Welcome back! This is the start of a series of posts about discovering your path to a life of passion, mission, purpose, and freedom. If you missed last weeks introduction, you can find it here.

They didn’t have the guts to risk the life they were living for the one they were capable of.

— Darren Hardy

I hated my job.

Hate is a strong word, but it’s still the feeling that wells up inside of me when I think about that job. I hated it.

I was in web development (which is something I’ve wanted to do since, well, forever), making decent money, and working a decently cushy job as a contractor for a government organization. So what was the problem? The problem was that I literally spent more than 6 months waiting on the software that I needed to do my job. It took 3 months just to get the credentials that I needed. Everything was stuck in red tape and bureaucracy. I couldn’t do anything, and I was just sitting around wasting time day after day, week after week. I had no motivation and no drive to do anything. I was bored. It was horrible and I didn’t know how to handle it.

It got to the point where I had taken so many “sick” days that I had gone through my allotment of them and was just taking days off without pay because I just couldn’t sit there another minute. This, of course, was hurting my family, because my paychecks were dwindling every time I didn’t show up to work. I had lost any passion I had for web development by this time and because I had so much extra unscheduled time on my hands, I was making even more dumb decisions and mistakes in other areas of my life. My marriage was a struggle. I’m fully convinced now that I was most likely in a full on bout with depression even if no one ever said I was. I was stuck, and I knew it. This would be how I would spend the rest of my working career and most likely my life. I would do nothing of consequence, hate every minute of it, and probably lose my family in the process. But all my brain could come up with was that this was how it had to be. I had to “provide” for my family. That’s my job as the man, right? I thought this was my purpose in life.

What I didn’t know, and have since learned, is that I have an actual purpose for my life — way beyond just being the provider. I didn’t know how to create missions that served that purpose. I didn’t know that the things I was passionate about, no matter how dead and buried I thought they were, were good things meant to push me along and excite me about what life could and should be. I didn’t know (and couldn’t see) the freedom what waited for me on the other side of that knowledge.

That knowledge is available to you as well. It starts right here.

The first step to finding the life you are meant to live is to wake up to this: you have passions and desires in your heart, they exist for a reason, and they are good.

You Have Passions

First things first, you have to realize that you have passions and desires in your heart. You really do.

You might have buried them. You might have tried to shove them in a closet somewhere. You might have even tried to kill them. For whatever reason, we’ve taken the things that would lead us to life and left them behind.

We’ve lived so long in the land of obligation and duty, depression and fear, that we no longer feel like we’re passionate about anything. It’s also here that we start to believe that even if we did have something we were passionate about that it would just cause trouble and heartache and pain because that’s what we’ve learned our passions do.

Here’s the thing about passions though: they don’t stay buried. You can’t kill your desires. When you’re up in the middle of the night and you’re dreaming about the way things could be, that’s your passions creeping back out of the grave you thought you put them in. In the quiet of the morning, in that time between sleeping and waking, that voice talking to you and calling you into something more … that’s the voice of the desires in your heart that you thought you had locked in that basement. Like the things that people tried to bury in Pet Cemetery, your passions and desires will keep coming back. But in a good way. Not in an all creepy and trying to kill you kind of way.

Your passions are clues and they can lead you to life. Start to listen for them. They’re whispering to you even now.

Your Passions Exist For A Reason

Once upon a time I wanted to be a bodybuilder.

Okay, if you know me, you can stop laughing now.

It’s true, I did. Actually, I can think of two distinct times when I thought this might be the true desire and direction of my life.

Once, when I was a kid, I found that my dad had these old weights and books on weight lifting. I was a scrawny kid back then and I liked the idea of not getting sand kicked in my face and getting the girl, right? I had no idea what I was doing and I didn’t really have any help, I was just doing what the books told me to do. The whole thing probably lasted a couple of weeks.

Then as an adult, I got interested in bodybuilding again. I found some videos from a guy on bodybuilding dot com and again had that familiar rushing feeling that this was something that I wanted. So I watched his videos and did some workouts. I had more money now so I bought protein powder and other supplements that I thought I needed. I watched the Mr. Olympia competition. There was even a time when I actually finished a whole 12 week program and lost a pretty good amount of weight. But again, over time, life happened and the dream was forgotten.

