How to Accomplish Your Goal

Have you ever tried to accomplish a BIG (or little) goal and then quit?

Me too.

The best way to accomplish your BIG goal is to chop it in small chunks (or take sips, if you will). No doubt you’ve heard this advice. It bears repeating because everyone needs a steady diet of encouragement to reach their goals, whether it is. . .

–saving $1,000

–starting (or revamping) a business or ministry

–ending a destructive relationship

–decluttering your home

–losing 15 pounds

How to Achieve Your BIG Goal

1. Decide what it is and be specific. An example: Save $1,000 in six months. Another example: Declutter my home in one week.

2. Picture the benefit of meeting your goal. Saving $1,000 may help you purchase a new used car or pay down credit card debt.

3. Write it down, and place this goal in a place you’ll see, like a bathroom mirror.

4. Turn your BIG goal into sips. For a longer goal like the $1,000 savings goal, use weeks.

Saving $1,000 in six months is the same as saving $40 a week. Brainstorm ways to save $40. The most obvious choices are 1) trimming your grocery bill by purchasing store-brands in place of national brands, shopping sales, and using coupons; or 2) cutting out or reducing a nonessential, such as eating lunch out daily (a $20 to $50 weekly savings) or forgoing your daily gourmet coffee drink (a $25 weekly savings).

For a shorter goal like decluttering your home in a week, use days. Count your rooms and divide by 6. A three-bedroom, two-bathroom home has about nine rooms plus five closets and a basement and/or garage. If you declutter two rooms on four days and tackle the closets on the fifth day and the basement and/or garage on the sixth, you’ll make your goal. Be sure to bring three bags or boxes into each room: one for garbage; the second for Goodwill (or similar outfit), and a third marked Garage Sale.

5. Reward yourself! Every day or week you meet your goal, treat yourself. The treat could be a bubble bath, a cookie, or 30 extra minutes on Facebook.

We ought not to be weary of doing little things for the love of God,

who regards not the greatness of the work, but the love with which it is performed

~ Brother Lawrence

Question: What is a goal you want to tackle? Please share.