by Lance Cashion | Mar 21, 2018 | Goal Setting, Leadership, Personal Growth, Prayer, Productivity, Self-Discipline
I’m often asked how I go about setting goals.
So, I decided to share my goal setting system. You may not be a goal-setter. On the other hand, you could be goal guru. Wherever you find yourself, I hope you find value here.
First, I have not always been a goal-setter. I was aimless for many years until someone (Dave Ramsey) taught me how to set goals. More importantly, I was taught ‘why’ I needed to set goals.
Second, I am not claiming that my process is the only way to set goals. Nor is it completely original. I am drawing from great leaders from whom I’ve learned over the years.
Thirdly, I’m not going to get into the ‘why’ of goal setting here. This article is for the individual who knows ‘why’ goal setting is important but needs a fresh look or wants to go a little deeper. I ask the men I mentor and leaders I work with to set goals using this method (or a variation). If we are setting goals using similar methods – we are speaking the same language.
FYI – I set my annual personal goals in March (as not to get mired by the ‘New Years Resolutions’ of others.)
I. Goal Setting Basics
Your goals must:
- Be SPECIFIC
- Be MEASURABLE (achievable)
- Be YOUR OWN (don’t let someone else set your personal goals)
- Have a TIME LIMIT
- Be in WRITING (keep where you can see them every day)
Example: “I want to complete the XYZ half-marathon (13.1 miles) on October 1, 2018.”
II. Undergird your goals (the ‘whats’)
For each goal ask the following questions (write down the answers)
1. What are the benefits of reaching this goal?
2. What are the obstacles?
3. What help is needed?
4. What is my plan of action?
5. What is my time-budget?
Using the example: “I want to complete the XYZ half-marathon (13.1 miles) on October 1, 2018.”
1. Benefits: I will be healthier, stronger and gain a sense of accomplishment
2. Obstacles: Procrastination and busy schedule (work and family)
3. Help needed: Accountability and encouragement – perhaps a training coach or partner
4. Plan of Action: Training plan – weekly running and conditioning schedule, diet changes, journal results
5. Time Budget: Weekly time set aside for training leading up to the half-marathon
III. Balance your personal goals
I recommend setting goals in 7 areas of life (Zig Ziglar’s ‘wheel’). This will keep you from becoming lopsided. Unbalanced goals will cause problems in other areas of life. Think of driving a car with a flat tire.
Set goals in these seven areas:
1. Personal (relational)
2. Spiritual
3. Family
4. Financial
5. Career
6. Intellectual
7. Physical
IV. Share your Goals
My biggest obstacle in reaching my goals is me. I must admit I need help (and I consider myself a self-starter). However, life gets busy and I know I’m a magician at creating busyness that pushes goals aside. Its a form of procrastination. Therefore, I share my goals with folks who will hold me accountable. I give them permission to press into me and ask me how I’m doing. They are my cheerleaders as well. I need someone to speak into my life and tell me to get moving or be there if I need help. (Great book on this is ‘Power of the Other’ by Dr. Henry Cloud)
I can’t say it enough, share your goals!
V. Going deeper with goals
Personal Mission Statement: If you want to live a life that matters and makes a difference in the world, create a personal mission statement. It is your ‘why’. It tells the world who you are and what you are about. Here is my mission statement.
Prayer: As a Christ-follower, I am intentional about prayer. I need wisdom, vision and strength to set and achieve goals. In addition, I want my goals to be in line with God’s will and purpose for my life. Pray in each of the seven areas of your life and ask God to provide direction.
Bible Verses: It is vital to me to have a bible verse as the foundation of my goals. I usually have one for the entire year. This verse undergirds all of my goals and acts as a theme for the year. When times get tough, I can fall back on God’s Word for strength. This reminds me whose ultimately in charge.
Reflection and Reporting: At the end of the year, I reflect and report on my goals. I share this with the team and invite feedback.
VI. When you FAIL – and you will FAIL
Every week I try to experience three things:
1. Accomplish something difficult
2. Learn something new
3. FAIL at something
Failure is a good thing. I do not hit all of my goals every year. If I did, my goals are not challenging enough. We need failure. We learn more from failure than success. When I look back over goals I’ve failed to achieve, I learn where I failed and why. I learn and also see PROGRESS! We may have failed to reach our goals but we make progress.
Encouragement for you
In conclusion, below are some quotes I keep in mind when it comes to goals:
“If you aim at nothing, you’ll hit it every time.” – Zig Ziglar
On being SPECIFIC: “Aim small, miss small” – Chris Kyle (US Navy SEAL Sniper)
“Where there is no prophetic vision the people cast off restraint (or perish)…” – Proverbs 29:18
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.” – Proverbs 3:5-6
I hope this is helpful.
Now, get after it!
Read previous post: Three Strikes and you’re NOT out – a comeback from failure
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by Lance Cashion | Feb 8, 2018 | Current Affairs, God, Human Trafficking, Prayer
[Content Warning]: The following narrative contains graphic descriptions of human depravity and evil. I am bound by my conscience to share this truth but I want to caution my readers that the content is heart-breaking and disturbing.
[February 8, 2018] It has been nearly two years since I became involved in local efforts to combat human trafficking in our area. I serve on the 5 Stones Anti-Trafficking Taskforce with local law enforcement, Homeland Security, community leaders, concerned citizens and several non-profits. All of us recognize that we have a big problem in Fort Worth with DMST (Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking). That is to say, that children are being bought and sold for sex in our city and beyond. The average ages are between 12-14 years old. And you know how we arrive at averages, right?
