Season: 10 Episode: 150
Listen to episode 146 in Spanish:
Summary:
Do you make new year’s resolutions? Most resolutions are forgotten by the third week of January. There is a better way to make lasting and positive changes and it all starts with goal setting and planning for success. For the Christian, Shanda talks about how to make goals in the three areas of Matthew 22:37: mind, body, and soul. She gives you tips on how to plan for their success and what you can do to take Bible study and studying new concepts to a deeper level. This episode will get your new year started off on the right track!
Quotables:
Recommended Resources:
Cross Examined Article: Is Teaching Your Kids About God Child Abuse?
Website: shandafulbright.com
Instagram and Facebook: @shandafulbright
Email: hello@shandafulbright.com
YouTube: Shanda Fulbright
Wow! 2024, you snuck up on us! Since we’re heading into a new year, I want to discuss setting goals and what it takes to make real changes in life. A new year is always a great opportunity to set goals and put the effot into making them a reality. I have never been one to make new years resolutions. I haven’t been into them, so it’s not like that’s something I’ve done before, but I do set goals every year and I’ll talk to you about what that looks like.
There’s still time to join the online classes we have at OCC and even the one I’m offering – Baseline Apologetics. I am teaching LGR for middle schoolers in just a couple of weeks so if you have a student in the 6th-8th grade, sign them up for this amazing class. You can also go to shandafulbright.com to check out what we have going on there.
Okay, so what is the difference between a new years resolution and a goal? We’re going to start with that quesion before we even begin to talk about goal setting and all that.
Second, what are some areas in your life you want to set some goals in?
Third, what is the outlook we should have as we get ready to face 2024, which is also an election year and those can sometimes get a bit crazy.
The difference between a goal and a resolution.
A goal is “the object of a person’s ambition or effort; an aim or desired result.”
A resolution is “a firm decision to do or not to do something.”
Do you see why I don’t make resolutions? I mean, it might work out that you can decide to do or not do something, but if that’s the case, why wait until the new year to do the thing you should do? If it’s just about decision making, it shouldn’t be that hard, right?
But goals are different because you have to work toward them. You aim for something and that means it’s probably not just something you decide to do or not do, it’s something you have to plan to achieve in order to be successful.
I like goals better.
But it’s not enough to just make a goal to do or not do something. That’s just hte first step. The next step is to put a plan in place to accomplish the goal.
Ok, so let’s talk about some things we should make goals for in life and then talk about how to plan for them.
I set goals for:
- Spiritual goals – what do i want to study this year? Lately, I’ve been looking into different Bible studies that will take me deeper and I haven’t yet found one. I do like the Life Change Bible Series and it is something I’ll probably do but I want to plan it for the entire year. So, my goal is to go deeper, my plan is to choose the right studies and bible plan to make that happen. That is happening now. I am not going to wait until January to plan it.
- I make physical goals. I workout about 4 days a week and I take long walks. I’ll keep doing that, but I used to drink a lot of water and take vitamins. I want to incorporate hald my body weight in ounces per day, so I already got a cup with ounces on the side so I know how many of those I have to drink per day and I already started it. I’m not waiting until January, I started it in December. I have ezceme really bad lately and I just need hydration anway. I already bought the multi-vitamins and omega 3’s so I started taking those too.
- I plan to write another curriculum next year on worldview so I have already begun to outline and get my books ready. Do you see how I set the goal but it does not come without a plan? A goal without a plan is a resolution waiting to die on January 21st. Don’t set a goal without planning the success of it.
Okay, so what goals do you want to set?
Do you want to be more consistent in your prayer life this year? How about reading the Bible daily? Do you want to lose weight, walk, workout more? Great! I would choose about 3 different goals, one for each area of life, and write those down first. Then, you have to plan for them. What do you need to be ready on day 1? I’m a planner by nature. I schedule everything and I annoy my family. The only thing I don’t plan are my days off. Then I’m like, don’t set an alarm, don’t fill up my day, let me sleep in and do what I want to do. But if it’s not a day off, it is scheduled. If that is not your nature, do you know what will help you? Planning. I know that sounds weird but it’s true. Just create a plan for a schediule so you will be successful meeting your goals.
If you don’t, you won’t succeed. I learned this in teaching. We had to set a goal for our students and then we had to plan what we needed to teach in order to get them there. What did they need to be successful? You can’t just say, I want my kids to learn how to add today and then show up without a plan. It’s not going to happen. Goal setting is good but without a plan it’s going to fail and you’re going to feel like failure.
If you need three areas to set goals in, here are some ideas:
- Spiritual – Prayer and reading the Bible. What are you doing now and how can you take that to the next level? Are you just reading the Bible? How to you begin to study it? Are you doing devotionals only? How do you go deeper in Bible studies? Find a few studies you want to do, plan for that and put it in place.
- Intellectual – What do you want to learn more about this year? Study more? Read? If it’s apologetics, considering taking Baseline Apologetics or even IDHEF with Dr. Turek in January. Read a few apologetics books like IDHEF, Cold Case Christianity, Another Gospel, Total Truth, Tactics. We should focus on loving God with our minds and plan to start and finish these courses.
- Physical – What do you want to do this year with you physical health? This will help you with anxiety, stress, and taking care of yourself. Do you want to run more? Do you want to incorporate 3 days a week of workouts? What 3 days are best for you that you know you can accomplish this goal? Do you want to cut the sugar? How can you do that with your daily choices and cut back? Maybe cut out all sugary drinks and save the sugar for a cookie or even some yogurt or something.
