The Six Steps of Goal Setting

With God's help, here are six important steps to help you create your desired future.


STEP ONE : Focus your thinking.  Determine the specific goals you want to achieve in the next six to twelve months.  Be specific.  If you can't measure it, how will you ever know if you get there?  If you've never set goals before, it might be best to set just one or two to start out.  Break all your goals down into small, manageable pieces.  Remember, Rome wasn't built in a day, so don't try to change your whole life overnight.  Take it one day at a time.


STEP TWO : Develop a written plan for achieving each goal and deadline for the attainment of each.  Get together with God and pray over each goal.  You can use the scriptures and prayers following this essay as a starting point.  Set deadlines that are reasonable and achievable.  This will keep you from becoming discouraged.


STEP THREE : Develop a sincere desire to accomplish the things God has called you to do.  A burning desire is the greatest motivator of every human action.  Again, remember what Paul said in Philippians 3:14, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.  Get excited about your own high calling and press toward it.


STEP FOUR : Continue to develop an unshakable confidence in God.  You are what the Bible says you are, you have what the Bible says you have, and you can do what the Bible says you can do!  Find those scriptures that fit your need and stand on them. Speak them out loud frequently.  


STEP 5 : Take action and follow through on your plan regardless of obstacles , criticism and circumstances or what other people say, think and do.  Utilize sustained effort, controlled attention and concentrated energy.  Don't give up the fight.


STEP 6 : Set a B.A.B. (Base Acceptable Bottom) for each of your goals.  Say to yourself "This is the very least I will do in this specific time frame". You can't start where someone else is. You can only start where you are right now.  Set a base acceptable bottom.  




-From the book Dare to Succeed by Van Crouch