lived.

Spiritually, my relationship with God is more vibrant and meaningful than when I was first “born again” 29 years ago.

After 24 years of marriage, my wife and I still really like each other. In fact, I think we are on the upswing.

Thus far, I like how my children have turned out. I like the depth and intimacy of our relationships.

Mentally, my curiousity about life and liberty has increased rather than decreased. I have told my children that before they put me into the ground at the end of my life, I am going to assign each of them a list of books that I never got to read or study.

Physically, I am pretty close to where I hoped that I would be.

Now, I am not going to sit here and tell you that all of the good things happened because I set goals. However, I will tell you that my relationship with God, my wife and my children did not occur accidentally.

They were important to me. So, I set out to do whatever I could to bring it to pass.

Year after year, I would set yearly goals…quarterly goals…monthly goals…weekly goals…daily goals.

There were years when I was really into it and years where it seemed like I was just going through the motions. But, I kept trying and little by little, they added up.

Are there things that I wish I had done differently? Most definitely! I can’t tell you how many times I have been frustrated and deeply discouraged over my career and our finances. But, the success I have enjoyed in the other five areas of life have strengthened me and kept me in the game.

Have I hit all of my goals? No way! I don’t even know if I have hit half of them!

But, past “failures” are not going to stop me from sitting down and setting new goals this year…or resetting the ones that I didn’t hit last year.

Some of them I have NEVER hit…yet I rewrite them every year!

And I will probably rewrite them again this year!

Nearly thirty years ago, I bought a tape series by Zig Ziglar on setting goals. It changed my life.

One of his best insights is that we shouldn’t just have one or two goals. We should have goals in every area of life.

For instance, if my only goal is to climb the corporate ladder to make $250,ooo/year, will I really consider myself a success if I accomplish it but lose my wife and kids in the process? What if I accomplish it and lose my health in the process? Would I call consider either of those scenarios “success”?

Probably not.

What if i don’t achieve it? If that is my only goal in life, then that would pretty much make me a failure.

Therefore, it is better to set a goal (or goals) in every area of life.

Zig breaks down them down as follows:  Spiritual, Physical, Financial, Social, Career, Mental and Family. In my life, I break the last one into smaller categories of Marriage, Children, and family.

Where do you want to be in one year? in five years? in ten years? What about when you die? A good exercise for that is to write your own dream obituary.

Anyway, I am in the middle of achieving my first quarterly spiritual goal of the year and am really tired, so…

I hope this helps someone…