All of these goals touch on the mind, body, and soul.
Reading is good for you because reading the right books will make you a better thinker and speaker. It will help you articulate better.
So just remember that setting goals is great but you have to have a plan if you want to be successful. We talked about planning to succeed but part of planning to succeed is to plan for the hinderances that will get in the way to sabotage those goals.
For example, I get up early so if I’m tired, that will tempt me to hit snooze on my clock. I never hit snooze because it makes me more tired anyway, but I had to learn that. Also, just a little tip about being tired, you will always feel tired when you’re awakened by the alarm clock. But only for about 3-5 minutes. So just push through the tired and get up. But being tired is a hinderance, right?
So plan to go to be earlier.
If you want to eat better, if you eat out all the time for the sake of convenience, that is going to sabatoge your goals. So you have to consider meal prepping or at least planning what kinds of food to eat out – like poke bowls with no sauce, or maybe a healthier option, but plan for it and consider the hinderances in your plans.
My husband has set aside monday nights to mentor our boys and listen to their goals and what kinds of decisions they need to make to progress toward them, and he has them list 3 things they have to change in order to accomplish a goal. For example, if you want to save more money, then what are 3 things you need to change in order to accomplish that? Do you have to cancel some subscriptions? Stop buying lattes 5 times a week and make your own at home or only buy one on Fridays? Think of three things you have to do in order to accomplish your goal and try and set hard deadlines so you make the decision quickly. Othewise, you will procrastinate.
How should we approach 2024?
2023 has been an eventful year already. I stay up to date on current events because I believe we need to watch and pray like Jesus commanded us and part of that is to be aware of what’s happening in the culture.
Things have been really unusual since 2020. In 3 1/2 years time, we’ve experienced Covid, racial tension escalate, the rise of transgenderism in society where men are dominating women’s sports, the invasion of Israel by the terrorist group Hamas which brought the rise of anti-semtism around the world and our own country. Things are amping up and the unrest is real.
2024 is an election year.
That means things are only going to get more intense and you will see language like “Christian nationalism” like never before because that’s what the left is running on. Christians are seen as oppressive and you will be met with challenges. What do we do?
First, we must remember that God is in control. He doesn’t want us to worry about tomorrow. God has promised to never leave us nor forsake us. He has promised to take care of us. We must remember that He is sovereign and that means that everything that happens He has allowed. Nothing is out of His control. That is comforting. So go into 2024 trusting Him.
Second, go into 2024 with the determnation to pray.
Pray for yourself, your family, your church, your community and set your mind being a disciple and discipling others – especially your children and your family. We have to be intentional and on mission for Jesus and the Great Commission in Matthew 28:19 is for all believers. That is what we are to do before Jesus comes. So if you’re in the home, good. If you’re taking care of your family, overseeing the doctors appointments, the homework, volunteering in the classroom, reading the bible to the kids, praying with them, going to church on sundays and even teaching a sunday school class or vonuteering in other ways – stay the course. Don’t get discouraged.
In other words, trust the Lord and stay the course.
Psalm 37:3-7 reminds us of what we are to do here on earth. It says, “Trust in the LORD, and do good; Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness. Delight yourself also in the LORD, And He shall give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the LORD, Trust also in Him, And He shall bring it to pass. He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light, And your justice as the noonday. Rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for Him; Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way, Because of the man who brings wicked schemes to pass.”
The wickedness of man will continue.
But we are not to fret over them. To fret means to be visibly worried. We are to wait for the, dwell in the land and do good. When our desires align to God’s will, He will fulfill those desires as we voice them in prayer.
We balance out living this life with God as our strength, knowing He is faithful, and we continue to take care of those He has entrusted in our care.
Close:
I want to close this out by encouraging you not to worry about tomorrow. I listened to the audio of a reel from someone the other day who basically said in 100 years from now it’ll be 2123. We’ll all be gone. Our kids won’t even be here anymore and who knows about our grand kids. Either way, the houses we live in will be either occupied by others or torn down because things don’t last. The cars we drive, expensive or not, will be outdated and probably looked at as classics by those who look back, just like we look back at those 100 years ago and see how what we have is so much more technologiclly advanced. She also asked, “How many of us even know our grandpa’s grandpa? Once we pass away, we might be thought about and remembered for a few years and maybe even by the next generation, but we won’t really be remembered.
What’s the point?
What are you worrying about that doesn’t even matter? What are you investing in that is fading away and you can’t hold onto it anyway?
When you think about it like that, it really puts things into perspective. 1 Corinthians 3:10-13 says, “10 By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as a wise builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should build with care. 11 For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, 13 their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work. 14 If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward. 15 If it is burned up, the builder will suffer loss but yet will be saved—even though only as one escaping through the flames.”
What is Paul saying?
Christians building on the foundation of Christ – the works we do in life – if they are built on Christ and are lasting (eternal) will be proven to be just that. But if they are not, they will not last because every work of the Christian will be tested with fire. That doesn’t mean we can’t drive cars and build houses, but it does mean that what we do and invest in, if built on the foundation of Christ, will outlast us because even though others might forget us or might not remember all we’ve done, it doesn’t go unnoticed before God.
Be diligent to make goals that will help build a lasting impact for the kingdom and face 2024 with a trust in God that He will see you through and be with you. I hope this episode encouraged you. If you have any questions for me, email me at hello@shandafulbright.com and I’ll catch you on the next one in 2024.
Leave a Reply