Neither one of those times panned out and at my age now, becoming a bodybuilder is probably not going to happen. To this day though, I am still a fan of the sport. I follow some bodybuilders on social media. I still try to watch the Olympia competition every year to see what happens. I truly enjoy it.

So was my desire misplaced? No, I don’t think so.

There are so many reasons that I could have this desire. Maybe by giving me this desire God is just trying to get my attention to tell me that I need to live a healthier lifestyle. Maybe somewhere down the road there will be a mission in my life that involves health and fitness. In the same way that I don’t have to be a professional football player to love and enjoy football, I don’t have to be a bodybuilder to love the sport. Perhaps, much like football, it’s just something that God has given me for the sole purpose of enjoying it.

There is a purpose and plan for each and every passion you have. God wouldn’t have put it there if it wasn’t meant for you to have and to use. We may not understand the purpose of each and every passion we have yet, but God does and He will reveal that plan to us in time as we’re ready for it.

Your Passions Are Good

Lastly, I want you to know that your passions are good. Now, there’s a good chance we’ve twisted their intent. Satan (and our own hearts) have taken our desires, mutated them, and used them for not good things, but that’s not the original intention. God doesn’t create anything that isn’t good. Your passions were put inside of you for good, not evil.

Sometimes we look at the things that we’re passionate about and we see all the ways that we’ve twisted them and used them for our own gain or to hurt others. We might start to think that we’re better off if we don’t use those desires at all.

This couldn’t be further from the truth. Having passions is not the problem. Misdirected passions are the problem. When you can line up the things that make you come alive with a mission that is feeding your purpose, your passions become helpful, not hurtful.

Here’s the question I want you to consider: if God is a good God who gives good gifts to His children, why would He give us a desire for something that was inherently evil? Why would He put inside of us things that make us come alive if we were only meant to hide those things from the world?

The answer? He wouldn’t. He would never give us a desire for evil things. He has never meant for you to hide the things that you love. We end up hiding them because we’re afraid of what will happen if we let them out. But the Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25:14–30) tells us that those of us who hide what we’ve been given will be called wicked. It also tells us that those of us who take what we’ve been given and use it will see a large return and will be given more.

Your passions are not evil. The things you love are not bad. We’ve misnamed them. We’ve misinterpreted how they should be used. We’ve given them the wrong mission. But they are not wrong.

If you’re going to ever live the life you are meant to live, a life of meaning and purpose, it all starts with your passions.

A small warning: passions can wax and wane. They come and go. I believe they are meant to change over time. They aren’t meant to stay the same. Because of this, building a life based purely on your passions doesn’t work. They are important building blocks of a full life, but they aren’t life themselves. Without a mission to put your passions to work in, your life will feel more like a roller coaster than the robust, growing, full life that you are meant to have. Your life is meant to be a smorgasbord, a feast. Building a life based solely on passions is like feeding yourself nothing but candy. You get a boost for a minute, but then there comes a crash.

Next week we’ll talk about the second main part of an abundant, full life. We’ll discuss your missions, how they are informed by your passions, and how they tie in to your purpose. I look forward to seeing you then!

“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practise resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms…”

— Henry David Thoreau, Walden

You only get one shot at this life. Don’t waste it.

Please. With all that is in me I am pleading with you.

For too many years, I have fought to figure out what it was I am supposed to be doing with my life. I would read books or articles about doing what you love and my heart would stir a little. I would watch movies where people follow after their passions and discover who they truly are and I would want what they have. In fact, I would get a little bit jealous knowing that all these people that I am reading and watching have it all figured out. They knew beyond a shadow of a doubt what it was that they were meant to do and they were willing to jump in with both feet and go after it.

I wanted that. I wanted to know that I know that I know my true purpose and destiny. I wanted passions that burned so brightly within me that anyone who looked at me could see that I was on fire.

I wanted this because for the majority of my adult life I feel like I lived in a sort of haze; a fog that got me from day to day, with no real way for me to see anything other than what was right in front of me. Somewhere along the way in this fog:

I left my heart behind I buried my passions. I lost my purpose.

