If You Don't Know Where You're Going, You Might Already Be There!

Setting goals in my life has been a lot like, "I'm going to start fresh and set some goals for the first of the year".  Missed that one!  How about my birthday, January 30?  Missed that one!  How about on Monday?  Missed that one many times!!!!!

I've discovered that I've lived the majority of my life without much in the line of goals.  I think it was more that I was just living my life.  Why did I need goals?  Each day something seemed to come along that would get my feet headed in the direction I felt I needed to go.  If I had goals where would I even find the time to work on them?

That kind of thinking has landed me right where I am today - still wondering where I'm going.  The saying, "If you don't know where you're going, you might already be there" is so, so true.  I'm afraid that I've found "there" and discovered that it wasn't where I wanted to be.

I've had a good, full, life.  I have grown in ways I never imagined as I look back (even without goals).  I may not have had many targets to shoot for, but somehow, with God's grace, I hit a few.  Would I be in a different place in my life right now had I set some goals to shoot for?  Probably.  Maybe.  Would that place be better than where I am right now?  I don't really know.

With all of that said, I have to admit that I have fumbled through life from time to time.   Yes, things usually turned out alright, but I can imagine that with some good goals in place it may have been less painful at times, and maybe I would have had the joy of achievement along the way.  Also, with some good goals in place I wouldn't have wasted precious time waiting for "life" to give me direction... I once said that I was always waiting for the next crisis because then I would know what I was supposed to be doing.  I guess I've come to understand that if I would set some goals for myself I wouldn't have to be waiting for a crisis to know what my role is.  With some goals in place I believe that in the next chapter of my life that I can live a more meaningful life, on purpose, by choice, and not by sitting around and waiting to see what in life might give me direction.

Yes, I missed the first of the year, my birthday, a few Mondays, but tomorrow is Ash Wednesday and I feel that is a good starting point for some new goals.  The time between Ash Wednesday and Easter is just enough time to form some better habits, work toward some goals, and set me on a path to knowing more of where I'm headed.  I have had a good life and I do know my ultimate goal of where I want to end up, but there is a life here on earth that I still need to be making the most of. 

My new journey starts tomorrow.  I'm setting some goals for myself so that I will be headed somewhere and not just stuck "there".  "There" has been a good place but I believe that "somewhere" will be much better.