When I was in the Navy every mission had a detailed flight plan for what we hoped to accomplish.  Are we that proactive about life or do we seem to drift along simply responding to the next crisis?  The tyranny of the urgent can keep you from achieving God’s best for your life.  Goals can help keep you focused and they provide a proper sense of priorities. 

You may be wondering is this a biblical concept?  The Apostle Paul had a number of goals – preeminent among them was knowing God:

that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.  Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus.  Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.  (Philippians 3:10-14)

Goals have a way of pulling us into the future, but they must be goals that come from our heart.  Daniel Pink in his book Drive writes, “Goals that people set for themselves and that are devoted to attaining mastery are usually healthy. But goals imposed by others—sales targets, quarterly returns, standardized test scores, and so on—can sometimes have dangerous side effects.”

What if you have goals but you seem to have lost your passion?  Seth Godin has a great post pointing out the reason for a loss of enthusiasm,” Excitement about goals is often diminished by our fear of failure or the drudgery of work.  If you’re short on passion, it might be because your goals are too small or the fear is too big” (read the rest of his article here).

Still unconvinced about the power of setting goals?  Here is an excellent article on the physiological changes that occur from goal setting entitled, the science of setting goals.  Goals not only help us envision a better future but they change our perception of reality in the present.  I recently read a quotation by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe:

 „Träume keine kleinen Träume, denn sie haben keine Kraft.“

Translation:  “Dream no small dreams, they have no power.”

May you dream big dreams and set big goals and may preeminent among them be knowing God in all of His fullness!  So write down a few goals and make them happen!