Ever heard the saying, “History repeats itself”? Well it’s true when it’s time to set goals. In a couple of days some of us will make New Year’s Resolutions. We will say things like, “I want to lose weight”, or “I’m going to read thru the Bible this year”. We make resolutions for more family time, finishing up a degree, or getting a horse ready for the futurity. You may even have a few resolutions in your head like, I’m gonna fix that fence so the neighbor doesn’t have to deal with our stinkin’ cattle over on his place.
Now might be the time to look at your habits, times you are most productive, whether you work well under pressure and I’m not talking about the pressure of, “Honey, hurry close that gate I don’t want that cow to be culled out!” That’s a different pressure I’ll save for another post!
At the beginning of this year, we attended a Leadership Conference in Nashville. It was an investment, and time away from both church and the ranch. Time we didn’t feel like we could spare but we wanted to learn more about how to be better leaders and how to accomplish our goals. We attended a three day course, packed full of some pretty useful stuff. It made since to a couple plain people out here trying to manage some ranches and most importantly trying to be preacherish and peacher wife…ish.
Looking back, we discovered some simple solutions for goal setting.
1. Decide on the areas of your goals. For us it was God (Spiritual), our marriage, then our boys (family), Cowboy Church, ranchin’, and writing (career). Personal, physical, intellectual, financial, and social are some other areas.
2. We learned to write down goals and assign them a time and place. Where would we work on them and on what days of the week?
3. Goals should be obtainable but yet challenging.
4. Have a WHY. Why, do you want to accomplish that goal? They need to be your own and if you have a family, they should flow nicely with your family goals.
Now incorporate the past….without dwelling on failure!
1. You look back on the calendar and remember fall shipping didn’t go so well. You jot down, HIRE MORE HELP!
2. The Duck Dynasty Bible study went well. Do that again.
3. Didn’t make it to any of our boys ranch rodeos but saw ranch horse team try outs and spent some time with them during the week of Thanksgiving. Check on their upcoming ranch rodeos and write down the dates on the calendar.
4. Did you have a big set back this year? Instead of calling yourself a failure, learn from it and try things differently. Don’t let your past dominate your future.
5. Had some amazing leaders that contribute a great deal of their time and talent. Wanted to show them more appreciation then we did……why do I have such trouble with follow up? Put it down and FOLLOW THRU! And make the follow thru specific, like. ……send a card immediately after an arena event to the team leader and team.
I love what Proverb 29:18 says,
“Where there is no vision, the people perish; but he that keeps the law, happy is he.”
And this quote by J.C. Penny,
“Give me a stock clerk with a goal, and I will give you a man who will make history. Give me a man without a goal, and I will give you a stock clerk.”
Hope you are loving God, loving your family, and living life to the fullest for HIM! What have you learned from 2014, I would love to hear from you and please sign up for my newsletter. Thank you!
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