Last time, in our quest to motivate and inspire each other to live on purpose in great health for the glory of God, we developed our life vision as well as goals we want to achieve by the end of the year. I hope you had fun doing that!

Well, I don’t want to be a wet blanket, but most of you won’t reach your goal and will end up feeling down about it or even worse than when you started. How dreadful! Why is that?

Most people start out with the well-intentioned goals that I came across recently of:

• “I will eat better.”
• “I will get in better shape.”
• “I will become more spiritual.”

Yes, that is a start. But it doesn’t rally the troops, does it? I bet a couch or a potato chip could easily defeat these vague goals, don’t you? So let’s work a bit harder and think how we can make our goals:

1.  Specific and challenging: Eliminate weak words such as more or better. What on earth do they mean anyway?

2. Trackable: At the end of the day, how will you know you achieved your goal? What is your system to track victories and learn, adjust and move forward from obstacles? No tracking system = no victory.

3. Build Confidence: 1-10 how confident are you that you can achieve your goal? If it is less than a “7” the goal might beat you up and spit you out. Instead of all or none, consider setting levels of goals such as what would be “good,” “better,” and “best?”

Case in point. Kerri moved from the unmotivating “eating better” to “My goal is to eat 5 fruits and veggies per day in order to be healthier and have more energy.”

Good = 3/day for a total of 108 for 12 weeks.

Better = 4/day for a total of 144 for 12 weeks.

Best = 5/day for a total of 180 for 12 weeks.

See the difference? She went from a goal that was boring and untrackable to a personal contest she can rally around, fight for and celebrate her well-earned victories that build her confidence and launch her forward into her next 12-week goal.

Britni moved from the yawner of “get in shape” to:

Good week = 20 fruits and veggies and 150 aerobic minutes (30 minutes x 5 days)

Better week = 25fruits and veggies and 200 aerobic minutes (40 minutes x 5 days)

Best week = 30 fruits and veggies and 300 aerobic minutes (60 minutes x 5 days)

That which we focus on and track gets done. The person with the plan is going to win. Britni and Kerri have sure increased their odds of success!

How about you? What is your game? How can you adjust your goals so they are more interesting to you?

Read the Bible in 30 days

Here is my game. I love to read. I highly enjoy getting lost in a book and reading hundreds of pages until my eyeballs hurt. As I was sitting very still outside a few months ago, I got so engrossed in a novel that pigeon landed on my head! Recently I read Francine Rivers “Mark of the Lion” trilogy. Each book was about 450 pages and I gulped them down in 3 weekends. So delicious!

So I got thinking. I looked at my Bible and found out it has 1594 pages. Ok, that is a lot. I am tempted to scream “Too much!” “Too big!” “I can’t do it!” But wait a minute.  If I break it down into pieces that my brain can handle it, I am just looking at a four-part series of about 400 pages each. Now there is hope! I can do that because I have read books this size before! (Note: when your brain starts freaking out STOP! Break the big goal down into pieces that you are “7” confident you can handle. Think of and lean on your past successes. Watch how you move from “no way!” to “I can do that!” It is really amazing.)

Since winging it doesn’t work and gathering data does, I timed myself and found that it takes me 75 seconds to read a page. From their, I formed my goals of:

Good = Read Bible in 30 days. 53 pages per day x 30 days. 1:06 /day.

Better = Read Bible in 21 days. 76 pages per day x 30 days. 1:35/day.

Best = Read Bible in 14 days. 113 pages per day x 30 days. 2:21/day.

I am excited! It went from impossible to I can do this! Now comes the key: planning. What will it take?

1. Set the start date. November 1^st is go time!

2. Schedule the time. Well, from 9-10at night I go zombie and stare at useless TV. 10:00 -10:30 I watch Seinfeld which I have watched so often I think I have it memorized. 10:30-11:00 I watch Leave it to Beaver. The time is there. I just have to want to change what I do during this time. Do I? Yes! Being filled with the word of God will be a welcome alternative! Will it be hard? Yes…I like to go zombie. But for 1 month I am confident I can persist toward this worthwhile goal.

3. Get light: I don’t have an adequate reading light right now and am on the hunt.

4. Get a journal: Each day I will write down what I learned so at the end I will have 30 key points. I am excited about that.

See the difference of typical goals versus goals with some meat? I highly encourage you to make a goal that you care about and then do a little work to break it down into the pieces you need for success and then achieve it by the end of the year and go wild! Amanda had a fun idea of 12 goals by 12-12-12! They were things that matter to her like going to a concert, finishing art pieces and volunteering at a charity. I would love to hear what you come up with and are fighting for. Get after it, Champ!

Jane Birr

Life Coach

Live on Purpose

www.janebirr.com