A Goal Without a Plan Is Just a Wish.
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Have you dreamed about your life, family, your marriage and how you hope it will look in the future?
Maybe you have a “dream home” in mind or you dream about some romantic getaway with your spouse. You may dream about your financial future or dream about your kids as adults and hope you are rearing them wisely.
We may have many hopes and dreams in our heart, but doing our part to make those dreams turn into reality is vastly different than simply dreaming about them. We need to set a plan in place to do our part to turn that dream into a reality; otherwise, it is just a wish.
You may be thinking, “How on earth do I turn my dreams and goals into reality?” Well…read on friend! Hopefully this will help!
The first step in setting goals for yourself or your family is for you, together with your spouse, to write out your combined dreams for your household. Break the dreams down into some or all of these categories.
- Spiritual
- Marriage
- Family
- Household
- Financial
- Career/Academic
- Personal/Social
- Ministry
The next step will be setting these dreams in each category into a goal. Don’t get nervous now! 🙂
In your discussion with your spouse break down each category above into WHAT, HOW and WHEN.
Let’s use the “Spiritual” category as an example.
WHAT: Discuss WHAT spiritual goals you would like for yourself and family to experience.
Example:
- Pray with the kids before bedtime.
- Have a Bible memory game each week.
- Read Psalms with one another before bed or each read the Proverb for the day and talk about your insights.(if today is Oct 27, read Proverbs 27, if Nov 5, read Proverbs 5, etc)
HOW: Discuss HOW you will work towards those spiritual goals.
EX:
- Decide if you will take turns praying with your kids at bedtime or will do it together.
- Each of you take a turn buying a special little prize for the winner of the bible memory game. Decide what verses to memorize and decide what night the family will come together to play the game.
- Plan on who will read the Psalm each night or set a few minutes aside to ask: What did you read in Proverbs today that gives us wisdom for life?
WHEN: Discuss an end date. When will we stop the process or re-evaluate:
EX:
- When will we stop praying with the kids at bedtime. Maybe at a certain age you can change to something more age appropriate like the time when you pray with them. (Teens may stay up later than you!)
- When do we want to stop or change the Bible memory game? You may need to think about new ways to encourage Bible study/memory as the family grows older.
- When we finish the book of Psalms, what do we want to study next? Or how many months should we continue focusing on Proverbs?
See….that wasn’t so bad, now, was it?
It can be a little intimidating to think of what goals you want and how to set them into a plan, but by breaking them down and talking them over with your spouse, it can become less challenging. It can even be fun!
Maybe take your sweetheart away for the weekend, just the two of you, to dream and set those family goals while you are away. If your spouse can handle being surprised….what if you planned the whole trip? That sounds like a perfect goal to set! 😉
You know, you can teach this same process to your kids, as age appropriate. How fun would it be to patiently listen to your kids’ dreams, to help them set goals and to watch them and celebrate with them as they see those dreams come true.
Look over the categories listed above to find a few to begin setting goals with your children, or as a couple, or with a friend.
Then you can break them down together the same way with WHAT, HOW and WHEN.
Have fun, don’t stress over it and take your time dreaming!
What if you prayed, asking God what His desires are for you as you set some goals, then listened for guidance in setting and fulfilling those desires. I can promise you He will do “exceedingly abundantly above all you ask or think and take you to levels of relationship you didn’t know were possible!
(Ephesians 3:20-21)