Wise Words on Goals

“Is My Goal Meaningful?”
Meaning is when everything there is comes together in an ecstatic dance of single purpose—the glorification of a reality so that no matter how good it has suddenly become, it can get better and better and better more and more deeply forever into the future. Meaning happens when that dance has become so intense that all the horrors of the past, all the terrible struggle engaged in by all of life and all of humanity to that moment becomes a necessary and worthwhile part of the increasingly successful attempt to build something truly Mighty and Good.
Jordan Peterson

"The Hope of The World"
The hope of the world lies in what one demands, not of others, but of oneself.
James Baldwin

"Imagine Greatness"
We evolve into the images we carry in our minds. We become what we see.
Jerry Mander

"Rise And Shine"
Remember, diamonds are only lumps of coal that stuck to their jobs.
B.C. Forbes

"Paths Clear"
Paths clear before those who know where they're going and are determined to get there.
Anonymous

"Problem Won't Budge?"
If this stone won't budge at present and is wedged in, move some of the other stones round it first.
Ludwig Wittgenstein

"Just Ask"
Many things are lost for want of asking.
George Herbert

"The Art Of Life"
I think the best results are obtained by people who work quietly away at limited objectives, such as the abolition of the slave trade, or prison reform, or factory acts, or tuberculosis, not by those who think they can achieve universal justice, or health, or peace. I think the art of life consists in tackling each immediate evil as well as we can...just as the dentist who can stop one toothache has deserved better of humanity than all the men who think they have some scheme for producing a perfectly healthy race.
C.S. Lewis

"The Sails of Your Seafaring Soul"
Your reason and your passion are the rudder and the sails of your seafaring soul. If either your sails or your rudder be broken, you can but toss and drift, or else be held at a standstill in mid-seas.
Kahlil Gibran
"Where's The Glory?"
The greater the difficulty, the greater the glory.
Cicero

"Change: Not The Yardstick of Progress"
Change is not always progress...A fever of newness has been everywhere confused with the spirit of progress.
Henry Ford

"Prepare Your Soil"
We cannot make it rain, but we can see to it that the rain falls on prepared soil.
Henri J. M. Nouwen

"From Thought To Destiny"
Thoughts lead on to purposes; purposes go forth in action; actions form habits, habits decide character; and character fixes our destiny.
Tyron Edwards
"Being Choked? Weed Your Life."
I'm so busy I don't have time to do anything.
John Friedberg

“Aim High”
We aim above the mark to hit the mark.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Sacrificing the Dispersible to Gain the Indispensable
He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.
Jim Elliot

"Moving Mountains"
The man who removes a mountain begins by carrying away small stones
Chinese Proverb

"What's The Plan?"
Millions long for immortality who don't know what to do with themselves on a rainy Sunday afternoon.
Anonymous

"Dock Thy Bark Aright"
No wind favors he who has no destined port.
Michel de Montaigne

"Shoot For The Stars"
Man must live on the summit to avoid the abyss.
Abraham Joshua Heschel
"Resolution"
Resolved, that I will live so, as I shall wish I had done when I come to die...Therefore to resolve to maximize his happiness in God was to resolve to show him more glorious than all other sources of happiness. Seeking happiness in God and glorifying god were the same..."The godly are designed for unknown and inconceivable happiness...This glory of God, therefore [consists] in the creature's admiring and rejoicing [and] exulting in the manifestation of his beauty and excellency...So we see it comes to this at last: that the end of the creation is that God may communicate happiness to the creature; for if God created the world that he may be glorified in the creature, he created it that they might rejoice in his glory: for we have shown that they are the same.
John Piper/Jonathon Edwards

"Imagine"
Man’s desires are limited by his perceptions; none can desire what he has not perceived.
William Blake

"The Efficiency Of Not Veering"
A straight path never leads anywhere except to the objective.
Andree Gide

"Over Thinking A Goal"
Nothing will ever be attempted, if all possible objections must first be overcome.
Lord Philip Dormer Stanhope Chesterfield

"Shape Your Future"
The future must be shaped or it will impose itself as catastrophe.
Henry A. Kissinger

"Big Hurdles"
The greater the obstacle the more glory in overcoming it.
Jean Baptiste Moliere

"A Healthy Perspective In Baseball And In Life"
I have no expectation of making a hit every time I come to bat. What I seek is the highest possible batting average.
Franklin D. Roosevelt

"Eye On The Prize"
Anyone who has achieved excellence in any form knows that it comes as a result of ceaseless concentration.
Louise Brooks

"Believe To Achieve"
Strong convictions precede great actions.
James Freeman Clark

"Rooting Out The Destructive"
With the old Almanack and the old Year, Leave thy old Vices, tho' ever so dear...Each year one vicious habit rooted out, in time might make the worse man good throughout.
Benjamin Franklin

"Lift Up Your Eyes"
Those who give too much attention to trifling things become generally incapable of great ones.
Francois duc de la Rochefoucauld

"The End of Life"
I still believe that standing up for the truth of God is the greatest thing in the world. This is the end of life. The end of life is not to be happy. The end of life is not to achieve pleasure and avoid pain. The end of life is to do the will of God, come what may.
Martin Luther King, Jr

"Finish Strong"
Some men give up their designs when they have almost reached the goal; while others, on the contrary, obtain a victory by exerting, at the last moment, more vigorous efforts than before.
Polybius

"What Is Your Angle?"
It is not always by plugging away at a difficulty and sticking at it that one overcomes it; but, rather, often by working on the one next to it. Certain people and certain things require to be approached on an angle.
Andre Gide

“Invisible Monkeys”
“They’re on our backs, and getting them off will unleash creativity | Andrée Seu

When my husband died and this kept woman was hired for her first paying job in 20 years, managing the café of a seminary, I felt anxious and insecure until my mother said the following: “Look at it this way, your goal is to make a decent sandwich.”

