Tag Archives: Goals

Goals, One Word: Blessing

The Blessing of: Motivation

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One Word 365

Myoneword

My One Word for 2014 is: Blessing

 

The Blessing of Motivation

Motivation

noun \ˌmō-tə-ˈvā-shən\

1.: the act or process of giving someone a reason for doing something : the act or process of motivating someone

2.: the condition of being eager to act or work : the condition of being motivated

3.: a force or influence that causes someone to do something

(Webster’s Dictionary)

 

The word motivation is used often, but I’m not really sure that too many people know what the word means. People use expressions like, “You lack motivation”, “You just need a little bit of motivation”, or they are less polite and say things like “You’re lazy”, “You’re useless”.

As a person with ADHD, I hear about motivation a lot because apparently people without ADHD think we have none thanks to issues with Executive Function. This couldn’t be any further from the truth, but I’ll save that topic for another day. ADHD looks different in everyone’s life, but I can honestly say motivation plays a huge role in my personal pursuits, but not in the workplace. In the workplace if something needs to get done, well… I just get it done. I may not be fueled by energy and excitement, but I get my work done.

I encounter too many people who think that motivational sayings and inspirations are only needed for people with struggles in achieving goals, depression, ADHD or laziness. Well, not so! I realized that the bulk of motivational quotes that I use come from uber successful people.

Words of strength and encouragement are not for the weak; they are for people who know that they will have challenges to face on a daily basis. Daily challenges might not be major and life threatening, but it’s not a smart idea to wait until something catastrophic happens. It’s for people who know that they have to get from one place to another with a positive and healthy outlook. Those who feed their mind motivational thoughts have something to remember and draw from when things become unstable. If you don’t have a habit of motivational thinking, when life becomes overwhelming for whatever reason, you end up falling apart with no words and memories of comfort to lift you up.

There might not always be another person to lift you up with words of truth, strength, and encouragement. People lead busy lives and waiting all day for your friends and family to finish work and be available to talk is a long period of time to be without uplifting words. I believe it is important for us to have our own memory bank filled with honest words to comfort and guide us.

I meditate on various motivational quotes and I am able to draw on them when I am about to do something challenging, new, fearful or sometimes when I am about to do something exciting and fun! However, I do caution people to be realistic with quotes, for example the popular quote that states, “You can become whatever you choose to do!”; well… unfortunately, no you can’t!

Motivational materials are a blessing because someone else has decided to share with others their successful mindset and skills. Others are passing along blessings of well wishes and assistance in order to help individuals become the best that they can be. All of these people could have been exclusive by sharing their wisdom with only close friends and loved ones, instead, they chose to go beyond their tightest circles.

I encourage you to receive the blessings of motivation by learning how others have made it to where they are at today.

QUESTIONS TO ASK YOURSELF:

-Do you have motivational sayings and words that you regularly meditate on?

-Do you depend exclusively on friends and family to bring you words of encouragement? How do you act and what do you start believing when there is no one around to uplift you?

 

Follow good counsel!
Follow good counsel!

APPLICATION:

-If you don’t already have a few motivational quotes and bible verses, try to find some. The internet is filled with motivational quotes websites. You can even take lines from novels or books that you’ve read and use them for motivation.

-If you already have quotes and verses, that’s great. Review them again and see if there are any other new or former material you might want to meditate on for any specific upcoming events (e.g. College, new job, decision making, new goals, etc.)

-Place the motivational quotes and scriptures in places where you will see them and repeat them: wall, fridge, bathroom mirror, on your smartphone, as a wall paper on your computer screen, on your daily to-do list, on your day planner/calendar.

Meditate
Meditate

 

Goals

Shoulda’, Woulda’, Coulda’

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The year is almost half-way through. Hard to believe some days. Retailers have already put out mid-way to Christmas flyer advertisements. As an Albertan, I don’t really want to think about Christmas during the very short time that we are free from freezing cold temperatures and the white stuff.

Something else I didn’t want to think about, but can’t avoid is the personal mid-year review. If you wrote New Year’s resolutions (NYR) back in January, this is the time to do a bit of self-inventory if you haven’t already given up.

