The Christian’s Guide to Goal Setting: How to Set Godly Goals

Setting goals is an important part of any Christian’s life. Without goals, we would not be able to use our God-given talents and abilities properly. Goals give us something to strive for and help to keep us focused on what is important. Here is the STe[ by step guide to Christian Goal Setting.

What is Christian Goal Setting?

Christian goal setting is an approach to goal-directed behavior that emphasizes the importance of spiritual and moral growth in one’s life. The practice utilizes a combination of religious teachings, prayer, and introspection to motivate individuals to focus their efforts on achieving the desired outcome. By drawing upon divine inspiration, Christian goal setting encourages people to align their goals with what they believe God’s purpose for them is.

Setting Goals

• Do you know what you want 3 months from now?
• Are you clear about what your main purpose in life is?
• Do you even know what you have to get done by the end of today?

Those are some intense questions. To be successful in anything you will have to ask the hard questions. Successful people set goals and achieve them.

“You don’t have to be great to start, but you do need to start to be great.”-

Zig Ziglar (Author and Motivational Speaker)

You can’t just say “I want …” and expect it to happen. To achieve your God-given purpose you need to go through a clear Christian goal-setting process.

Setting goals does not mean that you lack trust in God’s plan for your life. Very much the opposite, when done right. That is why it is so important to get on the same page with God before setting goals for yourself and your life.

God has given you gifts and talents that He wants us to use to do amazing things. Having those plans in front of you will help you stay focused and achieve them.

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Ephesians 2:8-10

God & Your Goals

Having goals is good. God wants you to live a life with purpose. Within the Bible, there is no checklist or formula for how to setting God-given goals.

You have a relationship with God. The fact that you’re asking and seeking His will for your life means that you are already on the right path.

Let’s Set Some GODly Goals

This should take you roughly 60 minutes. I find that if you go too long (+60 min) with this process, your goals are not as focused as they should be. The key here is to trust your instincts. You know what God is telling you to do. It’s time to face your fears, be courageous, and do it.

For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love, and self-discipline. 2 Timothy 1:7

Are these Godly Goals?

You are about to start focusing a lot on yourself and your relationship with God. You will find so many ideas coming from you. How do you know if these goals are God-given?

• Open the Bible and look for a specific verse or story that confirms the goal.
• Pray about it
• Ask a trusted friend, mentor, or pastor

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is his good, pleasing, and perfect will. Romans 12:2

Step 1 – Christian Goal-Setting Prep

The first thing you should do is download and print my Christian Goal Setting Workbook. This will help you throughout the rest of the process.

While the Christian goal-setting workbook is printing, find a nice quiet place. This process is for God and you. Take some time and get yourself mentally and spiritually ready. Listen to some worship music, read some of your favorite verses, and of course, spend some time in prayer.

Step 2 – Brain Dump

Get out your phone and put 5 minutes on the clock. On one piece of paper, write anything and everything you ever want to achieve. This could be anything from finishing school to retiring in Florida.

Nothing is off the table.

I can do all this through him who gives me strength. Philippians 4:13

I want your brain to vomit all over this page. I don’t care if these are things you want to achieve tomorrow or by the time you die. This can be a little overwhelming for some. You might find it helpful to split your paper into 5 areas. Labeling the areas is the following.

• Physical
• Spiritual
• Family
• School/Work
• Social

These are now areas I want you to spend a min each focusing on. Things you might put down in each area

Personal	Spiritual	Work/School	Relationship	Financial	Other
Run a 5 k	read the bible	get a raise	eat as a family	save more	write a book
Lose weight	mediate	graduate	date wife	spend less	move
grow a beard	go to church	start a business	find a date	donate more	travel

Step 3 – Prioritize

Take a highlighter and highlight only 3 goals in each column. You should end up with about 9-12 highlighted goals.

This will be easy in some areas and harder in others. The key here is to go with your gut. Even if it scares you.

Step 4 – Top 3

Now it gets a little harder. You need to narrow it down to just 3 goals in total.

Having only 3 goals to go after will give you laser-like focus to achieve them. You can pick any 3 goals from any category.

This doesn’t mean that you are not going to achieve the other goals you have written down. They are just not the main focus right now.

Step 5 – SMART Christian Goals

This stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timely. Look at your 3 goals. They are probably just a few words representing each goal. It’s time to put them through the S.M.A.R.T. filter.

Specific

Your goals need to be clear and defined. Your goals should leave nothing to be questioned. Goals are to show you the way.

Make it easy for yourself and make your goals describe precisely what you want to achieve. Anyone should be able to read your goal and know exactly what you are trying to achieve.

Example goal: lose weight

Specific goal: I want to lose 20 pounds.

Measurable

How are you going to know when you have reached these goals? Losing weight, being rich, be successful are not measurable goals.

Losing 10 pounds of fat is measurable. Save $5000 is measurable. Having a job that lets me work 9-5 and not on weekends is measurable.

example goal: lose weight

Measurable goal: I want to lose 20 pounds of fat and gain 5 pounds of muscle.

Attainable

Most people fail because they go too big or too small. If it is too small and you achieve your goal in the first week, you might find it difficult to keep resetting and going after a new goal.

Too big and your goal cannot be reached detouring you from going after it.

Getting God involved is the best way to find the goal that is “just right”. Pray, spend time in the word, and/or do a day of fasting. All of these will help you come to a conclusion about what God wants for your life.

Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” Matthew 19:26

Example goal: Lose weight

Attainable Goal: I want to lose 20 pounds of fat and gain 5 pounds of muscle without fad dieting and spending hours at the gym.

Relevant

You need to know where you want your life to go. Keep goals aligned with this.

Setting wide-scattering goals or goals that go against each other is setting yourself up for failure. Your goals need to work together.