In fact, I’d say that I didn’t even know that I had a purpose. If I did, I thought it was just to do whatever I could do in a search for the ever-increasing yearly salary. My purpose was just to provide for my family regardless of whether or not I was happy doing it. It didn’t matter that I hated what I was doing. My family was “sort of” taken care of. That is what truly mattered.

What I have discovered is that the fog can be lifted. I’ve learned that I can do things that I love and provide for my family at the same time. I’ve since come to understand that there are things I am meant to do that bring me life and that can bring life to others.

Slowly but surely I am finding my heart, recovering my passions, and living more and more in my purpose.

You can too.

Over the next few weeks we are going to talk about a number of different topics. We’re going to talk about the passions and desires stored up in your heart. We’ll chat a little about the missions in your life that are meant only for you. We will take some time to talk about the purpose you were given on the day you were created. Finally, we’ll talk about what it’s like to live a life of freedom; a freedom that’s found when you live inside your purpose, under a mission, informed by your passions.

When you’ve reached the end of your days I want you to be able to say, like Mr. Thoreau, that you have sucked out all the marrow of life. That you “put to rout all that was not life.”

I want you to know that you didn’t settle. That you lived life abundantly, with abandon. That you gave it your all and that you don’t have any of those “I wish I had” moments. More importantly, I want you to start to live that life now.

It’s going to take some work, but it can be done. The good news is that you don’t have to do this alone. We’ll walk together this road “less traveled by” as Robert Frost would say. I’ll see you next week for part one. Grab your walking stick. Let’s go.

A couple weeks ago I talked to you about setting goals (Your Best Year Ever). One thing I ran out of room in that post to talk about was sharing your goals. When you put yourself out in the public eye and you have the guts to share what it is that you are planning to do, you immediately gain accountability partners. These are people who can help you along the path to achieving your goals. As soon as you talk to someone about what you’re planning to do they are automatically recruited to help you on your journey. They become stakeholders. They are now a part of your fellowship.

As such, they have the right to ask you how you’re progressing on your goals. They have the authority to ask for updates and expect the truth in return. Imagine if once a week you had to report on the progress of your goals to someone else (or many “someone else’s”). That would be a powerful motivator to stay on track with your goals, wouldn’t it?

So that’s why I’m sharing my goals for the coming year with you now. I want … no, I need … your help in achieving the goals that I have set for this next year.

I’ll be honest, it’s a little scary to share my goals in this way. What if I fail? That’s a big, public, everyone-knows-I-failed kind of deal. But I can’t let the idea of failure stop me from trying, right? Knowing that you are here to keep me accountable and to help me along the way makes this feel a lot less like a lonely one-man-show. I can’t do this without all of you, and I’d be foolish to try.

I’ll also be documenting my journey. At least once a month I will post a sort of “check in” to let you all know how things are progressing. I need to be willing to shoot straight with all of you about how things are going. You are my new accountability partners after all.

Okay so … here we go. Let’s get to those goals, shall we?

My Goals for 2019

There are many areas of my life that I want to improve, but I can’t focus on all of them. I have to narrow down the list. So I’ve picked three main categories: Health, Finances, and Writing/Business. What I’ve listed here are the largest goals in each category.

Health

This one has to get the most focus from me this year. My success in this area will fuel my ability to be successful in the rest of the goals I will share below. For many years I have relegated my health to the back burner and every year that passes without me taking responsibility for it is another year that I don’t operate at my best. If there is one thing I definitely need this year, it is to be at peak operating performance. To that end …

“I will exercise 3 days per week and eat healthy foods 80% of the time” Now, I could have set a weight loss goal (I want to weigh 200 pounds) but I find that what the scale says isn’t a very accurate picture of how healthy I really am. If I just stopped eating then I would get to my goal weight, but I wouldn’t be healthy at all. Weight is what is called a “lag indicator.” It is something that happens as a result of something else. A “lead indicator” however, is the something you do that leads to the lag indicators. In this case, if I exercise a little bit and eat healthier foods then I will eventually get to my goal weight, without the need for creating unhealthy ways to get there.