I didn’t make any NYR because I knew that I would likely fail at even remembering them, so I decided instead to do the One Word focus for 2014. The “one word” I chose was “Blessing”. I have had an amazingly spiritual time focusing on the word and seeing how it plays out in my life.

Even if you didn’t make any goals for your life this year, don’t be afraid to stop and take inventory of how your year has been going so far.

Was there something you had wished to do this year? It doesn’t have to be a major life changing goal, it can actually be as simple as a wish that you’d like to make come true such as: taking a weekend trip to Las Vegas, having a weekend getaway without your kids, joining a bible study group, building a new deck, growing a garden, etc.

This week I quit my job. I enjoyed my job, but the drama llama’s at work were causing my enjoyable job to no longer be worth the frustration and emotional toll that it was taking on me.  As a few of my professional peers (not my co-workers) had told me, when the only thing an aging woman has in her life is a job she doesn’t enjoy, she is more likely to be a gossiper, a trouble maker, and underachiever and unnecessarily competitive with other women who do have a life outside of work. I believe this 100%.

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This is what happens to people when you “didn’t”.

It’s not too late now. I encourage you to take some time to rest and think of some things you’d like to do. Again, they don’t have to be major life changing goals. The year is half-way through and I’d hate to hear that another year passed without you having let a few of your wishes come true. Let’s not ring-in the New Year in 2015 with a long list of: shoulda’, coulda’, woulda’ but didn’t!

Thoughts
Source: oliviasellke

 

Goals

2014: God’s New Year’s Resolution

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2014Target

2014 Spiritual Resolutions         

Happy 2014!

I hesitated on starting the 2014 with a blog post about the new year or the traditional topic of new year’s resolutions. I felt guilty about writing on the subject of creating goals and making resolutions, because 2014 began completely off track for me.

I don’t make New Year’s resolutions, I no longer believe in them. I used to start each year with a list of habits I was going to change, goals I was going to achieve and everything else I had expected to successfully accomplish that year. Each year I failed to commit to my resolutions and any of them that were achieved happened by chance, and were not intentional.

By February of each year, I had usually forgotten what my resolutions were to begin with.  During my undergraduate years, I developed a habit of reviewing my goals and commitments every September, January and May; the start of new semesters in our school calendar. With each review I realised how much I had failed to accomplish what I had set out to do.

In December 2013 I sat at my desk each day reading multiple business books, time-management books, books on life management for adult ADHD and books on S.M.A.R.T. goal achievements. Multiple Amazon purchases later, I realized that what was missing from my goal planning was God.

Proverbs 16: 2-3 (NIV)

“All a person’s ways seem pure to them, but motives are weighed by the LORD. Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and He will establish your plans.”

I naively made my plans, not realizing that all our plans need to be surrendered to God and offered for His blessing.

God Has A Plan

I’m not going to give you tips on how to make and keep New Year’s resolutions, but I will encourage you to give all your plans and goals to God, no matter what time of the year you make them. Seek first and foremost the will of God and remember the individual gifts, talents and callings He has blessed you with. Let these be your guide when you make goals for yourself.

  • Start with prayer, asking God what He would like you to accomplish for this year.
  • Ask God’s Holy Spirit to speak into your life as a guide to where you should be headed with your life.

Pray for a revelation of what might be preventing you from being able to achieve your goals. Could it be poor time management, envy, discouragement, laziness, disorganization, not caring about life, waiting for luck to find you? Are you waiting on God to make some miraculous cloud separating, thunder n’ lightning bolt revelation? Well you might be waiting for a while, because God rarely works with this method. You are more likely to be able to discern God leading you when you take time to be in His presence; praying, quietly and patiently as you follow his promptings.

APPLICATION:

When it comes to spiritual discipline and personal development; I firmly believe that each person has to find a method that works for them. We all have different learning styles, personalities and life circumstances. Thankfully there are plenty of resources available for Christians who want to develop their spiritual formation and make personal changes. Gathering books and DVD’s can become costly after only a few purchases, so if you are not in  a financial position to own a library of material, there are other options. Free resources are available at your local public library, your church library, joining a small group study at your church, and free resources from websites.

“You cannot fulfill God’s purposes for your life while focusing on your own plans. ” 
― Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here for?

My prayer for you, is that 2014 will be a year of inviting God to be a part of all your goals, hopes and dreams. Blessings!

2014