I returned to the US from Germany just in time for Thanksgiving. Sorry, I didn’t do an obligatory post on thanks. When I’m traveling–especially to these conferences–that extra hour to work on one of these posts just seems hard to come by. Plus I’m working on recovering my stamina after a fairly bad muscle pull Sept. 1 that but me on two weeks of bed rest, a week of physical therapy before I started a series of 6 trips in 9 weeks. In December, it’s two trips to Chicago and a trip to Tennessee/Florida over Christmas.
If I made goals like all the self-help gurus tell you to do, I’d make a goal to come up with a better schedule of how to work on the road. But that leads to my thought for day. Tomorrow is the beginning of Advent. This is a season of preparing for the future. Many people use this time in their personal lives to take stock of what they have done and think about what they’d like to accomplish. Then they make goals (sometimes called “New Year’s Resolutions”) to focus them for the coming year.
The church had a future-looking committee many years ago. As people talked, it became obvious that there were many people with many great ideas for ministries. But the committee leadership was fixated on developing a five-year plan of goals. (Or, as I have been known to observe–this form of planning worked so well for the Soviets…) But a new pastor came to town who did one pretty simple thing–he gave people permission to pursue their passions. And, wow, what a change.
So, here is some practical advice for you for the new year. Or the rest of your life. Don’t set goals. Find your passion and accomplish what you want in life while having fun doing it. My favorite lifestyle writer, Leo Babaueta, says this:
Goals take credit for our accomplishments. We give them a lot of credit for our accomplishments, but they didn’t do the work. They might have given us a direction, but in the end, the work is done on a daily basis. Goals also require that we do a lot of admin work — assess and report on how we’re doing with our goals, etc.
But remove goals from the picture and look at the gritty details of how work gets done and accomplishments happen:
- You get excited about something. Sometimes that’s through setting goals, but it could be other ways: inspiration from someone else doing something, setting a challenge for yourself, joining a group doing something exciting, or just waking up and wanting to do something great. Or you put on ‘Hey Mama’ by Black Eyed Peas and start shaking your booty and want to get moving.
- You take action.
- Maybe you report your new thing to others — on your blog or Twitter or Facebook or an online forum, or just telling your friends.
- You might make it a part of your life for a little while.
- You take more action.
- You tell people about how you’re doing.
- Pretty soon you’ve done something amazing.
- Notice that goals are only one way to do this.
So, here you go. I wish you all the best in finding your passion while you meditate on Jesus’ coming during this Advent season. You might spend the month asking what he wants you to be doing. Oh, yes, but then you have to listen. Then, do.
Gary Mintchell
Faith Venture 