While we are seeing small victories on a local level, there is so much more to do. However, I want to share a dimension that I believe will provide you some perspective and open your eyes to this scourge on a global scale.
3D Prayer
I’ve been praying that God would bring victory over the scourge of trafficking in our city. I have also been quietly praying for humility and compassion as He has given me a voice of influence to bring more people to the fight. He has been answering prayer for victory in spades. Yet, before I could allow pride to puff up my heart as if I could take any credit, God crushed me and thus brought me low. He answered my prayer in 3D. That is to say, it was a swift, three-dimensional answer for victory, humility and compassion.
Yesterday, I met with a local team that was formed to assist girls rescued from trafficking locally. God brought this team together in short order, formed the program and opened an emergency shelter. This was a huge victory for our community. Following the meeting, we each walked to our cars to go our separate ways. We stopped to celebrate right there in the freezing cold. As we celebrated, a friend pulled me aside to share his work with me.
Without going into detail, his ministry is on the frontlines of rescuing children from trafficking both domestically and globally. They operate in some of the darkest most dangerous places in the world.
Places where our worst nightmares go to have nightmares.
He reached into his pocked and produced a smart phone. “Lance, THIS is what we are dealing with…” He went on to describe the horrors of women and children being sold into slavery, murders and torture that would make you physically sick.
Then, he pressed play on a video on his phone. The location and group involved will remain nameless. It was in the middle-east.
I saw a man dragging a tiny child, screaming and crying into what appeared to be a make-shift medical tent. There were other men scrambling around the inside the tent. The video was shaky and I couldn’t understand what I was watching at first. My friend began telling me what I was seeing as the video played and everything came into focus.
This toddler, a little girl had been kidnapped – torn away from her family along with dozens of others from her village. This was not a ‘medical tent’ I was seeing. Although it had the appearance of one. It was a slaughter house. Not where animals where killed and processed into food, but where little children were slaughtered and their organs removed for sale on the black market.
As I watched this screaming child helplessly being dragged and run over by men moving about the room, the camera focused on a man standing over a child’s body – hand’s thrust into the little one’s torso. Underneath, was a stack of two or three lifeless bodies of little children.
These monsters were cutting open children to harvest their tiny organs and selling them. Pure unequivocal evil.
The reality of what I was witnessing set in and I turned away in horror. I lost my composure and like being slammed to the ground, the breath was completely knocked out of me. I stepped away and doubled over. Tears of hurt, rage and helplessness filled my eyes. For a moment I felt like I was caught in a vortex of hyper-reality and my worst nightmare.
What is it I just saw? How can that be real?
It was very real and it is happening as you read this.
Those images and screams will haunt me for the rest of my days. It was a crushing blow to my heart. It was if the Lord said, “This is what they are doing to my little ones… Remember this evil.” Then He reminded me that He is Savior, not me. He will execute justice and vengeance because He is good. I realized I am also accountable to what I now know.
In less than 3 minutes time, God had answered a three-fold prayer in three dimensions. He broke my heart for what breaks His. He uses the weak to humble the strong.
I cannot unsee what I saw. I cannot forget. It would be a tragedy to forget. To do nothing would be wrong. As the great abolitionist William Wilberforce once said when he told British Parliament about the horrors of the African slave trade;
“You may choose to look the other way but you can never say again that you did not know.”
Now I know. But, what can one man (or woman) do?
In the Bible, every seemingly impossible command comes with divine enablement and accountability. This enablement is only manifested in humility and complete dependence upon God (See John 15: The True Vine). We must be rooted in the truth of God’s word, bowed in prayer, love mercy and do justice.
“Rescue those who are being taken away to death;
hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter.
If you say, “Behold, we did not know this,”
does not he who weighs the heart perceive it?
Does not he who keeps watch over your soul know it,
and will he not repay man according to his work?”
Proverbs 24:11-12
Today, when our superficial little world is falling apart with ‘first world’ problems like waiting in line at the store or sitting in rush hour traffic, remember this story. Be grateful for the relative safety of your family. Pray for victory, humility and compassion. Be ready for the answer. Be ready to act. Raise awareness by telling others. Maybe one day the western media will shine a light on this. But until then, “this little light of mine… I’m going to let it shine.”
Please know that there are great organizations working to combat the dual scourges of trafficking of humans and the organ black-market. Please pray for them.
For more information on the trafficking of human organs around the globe. Simply search Google with keywords: “Human organ trafficking”, “United Nations organ trafficking”. Here is a good article to provide an overview: click here…
How can you help?
Read previous post: I gotta fever and the only prescription is more JOY!
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by Lance Cashion | Nov 4, 2017 | Devotional, God, Prayer
Lord,
I look to you today for guidance, contentment and strength. You are my only hope and comfort in this dark world. I am bound to you, Lord. Each moment brings me closer to meeting you face to face.
Your cross shakes me from my icy pride. You broke the shackles of sin and death.
Help me be a good husband, father and minister – a faithful servant, full of the joy of your spirit; a man of peace…..
Formidable yet good.
This is my prayer today.
In Jesus Name, Amen.
Meditation – Psalm 8:9
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