Goals are found to be irrelevant when completing one goal makes another goal become pointless.

A great example of this would be having a goal to do 100 pushups. This a great goal to have but not when one of your other goals is to lose 50 pounds of fat. See in losing the 50 pounds of fat you are setting yourself up for better success in achieving 100 push-ups.

You might need to go back to your list of goals and rearrange them.

Timely

If you want to set goals and achieve them you will need a deadline. Don’t procrastinate your life. Put a due date on it.

Remember in school, your teacher would give you a project. The weekend before it was due, you would scramble to get it done.

Remember you are not locked into only achieving goals by the end of the year. Ask yourself how can I achieve this in 3 months? You will be amazed at how much you can achieve in such a short time.

Example goal: lose weight

SMART Goal: I want to lose 20 pounds of fat and gain 5 pounds of muscle by eating a Holy diet and working out 3 days a week before the end of the year.

Step 6 – Visualize it

You can do this in a few ways. Write your 3 goals and post them all over the place. Your bathroom, your nightstand, your car. My personal favorite is the phone lock screen wallpaper.

Seeing them regularly will help you keep them always on top of your mind. Making a vision board can help. There is a template in the Free Goal Setting Guide that you can use. This video will help you step by step in making a Christian vision board.

Then the Lord replied: “Write down the revelation and make it plain on tablets so that a herald may run with it. Habakkuk 2:2

Step 7 – Plan

Now take some time and plan out how you are going to accomplish each of your main 3 goals. do not get stuck in the planning phase. Keep your plan stupidly simple.

Watch a Youtube video to give you the basics of how to achieve your goal. once done, It’s time to put your head down and go after it.

Your goals are not going to just happen. It’s only through consistency and hard work that you will achieve these goals that you have set for yourself.

PRO TIP: The key to how to set goals and achieving them is consistency. Don’t take 3 months planning out the perfect program to get to your goal. It is better to take multiple mini-steps, may they be good or bad, towards your goal than to not move at all.

AN IDIOT WITH A PLAN CAN BEAT A GENIUS WITHOUT A PLAN.

– Warren Buffet (one of the most successful investors in the world and has a net worth of US$88.9 billion)

How to Get Started

Sometimes you just don’t know where to start. Here are some of my best suggestions and resources for you for popular types of goals.

Financial

I don’t care what your goal is in this category, Dave Ramsey will have something to help you achieve it. His church small group and now online course, Financial Peace University has changed the financial lives of millions of people.

Family/Relationships

Single? I would suggest that you guys read God’s Gift to Women by Eric Ludy and Authentic Beauty by Leslie Ludy, for you ladies. Both are realistic looks at what it is like to date as a Christian. While these books are written for high schoolers, I read them in my early 20s and the impact was greatly noticeable in my dating game.

Dating someone? The book I would suggest is Love Dare by Alex and Stephen Kendrick. I had such a messed up visual of what love was that no matter what relationship I was going to get into was going to fail. Love Dare helped me reshape what I thought love was.

Married? Here are two books that changed my marriage to Danyelle. The first is Love and Respect by Emerson Eggerichs. In this book, they lay out a concept called the crazy cycle. By being on the same page and not trying to get on the “crazy cycle” most of the problems Danyelle and I face, get solved before they ever get started.

The other book that has really helped is The One Year Love Talk Devotional for Couples by Les and Leslie Parrott. Every night before we would go to bed we would read this book. It is filled with one-page devotionals that got us talking about different topics than just the kids and the stresses of the world.

Work/School

Need help in school? Check out Thomas Frank’s YouTube Channel. He has a lot of great productivity and studying tips videos.

Want to get a rise? Check out Samit Rahis’ blog post, The Ultimate Guide to Getting a Raise & Boosting Your Salary.

Want to start your own business? Pat Flynn is your one-stop-shop for all things online business.

Want to just like your job more? Pick up Dave Ramsey’s Entreleadership.

Spiritual

Start a daily reading of the Bible plan by using the YouVersion Bible App

Need some purpose? Read A Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren

Want to dive deeper into your faith? Read Mere Christianity by CS Lewis.

Physical

Christian Planners

You might collect shoes, pokemon cards, or Disneyland pins. I collect planners/journals. It can get enough of them. Planners are a great resource to have. This will help you always have your goals with you. They will all so help you stay organized while you reach your goals.

Here are my 3 favorite planners:

Christian Planner – This is perfect for you if you really want to focus on your faith this year.

Amazon Basic – Are you a free spirit and just need something to continually write in and come back to? Get this simple classic journal.

Full Focus Planner – Are you taking your life/business to the next level this year? Then this is the planner for you.

Step 8 – Action Time

You have your 3 goals now how are you going to achieve them? Do something today to get started on each of them. That could be buying a book. Making a phone call. Downloading an app. Getting a gym membership. Take the first step for each of your goals today. Right now. This will start each goal with a “win”. Pushing each goal to the conclusion you are striving for.

I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my loving eye on you. Psalm 32:8 Psalm 32:8

Step 9 – Repeat

I want you to remember that you are human. You are going to make mistakes and fail. The world is not going to end. There might be times while going after one goal when another goal becomes more important. That’s okay. Your list of goals is a living document.

Christian Goal Setting CONCLUSION

God wants to see you do great things and do His will on earth. Take some time for Christian goal setting. This way you can stay focused on what God wants to achieve in your life.

It’s good to have goals in the following categories: Physical, Spiritual, Family/Relationship, Work/School, and Financial. Once you have those sets, focus on just 3 goals.

Put a plan in place and take action. It is only through consistent action that you will be able to achieve the goals God has for your life.

“Pray as it all depends on God, but work like it all depends on you.”

– Dave Ramsey (American radio show host and creator of Financial Peace University)

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