Setting Monthly Goals For Yourself
By Terri Savelle Foy
Have you ever spent one or two days cleaning out your closet? I mean you REALLY clean it. You put all the shoes where they go, you hang up all your clothes, you put up all your belts. You pick up the jewelry, the change, everything. When you are all done, you feel good about how it looks. But then, a few days later, you are in a hurry. What happens? You come in, kick off your shoes, change your clothes, and throw the change on the dresser. Little by little, your closet gets messy again. By nature, we set a goal, reach a goal, and then we go right back to making the same choices that got us in the mess to begin with.
Proverbs 29:18 says, Where there is no vision, the people perish.
I believe that we can…
…never, never, ever stop setting goals. I heard an anonymous quote one time that said: “Where there are no goals neither will there be a significant accomplishment. There will only be existence.” Setting goals is an ongoing process. We want to develop habits, not just reach a goal and then go back to how things were before we started. Setting goals keep you focused, motivated, and living a life of purpose.
So, how do we stay disciplined? How do we keep from going backward? I have found that the number one way to stay disciplined is to develop consistent goal setting. Several years ago, my husband and I wanted to buy a new house, but we needed thousands of dollars by closing to make sure the payments were what we could afford. We did everything we could think of. We had garage sales, I wrote a book for a pastor, and my husband sold arcade games. We had a chart on the refrigerator where we could mark off the money as it came in. I had our goal in my day timer, my purse, everywhere. God provided all of the money we needed, but it was through self-discipline. Every bit of it came by the work of our hands. We got the money, moved in, and then guess what happened? We quit saving money.
Why? Because we didn’t have a new goal. We didn’t have anything to keep us focused. Every time you reach a goal, you need to set a new goal; otherwise, you will just go back to where you were before.
What has helped me the most with setting goals is to set them monthly. I set goals every month for my faith, family, finances, fitness, friends, and free time. I heard somebody say once that one wrong choice didn’t get you into the mess you are in. It was a series of wrong choices. So one right choice won’t get you out of the mess. It’s going to take a series of right choices, month after month after month. That is why it is important to set new, monthly goals.
Your monthly goals need to be realistic, and for you to be able to reach them, you must have a plan. The plan will be the “how to” to reach your goals. For your faith, a goal could be to grow more spiritually. To do that, you decide to read the book of Proverbs for the month of June. Now you need a plan to make that happen. Realistically look at your time and decide when you can fit reading Proverbs into your schedule on a daily basis. If you are a morning person then probably the best time would be in the morning, not at night when you are sleepy. Then by the end of the month, you can look back and say that you reached your goal for your faith. Next, for your finances, you might set a monthly goal to save $100.00. Decide how you are going to make that happen. If you get paid twice a month, you could decide to put $50.00 in your savings account from each paycheck. You do the same thing in every area: faith, family, finances, fitness, friends, and free time. When you are setting your goals, ask yourself the four questions:
Why am I setting this goal? How am I going to strive to reach it? What am I going to do to make it happen? When am I going to do it? By setting monthly goals you will keep yourself moving forward.
You can develop self-discipline in your life. Remember that it takes 21 days to develop a habit. You have heard the phrase, “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.” It is the same with self-discipline. Vince Lombardi said, “Men decide their habits. Their habits decide their future.” Your monthly goals broken down into daily steps will actually determine your future. That’s powerful. Mike Murdock says, “The secret of your future is hidden in your daily routine.”
My favorite scripture as a child was 2 Timothy 1:7. In the New International Version it says, For God did not give us a spirit of timidity but of power, of love, and of self-discipline. Discipline is the key to success in any area of life.
~Terri
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For years, Terri Savelle Foy’s life was average. She had no dreams to pursue. Each passing day was just a repeat of the day before. Finally, with a marriage in trouble and her life falling apart, Terri made a change. She began to pursue God like never before, develop a new routine and discovered the power of having a dream and purpose.
As Terri started to recognize her own dreams and goals, she simply wrote them down and reviewed them consistently. This written vision became a roadmap to drive her life. As a result, those dreams are now a reality.
Terri has become the CEO of an international Christian ministry. She is an author, a conference speaker, and a success coach to hundreds of thousands of people all over the world. Her best-selling books Make Your Dreams Bigger than Your Memories, and Imagine Big have helped people discover how to overcome the hurts of the past and see the possibilities of a limitless future. Her weekly podcast is a lifeline of hope and inspiration to people around the world.
Terri Savelle Foy is a cheerleader of dreams and is convinced that “if you can dream it, God can do it.” She is known across the globe as a world-class motivator of hope and success through her transparent and humorous teaching style. Terri’s unique ability to communicate success strategies in a simple and practical way has awakened the dreams of the young and old alike.
Terri shares from personal experience the biblical concepts of using the gift of the imagination to reach full potential in Jesus Christ. From stay-at-home moms to business executives, Terri consistently inspires others to go after their dreams. With step-by-step instruction and the inspiration to follow through, people are fueled with the passion to complete their life assignment down to the last detail (see John 17:4).
Terri and her husband, Rodney Foy, have been married since 1991, and are the parents of a beautiful redheaded daughter, Kassidi Cherie. They live near Dallas, Texas. For more information about Terri, go to www.terri.com.