Financial

Heather and I have some big plans for the future and in order to see them come to reality, we are going to have to actually, really, finally get our finances in order while working toward those goals. It’s time for us to make our finances a priority. I’m the spender in our relationship so financial goals in general are particularly hard for me. I believe that if what we have planned comes to fruition then the sacrifice these goals will have required will ultimately be worth it. So our big financial goal for this year is …

“We will pay off 1/3 of our current debt this year” Two of our longer term financial goals are to be out of debt except for our mortgage and to have enough money in savings to live on for a year by January 1st, 2025. That’s only 6 years from now. This is a really big goal that will stretch us in many ways. It’s scary. Sometimes though, I think it’s the scary ones that end up being the best ones. They get us out of our comfort zones and motivate us to get moving.

We had originally thought that we would try to save the money we need and pay off the debt at the same time but the more we thought about it, the more we realized it wasn’t a smart thing to attempt. There are a few reasons for this.

First, it makes us double minded. I’m always preaching focus and this would split our financial focus in two.

Second, the debt that we have would earn more interest over time than the interest we would gain on what we were saving. So we’ll actually be spending less money to get out of debt by going this route.

Third, we need to make less “extra money” than we would have needed to if we would have tried both goals at the same time. It would require more income to save 1/6 of our yearly salary AND pay off 1/6 of our debt than it does to just pay off 1/3 of our debt. That means that, while still incredibly scary, we can ease into the whole “making more money” thing a little more slowly.

*Side Note: I’ll be very up front with you here. We barely make our budget as it is currently. So we are going to have to just about double my current income if we’re going to meet our financial goals and stay within our budget and fund all the things that are coming up this year and in the years to come. If you have any great ideas on how to do that, I’m definitely listening.

Writing/Business

I feel like this is the goal that will end up fueling our financial goals above. This is the goal that will help my family to reach their goals this year and in the years to come. Most importantly, this is the goal that will allow me to fund my writing’s mission of helping people live better lives. Lives of passion, mission, and purpose. To make that happen …

“I will turn my writing into a business this year” This is the main overarching goal of many small goals I have with my writing this year. I’ll lay all my cards out on the table for you: I don’t want to put undo pressure on something that doesn’t even exist yet, but I feel like this writing thing has to work. It just has to. I am praying big prayers and dreaming big dreams and expecting big things. Outside of my full-time job I am putting all of my eggs in this basket. I quite literally have to pull off being successful as a writer over the next 6 years.

I want to go ahead and list out a few of my smaller goals under this larger goal just so that you can see what we’re cooking up. This is going to be a big year, friends.

• “I will write and publish 1 blog post per week”
• “I will guest post in other places at least 6 times this year”
• “I will start an email newsletter by the end of Q1”
• “I will write two ebooks this year”
• “I will create and launch a 5-day email course this year”
• “I will write a book this year”

“Okay, what? Did he just say he’s going to write a book?”

Yeah, I did. I’ll be honest. I didn’t want to write that one down. But … here’s the conversation I had with God as I was processing this:

Me: “Do I really have to write this one down?” God: “Yep! Isn’t it exciting!” Me: “Actually, it’s horribly frightening. I think I might be sick.” God: “Yeah, there’s that too. But it’s exciting!”

So there it is. My biggest goal of the year in 7 words. I’ve known that I have a book (maybe multiple books) inside of me for a while now. I just didn’t know what they were and I was afraid to find out. I didn’t want to just start writing (which is what I felt like I needed to do). If you know me then you know that I pretty much want to have all the answers before I start anything. What I’ve found though is that just by starting to write, just marching out in faith, that God has shown me what it is that I need to write about. The more I write, the more ideas I get. Which is scary for the guy who has been fighting this whole writing thing for a pretty long time now.

I have no idea how long the book will be. I have no idea if anyone out there would even want to publish it. But I don’t think that’s really the point. I think the point is the writing. The publishing and all that can (and I believe it will) come later.

All By Myself vs. Better Together

I can’t do all of this on my own though. That would be an impossible task. Whether it’s writing, getting my finances in order, becoming a healthier version of myself, or any of the other things that are on my list of things to accomplish, I know that I need others to be involved if I have any chance of succeeding.

First, I need God. I believe that God is in this and that He has already blessed it. I know in my heart that writing is my next step and a mission that He has placed in front of me for this time.

