“Goal Attained”

I came back this weekend after a short retreat with a leadership team we put together to encourage and empower men to become the leaders we are created to be. I remember telling the guys that this is the first time that I had ever written down plans and some goals in my entire life. I have been in sales and owned my own retail business for about the last thirty years, but never set out a plan and managed to do, just average.

I have known about this for many years but never set a plan in front of me and now it’s time to catch up. I’m 54 and way, way behind.  You have probably heard the saying, “If we don’t aim at a target, we’ll hit it every time”. Or the more popular, “None of us plan to fail, but if we don’t have a plan, we will fail”. Nobody wants to be a failure, but in reality, I have failed in this area.

I am an avid golfer and have spent countless hours practicing, so I have a low handicap to show for it. I have used the principles that I am going to share with you to become a better golfer and more importantly, to deepen my faith in Jesus.  Although our golf game doesn’t put food on the table, the principles can carry over to any part of life.

This month we have watched the NFL team’s battle through the playoffs to eventually two teams that will represent the best of them at the 47^th Superbowl. Every team had a goal to get to the biggest show in sports. Every team had a game plan, but only two teams will play for one spot. I have listened to all of the talk radio shows this week leading up to that big moment and every coach, player and owner interviewed have all said the same thing when asked about their season, “It was our goal to get to the Superbowl”. The players and coaches that were not in the game were asked the same question and they gave the same answer.

I also listened to Tiger after his win on Monday at Torre Pines. He gave the same kind of answer. His goals were to get back to number one and that he still had work to do to get there. As I began reflecting on this weekend’s retreat, I realized something this morning while I was at the gym working out. I have some problems with high blood pressure and in order to stay away from the medication required to lower the problem, I need to stick to a routine diet and cardio is a must. But I have another issue going on. I have a hip that will need to be replaced and back issue so I can’t jog anymore so I have been cycling to ease the pressure on my body parts. But it has been so cold or raining that I began to use the stair machine a few weeks ago.

If you ever ran stairs you know how tough that can be. Now, there is something about these machines, three steps come out a time while you walk up them, so you have to pay attention. But what had me thinking this morning is when I finished. The machine will not operate until you feed it some information, like weight, type of work out, level of ability and time. I have never used these machines until a few weeks ago because of the weather. I have been working out with weights since 1978, so I thought, “I don’t need these things.” But this machine gives me the same work out as if I were running stairs but I don’t have to go to find stairs and I can watch ESPN while I workout.

As I said earlier, I had not been using the machines until a few weeks ago and when I would put the data in the machine I would always put some crazy time in like 1 hour and of course I didn’t plan on using the machine that long I just put it in and would stop when I felt like it. But this morning was different. I said I was going to go for fifteen minutes and put it at a level that would be some work. As I was running these stairs I was reminded of a verse that we read this weekend with the guys that is found in Proverbs 15:22 “Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed” It has taken a lot of people to tell me this over the years in order for my thick skull to finally take it in. I must plan.

Now the great thing about being inside on a machine is that I can be fairly comfortable from the cold and watch ESPN. While I was listening to a sermon on my phone I had forgotten about the time and the machine stopped. At first I thought there was a problem with the machine but as I noticed the lights began flashing in red telling me, “GOAL ATTAINED…GOAL ATTAINED…GOAL ATTAINED”

Seeing those words set a thought pattern in me. I have goals to attain and so do you. We are responsible to our community to reach those goals that were set up in advance for us to attain. Just look at Ephesians 2:10. “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” It doesn’t say anything about goals, but it should be our goal to meet these deeds.

So friends, if you are not a goal setter, become one. Get with a friend or person that lives these principles and have them help you set your goals. We are responsible for our journey not only to ourselves, but most importantly to our families and community!