Why was this so helpful? Why did it dispel the paralysis and release a burst of productive energy? Because it replaced amorphous anxiety with a concrete goal, a goal (“decent sandwich”) from which I could mentally work backwards to list the steps toward its accomplishment.

If you have the same problem I have—walking around in a cloud of vaguely nagging uncompleted tasks—management consultant David Allen has suggestions for Getting Things Done. Look at the book as an elaboration of “doing the next thing,” which, in its Christian application, involves acknowledging the following division of labor: Trust the loving and omniscient God to protect your life; you, attend to the next required action.

The fact is that 80 percent of everything in every drawer in your house never gets used. And you know in your heart that every new paper you throw on the pile on your desk renders the paper directly beneath it exponentially less likely to be dealt with. So you have started another pile in another area of the house for “urgent-urgent things,” to distinguish them from “urgent things” languishing in the first pile.

All these are invisible monkeys on your back, not unlike Pilgrim’s burden in the John Bunyan tale, except it’s not sin but mental clutter that robs your peace. God would have you free of this (“We have the mind of Christ”—1 Corinthians 2:16). It’s not a moral issue, of course, except in the sense that everything under the sun is a moral issue, in a cosmos owned by God. Keeping your rafters from sagging is a moral issue (Ecclesiastes 10:18).

Jesus tells us not to worry (Matthew 6), and David Allen says much worry comes from a mental traffic jam of “inappropriately managed commitments.” He says, “Your mind will keep working on anything that’s still in an undecided state.” Get things off your mind by getting them done, and see the creativity it releases. Get them done by taking 10 seconds to identify what’s bugging you and making front-end decisions: do, delegate, or defer. Allen defines a “project” as “an outcome requiring more than one action,” and reminds us that no one ever did a project; he did an action.

Is it bugging you that you haven’t read your Bible in about six months? Okay, either live with the gnawing discomfort or take the next action. Maybe the next action is, “Where’s my Bible? Honey, do we own a Bible?” Or maybe what’s shipwrecked your good intentions is something as small as the looming imagined hassle of not knowing where to start in your reading—Old Testament or New Testament? Make an intuitive stab at that decision, then break the Bible open to the place on your night table, so that tomorrow morning you won’t be waylaid by that other psychological barrier of having actually to thumb through for the right page.

Having a clear goal is of first importance, and you should review your projects from a series of different heights, from the bottom at “current actions” to the “50,000-foot altitude level”—or Life. “I’m often stunned by how many people have forgotten why they’re doing what they’re doing,” says Allen. If anyone has a mandate to engage in this kind of reflection, it’s the Christian, who has as his aerial view of life the building of the kingdom of God. How do my present “projects” fit into that view?

I just took mental inventory and noticed something that’s been bugging me and stalled all summer: I want to have a dessert night for all my neighbors. I want to spend a few days baking cakes and pies and then see people stream in and be delighted and meet folks they’ve never met in 20 years on the street. The 10,000-foot altitude goal is “summer dessert for neighborhood.” The 50,000-foot altitude goal is the advancement of the kingdom of God. The sticking point is step one: What’s the next action?

"Good Goals From Good Hearts"
Means have no merit, if our end amiss.
If wrong our hearts, our heads are right in vain.
Edward Young

“Challenges: The Way to A Stronger Internal Constitution”
To reach any desired goal, we have to start or continue some things, and we have to stop others. Hooking new habits on to old habits is beyond powerful, and you should take some time to think about how you can do this when creating your plan for change….A challenge should be a mighty enough activity that it requires our full and undivided attention and concentration in the moment. They absorb us because they engage both our mental and our physical presence. choose one that is meaningful and will demand your complete concentration. Stretch. Demanding slightly more than the best of your skill and strength. They are just over and above our current abilities, so they require us to engage fully and grow...When your actions are congruent with who you want to be in life, how you want to feel, and what you think you should be doing and achieving, then you start to have a stronger internal constitution. You feel more grounded, responsible, sure. A new level of Harmony and steadiness enters your life, and you feel proud of who you are and how you interact with the world. You barely blink at an unsteady and uncertain world, because you find steadiness and certainty within. Life becomes yours.
Brendon Burchard

“Five Major Projects”
We value experiences in which we are personally involved, shepherding a project from beginning to end….Have two to five major projects each year that you are fully invested...Brainstorm the three to five biggest moves you would need to take to bring each project to fruition.”
Brendon Burchard

“A Life of Meaning, Purpose And Significance”
When we feel as though we're contributing to the world, we gain a profound sense of meaning and purpose. If we've contributed something significant to the world, we feel that our time here was meaningful, and we feel we are living a life of purpose...Often it is talking about and celebrating how we have faced and triumphed over our challenges that put the icing on the cake. How vital this is to our psyche.
Brendon Burchard