Let’s dream together! What dreams has God began to stir in your heart? What dreams are lying dormant and you haven’t even dug into them yet?   Goals are dreams with deadlines!

Here are 10 Steps to Setting Life Goals:

1.       Start with Prayer | Dreaming is a form of praying. Allow God to speak to you and give you dreams! Ask Him to be with you in your dreaming and goal setting!

2.       Check your Motives | Make sure you’re going after these goals for the right reasons

3.       Think in Categories | It is hard to pull life goals out of thin air.  Looking at other people’s goals can help spark ideas.  So does thinking in categories.

4.       Be Specific | If a goal isn’t measurable, you have no way of knowing whether you’ve accomplished it or not.

5.       Write it Down | “The shortest pencil is longer than the longest memory!” Verbalizing your goals holds you accountable.

6.       Include Others | Don’t just accomplish lots of goals and not bring anybody else along for the ride.  It is about shared experiences. It is about creating memories.

7.       Celebrate along the Way | When you accomplish a goal, celebrate it.  When God answers a prayer, throw a party! Celebrate with the same intensity with which you pray! Setting goals is the way you turn imaginations into memories, and once your do, you need to celebrate them.

8.       Dream Big | Michelangelo said, “The greater danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it; but that it is too low and we reach it.” Go for it!

9.       Thing Long | We tend to overestimate what we can accomplish in two years and underestimate what we can accomplish in ten years.

10.   Pray Hard | Goal setting begins and ends with prayer.  God ordained goals are conceived in the context of prayer and prayer is what brings them to full term.

You can download this free resource to write down your dreams here: https://thecirclemaker.com/resources/UR_Life_Goals_back.pdf

Adapted from Mark Batterson’s “The Circle Maker - Praying Circles Around Your Biggest Dreams & Greatest Fears”.  You can purchase his book here: https://www.amazon.com/Circle-Maker-Praying-Circles-Greatest/dp/1491511370

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