I need my family to be on board. Heather is my biggest supporter and the first person to ever tell me that I should write. She is also my business partner and fellow adventurer. She is wise and a perfect compliment to my weaknesses. We make a great team.

I also need all of you. I literally will not be able to pull this off without you. Hopefully you find what I write to be helpful and encouraging. If you read what I write then you are already a part of my team. You are my tribe, my people. I want to thank you right now for helping make this dream of becoming a writer a reality.

These are the largest of my goals for 2019 and as you can see, it’s going to be a big year. I have many small goals in lots of areas, but these 3 are the main ones I will be spending the majority of my time and effort on.

I want to thank you for coming along on this ride with me. It means the world that you would read anything that I write. I’m super excited to have you along as my team and my accountability partners. I’ll keep you updated on the progress we make throughout the year.

Lastly, I hope that you will take some time over the next few weeks to set some direction for your year and what you want to accomplish. Without vision, the people perish, the Bible says. Set some vision for your life. It’s one of the most important things you could possibly do.

I sit down to write and I just stare at the screen, or out the window.

I’ve been up for a couple of hours now and I really thought I could get some good stuff done this morning. Everyone is still sleeping. It’s so quiet. The perfect environment for writing. Yet … nothing is coming out.

I even have a topic to write about, so I’m not lacking for ideas. I just stare. There’s nothing. No motivation right now to get the words I know I need to write onto the page. It’s all just blank up there in my mind.

I think of a task I need to do later and I write it down. Seconds later, another thought: I should reorganize the bookshelves. I’m distracted. Where is this coming from?

So I pray. “God, give me focus and the words to write.”

Slowly, but ever so surely, the fog starts to lift. The words come, but they are sluggish and in a different form than I thought they would be. They are not my words. They are the words of my Father.

“I love you with an everlasting love.”

“My love will never leave you or forsake you.”

“I am with you always … even until the end of all things.”

The love of my Father brings life to my world. He brings words to my heart that I need to hear. Without words to write, I begin to feel like I’ve failed. When you feel like a failure it’s easy to forget that there is Someone who loves you with a love that cannot be described. Love is hard to define in general, but a love like this is a love that words cannot do justice.

So I don’t try. I just soak it all in. I am loved. I am loved by the same One who created the universe. The same hands that gently put the sun, moon, and stars in their places hold my heart. He gently whispers “I care about you more than you can ever know. You’re life matters to me more than the words you write.”

I write those words down so I will not forget them. I pass them on to you so that you will also know this love. A love that is everlasting. A love that will never leave. A love that cares more about you than anything you could ever do.

Soon we will celebrate Christmas.

It is not about packages, boxes, or brand new cars with giant red bows on them. Our society would like us to think it is, but that’s not true.

It is about a gift though. One given to us by a God who loves us with a love that will never end. One that offers us life eternal if we will accept the gift from the Giver.

It’s a love that promises to come again. To come and set up a new Heaven and new Earth. To take away all sorrow and pain. To remove the need for tears of sadness. Division, unrest, and hate will no longer exist. In their places we will experience joy, unity, peace, and love.

At Christmas, we remember the day that the personification of love came into our world. Love that came as a baby in a stable.

It was love that was laid in a manger that night.

We also look forward to the day that the same love that came at Christmas will come again and renew all things. With eager anticipation we wait for the day that Jesus returns and makes all things new.

This is the thrill of hope. A weary world will rejoice on that day.

Come soon, Jesus. We are watching and waiting with bated breath.

I love the fresh, clean feeling of new things, don’t you? Opening up that new laptop for the first time. The sound of the spine creaking as you open a new book. The smell of a freshly opened can of tennis balls.

Hey, don’t judge … you have your thing too.

Outside of the fact that it’s my birthday (🎉), there is just something about January 1st that feels so new. Like that Christmas sweater you are about to receive, it’s got that warm fuzzy feeling without all of the pilling that comes after you’ve washed it a few times. It’s easily one of my favorite days of the year.

Now, if you’ve ever been given the chance to start something over, then you know there is something great about getting another chance to do things right. For some reason though, it seems we always tend to wait for a particular moment in time before starting over.

“Oh man, I messed that up today. Better luck tomorrow.”

