I have ministry goals, health goals, financial goals, fishing goals, hunting goals, house goals, car and pick up goals, personal growth goals, marriage goals, kid goals, grandkid goals, bicycle goals, mountain climbing goals, sky diving goals, exercise goals, and travel goals, to mention a few. My goals help me balance my life, they help me budget my time, they help me budget our money, they help me prioritize my life, they motivate me to do more, to work harder, they stimulate me to plan ahead, they are a key to saying ”no” to things outside my goal package, the writing process as I plan my new goals stimulates my creative thinking, the writing, dreaming process also motivates me to do things I have never done before. Reading past years goals that I have accomplished gives me a great sense of accomplishment, and they are a great tool for helping me discern God’s will for my life.

Very few goals go as planned in my head and on paper, there are almost always a host of barriers that pop up that have to be overcome, conquered, solved, and often major adjustments have to be made. Goal barriers can cause a lot of discouragment to the point that we quit setting goals and having dreams. There isn’t much that is as painful as the ”death of a vision.”

This COVID thing has been a major ”mess up” for a bunch of my goals. I have had to make major adjustments, and changes to a number of my most prized goals, even abandoning a few. But that is life, you figure it out, make mid-flight adjustments, and put the gas peddle back down on the floor.

When the first two of our eight kids we’re still little Patty and I went to a ”Child Raising Seminar”. In the seminar one of the speakers taught this principle, ”The best parenting tool available for parents who want to raise champions who love to win is camping, because when you go camping, everything that can go wrong does, and then you can teach your kids how to overcome problems, barriers, and emergencies. You can not only teach them how to conquer the barriers, make adjustments, sometimes even changing their goals because of them, you can also teach them to enjoy the process and the challenge. Kids that grow up knowing how to overcome the unexpected and not get uptight and frustrated in the process are very rare, and do very well in every area of life.”

All eight of our kids are ”overcomers” in attitude and character. They deal with life, solve problems, make adjustments, maintain their joy and positive attitude, and grow closer to God in the process.

One example is Sherri. She graduated from Multnomah Bible College and went to Liberia, West Africa as a missionary. While there she met Thomas, a Liberian, fell in love, and got married, doubly married, they got married in Jefferson and again in Africa. Their goal was to be life long missionaries to Liberia, a very noble goal, but while they were in the States so Thomas could get his U.S. Citizenship, he had a farming accident and broke his neck, paralyzing him, and putting him in a wheelchair. Liberia is not a handicap friendly country, and it would be very difficult for a wheelchair bound person to function. So they have made some major adjustments and refocusing of their dreams and ambitions for their lives. It has been a joy for me to watch as they deal with the unexpected, make adjustments, and maintain their joy and trust in the Lord. They have their down times, but they are like a volley ball being held under the water, it isn’t long before they pop back-up.

A major principle of life is, ”The more difficulties that God can bring into our life without us derailing, the more usable we become for Him.”

One last benefit of goal setting, ”those who set noble goals and pursue them, dealing with the barriers as they come up, become very tough people, sort of like camping.

I say ”again” because I have written a blog by this title on many occasions, most often right after hunting season is over and I didn’t kill anything. Basically the theme of this blog and others with the same title is how do you manage the disappointment of unrealized goals. I know so many people who don’t set goals because they can’t manage the disappointment and pain of feeling like a failure when they come up short on their goals. Most who have stopped setting goals or have never even gotten started setting them justify it with statements like, ”I am just going to trust the Lord and see what He decides to do”, or ”that’s just not my temperament, ” or ”I don’t like the pressure that goal setting adds to my life, ” and many accurately acknowledge the fact that ”the failure to accomplish their goals makes them feel like a loser.”

Goal setting certainly isn’t a requirement in life, most people don’t set specific, measurable, written down goals for their life, so if you don’t, you are in the majority. It is much easier to just ”go with the flow, ” rather then take the time to think through what you really want to do and accomplish with your life, write them out, read them regularly, and focus most of your mental and physical energy, and resources on accomplishing them.

Goal setting is much more of a skill than it is a gift or a temperament type, and a skill is learned from those who have developed it and by practice. Though it is an option in life, it is a basic fact that those who have developed the skill of goal setting and practice it faithfully will almost always accomplish much more with their life that is meaningful and significant for them than those who don’t. Goal setters are focused, they prioritize their time, energy, and resources.

Back to the problem of failing to accomplish our goals. There are five attitudes that are important to understand and to develop if you want to keep goals from beating you up.

1. A goal is an expression of a desire of my heart, a dream, something I aspire to, not a command, or an obligation. Our flesh rebels against law, and making our goals requirements demotivates us rather than motivating us to greater accomplishments.

2. Our goals, in the way we write them, need to be relatively free of uncontrollable ingredients, that is things that I have little to no control over. My goal is to go archery hunting for a week, and to prepare well so that the chances of killing a deer and an elk is increased. If I don’t kill anything I will evaluate why, and make adjustments in my preparations next year. I will learn to get my enjoyment from the experience and the challenge, which are well within my ability to control.

3. Learn to identify the ”wins” in the pursuit of any goal, the positive elements that brought joy, peace, personal growth, enhanced relationships, excitement, renewed energy, increased skill, and a new experience, which almost always increases our wisdom.

4. Rewrite the goal for next year or the next time it is to be pursued with the adjustments that we have observed will increase the probability of accomplishing it. Nothing reinforces the spirit of goal setting like rewriting them with adjustments made with wisdom learned. It makes goal setting a journey rather than an event.

5. If the joy and enthusiasm of pursuing a specific goal is gone, drop it. There are to many noble goals to pursue to use up our time, energy, and resources on a goal that is no longer a strong desire of our heart.

Archery season isn’t over until September 27th.

I am archery hunting for elk and deer over by La Grande, Oregon with several friends for the next week. Hunting is an activity that I have been involved with since I was 12 years old. I have hunted for deer, black tail, mule, and white tail deer the most, then elk, and I have hunted antelope, black bear, grissly bear, moose, caribou, mountain lion, sage rat, rattle snake, goose, turkey, duck, dove, grouse, pheasant, and this next year I am going pig hunting. I haven’t killed a moose or a grizzly bear yet, but everything else and we ate everything except the sage rats. Even though, over the years, we have eaten a lot of game that I have killed, the value of the meat hasn’t even been close to the amount of money that I have spent over the years on this activity. Guns, bullets, bows, arrows, broad heads, knives, clothes, and a bunch of other ”essentials” to numerous to remember. I have spent many hours in actual hunting and even more in practice and preparation time to help assure that a hunt will be successful. I have made several attempts in the last couple of years to quit hunting because it is getting to be a struggle physically to participate in it, but I keep finding a way to keep up the addiction. It could be the thing I am doing when I fall over with a heart attack. I quit trying to figure out the psychology of it all year’s ago go, and simple acknowledge the fact that I enjoy hunting very much, and that it is one of the activities in my life that helps keep me sane, balanced, happy, energized, and passionate. I am not addicted to alcohol, drugs, porn, gambling, video games, television, just hunting and fishing. I suppose I could start a support group, but it wouldn’t be to try and quiet, just an excuse to get together with other hunting and fishing addicts and tell stories and show off pictures. I am a happy, fulfilled 72 year old man who has lived a full and good life, and hunting has been a key reason why.