Have Clearly Established Goals For Your Life

In 1972, Life magazine published a story about the amazing adventures of John Goddard. When he was fifteen, his grandmother said, “If only I had done that when I was young.” Determined not to make that statement at the end of his life, John wrote out 127 goals. He named ten rivers he wanted to explore and seventeen mountains he wanted to climb. He set goals of becoming an eagle scout, a world traveller, and a pilot. Also on his list was riding a horse in the Rose Bowl parade, diving in a submarine, retracing the travels of Marco Polo, reading the Bible from cover to cover, and reading the entire Encyclopedia Britannica. He also planned to read the entire works of Shakespeare, Plato, Dickens, Socrates, Aristotle, and several other classic authors. He desired to learn to play the flute and violin, marry, have children (he had five), pursue a career in medicine, and serve as a missionary for his church. Sound impossible? At age forty-seven, he had accomplished 103 of his 127 goals! Now, your list of goals may not be as extensive as his, but if you don’t have some goals for your life, you’ll have little motivation to get up in the morning and little satisfaction when you put your head on your pillow each night. And unless you try something beyond what you’ve already mastered, you won’t grow. So set your goals in prayer and, with God’s help, work toward them each day.