“I need to start that workout program, but not until Monday.”

“Well, I’m not gonna hit that goal this month. I might as well just cash it in and try again next month.”

The start of a new day, week, or month somehow represents the chance to start over. I’ve never heard anyone say “Darn, I screwed that up. I guess I’ll start over at 2:00 on Tuesday.”

End the Trend

So if it’s true that we tend to wait for a particular moment in time to start over, then why is it that the majority of people no longer set New Years resolutions? January 1st is the start of a brand new year. It seems like a great time to start something over again, doesn’t it?

In researching this topic I performed a complex, highly-scientific study (okay … it was a Facebook poll) to determine whether people still set goals for the New Year. 60% of respondents said that they no longer set goals because they were boring and useless. The majority of people believe that setting goals is a waste of time and no longer worth the paper they write them down on.

I believe what’s happened is that we’ve given up on setting goals because we think setting goals doesn’t work. We’ve tried them and failed so it must be the goals that are the problem.

First of all, failure is normal. Let me go ahead and address that elephant in the room right now. You’re going to fail. You’re aren’t always going to reach your goals. There are many different reasons for this. Just know that it can and will happen. Knowledge is power.

Next, if you’ve tried setting a bunch of different goals and have failed at reaching all of them, I’d ask you to look at the common denominator in all of those goals. That’s you, by the way. Maybe the problem isn’t with setting goals, maybe the problem is you.

“But you don’t know my life!”

You’re right. But as someone who has tried and failed many, many times to lose weight and get in shape I can tell you that 100% of the time it was because of me.

It’s not the workout program. All the workout programs I have on my shelf work. I just don’t want to put in the time it takes to do them. I don’t want to feel uncomfortable. I don’t want to sweat or be sore.

It’s also not the restriction of the diet. I just want that hamburger and French fries (and Diet Coke) more than I want a salad. I want to eat something fried more than I want to eat the broccoli.

I want the results of the goal without having to put in what it takes to get there.

So you see, it’s not the goal, it’s me. It’s unfair to yourself and to the goal to say that the goal isn’t right or that goals in general no longer work. If I don’t work at my goals, my goals won’t work for me.

This trend can end today. You can stop blaming your goals and start setting the right ones. You can have your best year ever. Here’s how.

The Anatomy of a Goal

First things first, goals get a bad rap because we don’t know how to set good ones. We say things like “I want to be a millionaire,” “I want to read more” or “I want to lose weight.” We think these are good goals, but they’re not.

The problem isn’t that these statements aren’t worthy of being true. Being a millionaire would be awesome! The problem is that these aren’t goals, they’re dreams. They lack vision, action, and anything that would encourage you or keep you on the path to accomplishing them.

One method of goal setting that I’m particularly fond of says that goals should be S.M.A.R.T. These kinds of goals are:

• Specific: What exactly do you want to achieve?
• Measurable: How can you track this?
• Achievable: Is this something you can actually accomplish?
• Relevant: Does this goal make sense for you in your life right now?
• Time-Bound: What’s the deadline?

There is such a big difference between saying “I want to lose weight” and “I want to lose 5 pounds per month for the next 12 months by eating healthy meals and working out 6 days per week.” The former is a dream. The latter is a plan of action.

Breaking down your dreams into S.M.A.R.T. goals creates smaller, more achievable steps that are simpler and more likely to be accomplished over time.

Beware Goal Fatigue

A lot of the time our goals get set by the wayside because we just get tired of chasing after them. Goals like the weight loss one above are awesome and they allow you to keep your goals small and achievable. But what happens when you’re 5 months and 25 pounds in (which is awesome, by the way) and you are just tired of eating kale and grilled chicken? You’re tired of checking a box after every workout … do I really have to keep doing this?

This is goal fatigue. You get bored of doing the same old thing day after day. This is when you start entertaining ideas like working out more or eating less so that you hit your goal sooner. You might start thinking about giving up on your goal. You’ve made it this far and that’s pretty good, right? Perhaps you could just stop tracking it.

Whatever the case is, goal fatigue is real and it’s probably going to happen. When it does, this is a chance to revisit your goal and remember your “why.” Why did you choose this goal in the first place? Deep down inside, why do you want this? Over the long haul it is only this “why” that will keep you dialed in and able to keep pushing through when things seem tough or boring.

