Pray about it. Dream big. Then write it down.
That’s basically what the new book I’m reading said. The book is called Intentional Blogger, and the authors wanted me to make goals for my blog.
I’ll be honest with you … I thoroughly read that chapter on setting goals twice. I skimmed over it another two times. I printed off the printables they included for the goal setting chapter. And I sat there and stared at them for quite some time.
Writing out my goals for this blog was difficult for me. I went back and forth in my mind. I asked my husband for help. He said my goal should be for one million page views a month. Realistic, right? That was my problem. I wanted my goals to be realistic. I wanted to set my goals really low. Can you guess why?
Failure. That’s why.
I knew if I set my goals really low, they were more realistic. More likely to happen. I was more likely to accomplish my goals and, therefore, not fail. Writing down my blogging goals was difficult because once you actually put ink to paper and have a set list of goals, failure becomes a possibility. And failure is scary and horrible. It’s probably one of my worst fears — right up there with those eight-legged really fast you-know-whats. (And I ain’t talking about no octopus!)
After a more thought-out discussion with my husband, I wrote down realistic yet difficult goals to attain. I feel as if they are a stretch. In fact, I sat there and looked at them on that piece of paper and wondered how in the world I could make those goals become a reality. Not all of it is something I can really accomplish with my own two hands. It’s not all up to me. But that’s the thing — it shouldn’t be.
In Intentional Blogger, they talk about setting your goals high. So high that you think to yourself, “only God could do this.” Because God can do it. And He desires to show His mighty power, the great things He has in store.
God Wants to Show Us Great Things
It’s not about us at all. I can’t fail if I turn the blog over to the Maker of All Things himself. In fact, by doing that I can only succeed in a way I can’t even imagine. I know that God has great things in mind for this blog. He believes in Seeing Sunshine just like I do. So the scribbles on that goal paper don’t mean anything compared to how God wants to work through this web space.
Because when it all comes down to it, it’s not about page views or how many people “like” the Facebook page or how many people follow my Pinterest page.
It’s about glorifying God. It’s about encouraging others. It’s about lifting you up when you’re having a bad day. It’s about showing you a recipe when deciding what to make for supper is stressing you out. It’s showing you there’s joy in the most mundane of days. It’s sharing my faith and hoping it strengthens or challenges your own.
Of course, I want to attain my goals. I want this blog to grow in readership. I want more Pinterest followers. But it’s so much more than that. And that’s what I have to remember when the fear of failure creeps in and I begin to doubt God’s amazing power.
What things do you need to hand over to God so He can show you great and mighty things?
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Praise God! So true… It’s about seeing sunshine and letting God have control. I’m fearful of failure too and was recently asked to write out goals for work, and I was afraid of the same things. Loved this blog. Good lesson
That’s awesome that you are having to write out goals for work and that I posted this at that time. God sure knows how to encourage! I’m so thankful that He used this lesson to teach us both.
that Jeremiah verse was the one I left taped to my desk this evening after cleaning through my room and feeling much fear and doubt… thank You Holy Spirit for confirming You are still with me once again.
That’s awesome Chelsea! The Holy Spirit seems to be confirming scriptures for you a lot lately. I’m so glad!
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Interesting perspective.. I kinda do the opposite though. when I am setting goals for myself or my clients I always put at least one that I know we can achieve. From the little experience I have.. it has worked well that when someone accomplishes one goal they made for themselves they will be more motivated and encouraged to keep going. I find it helpful to have short term and long term goals. My clients have goals that they will achieve in the next month and goals that they will achieve in the next year and aspirations/goals that they would like to achieve sometime in their life…
But I am sure it is much different when your goals are more of a spiritual nature- so thanks for the new angel.
🙂 Thank YOU for commenting!
Oh yeah! I agree Jackie! I think accomplishing a goal definitely motivates you to work even harder to keep accomplishing goals. The only thing with the goals I was working on is that I can’t always control how many people “Like” my Facebook page, if that makes sense. And that was one of the goals I was supposed to come up with – a certain number of Facebook “likes” for my blog page. I had to do like you said, create weekly goals, monthly goals, and yearly goals and then goals for two-three years from now. It was a little overwhelming at first!