You also have the opportunity here to change some things up. Do your tracking differently, at a different time or place. Try something that is still related to your goal but that makes you feel like you’re doing something different. Coming up with different ways to do the same thing allows your mind to think and your body to react in different ways than you’re used to. Doing this helps the goal feel fresh and new once again.

Plan for the Unplanned

Life itself is probably the biggest culprit when it comes to not achieving the goals we set for ourselves. Things happen that we haven’t planned for and it throws us off of our neatly planned schedule we created when we made our goals.

This is my personal Achilles’ heel. This is one of the hardest ones for me because once I’m off my schedule it’s so hard for me to get back on it. The instant I miss something I feel like a failure and that I can’t go on or I need to start over again. I so easily forget that I’ve already been making progress and that I can just pick back up again from where I was before life threw me a curve ball. I really can start again at 2:00 on Tuesday.

Life will happen. Things will come up. The more prepared you are for that, the better the chances are that you’ll see your goals succeed.

The Bible says that “where there is no vision, the people perish” (Proverbs 29:18). We’ve got to have a vision and plan for our lives. There is real, actual danger (the people perish!) in just letting life take us wherever it wants to go.

We should be the ones telling our lives where they should go. It is possible for us to have goals and plans that can actually be achieved and aren’t just useless wastes of time.

Make S.M.A.R.T. goals. Do what you can to avoid goal fatigue. Understand that life will happen … and that’s okay because you’ve planned for it and you know what you’re going to do when it does.

Remember that at the end of the day, it’s not our goals that are the problem. If we’re willing to put in a little work up front and continue that work throughout the year, we really can have the best, most productive year we’ve ever had.

“Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”

— Howard Thurman

I know, I know. Another post about finding our passions? Another plea for us to start living our best life? Again with this quote?

Yeah.

But why? Why another one?

Because we need to be reminded. In the hustle and bustle of our daily lives it’s so easy to forget that we were created for a purpose. In the midst of work, family, friends, bills, and all the other things that are a part of our lives, we don’t remember that we actually have desires. Our hearts tend to push aside the truth that there are things our Creator put inside of us so that “we might have life, and have it to the full.”

He gave us passions, desires, and dreams that are meant to make us come alive.

I know some people hate quotes like these. They feel like empty platitudes meant to get us to buy some stock photo and hang it on our wall.

Not me. I love these quotes. They can snap me out of the everyday grind and cause my mind to think in ways it hasn’t in a while. My eyes, having been blinded by the rut of life that I’m in, are once again opened to the world around me.

They make me want more out of life than I currently have. Not more things. This isn’t about possessions. This is about not letting life sweep me along in its current. It’s desiring more from me and for me.

These quotes have the power to awaken something, long since dormant, inside my heart. Things I thought were dead are once again raised to life.

So let me ask you. What makes you come alive?

To answer this question, I mean, to really answer this question, will require all that we have. This isn’t “Oh what do I feel like doing today?” This is “What is my soul telling me about my life?” To truly answer this question will take all of our strength and wisdom. It will take perseverance. We will need courage.

Courage to trek into the dark depths of our hearts. To go to the places where we have hidden away our desire in an effort to be productive, to not rock the boat, or to protect ourselves.

We will have to gear up and climb the mountain of our soul. It’s an arduous and dangerous quest that will require everything of us. It will take all of our strength and wisdom, courage and perseverance. Maybe a little cunning.

We will have to give up time and create space in which to search. We will think that time could be better spent getting things done. We will have to find a way to get out of our normal routine because our hearts don’t live there. We will have to fight the natural tendency to want to “get this over with.” The chances are that the desires you’ve spent your whole life burying won’t just pop out of the ground the first time you say “Come forth.”

The journey to find the life set before you and planned for you from before the creation of the world is a dangerous, treacherous, and sometimes frightening journey. Digging into your heart always is. But it’s a journey worth taking.

The effort you will need to expend to find your desires is worth it. You may come out bloody or beaten. You may even get some cool scars to show off to your friends. But in the end you will be able to say that you found life. That is worth whatever price you have to pay.