Two Reasons You Need To Try Different Goals

Read Time ~3 Minutes

Leadership Lesson: There is time to get good at more than you’re good at.

Most of the progress I’ve made in leadership has come about SLOWLY.

For various reasons including sickness, lack of opportunity, and my own foolishness, I’ve frequently found many ministry doors (at least for a time) SHUT.

God will sometimes close doors to get us to work on what we NEED to grow in – not just what we WANT to grow in. It’s called GROWING UP.

This is hard for leaders because they naturally have a passion to take ground toward some vision. Even so, we can become so focused on our FAVORITE goals that we can’t see other opportunities to grow right in front of us.

Because of sin or short-sightedness, we tend to only try to win in a FEW areas, and if we’re not progressing in THOSE areas, we feel like we aren’t winning.

So what do we do?

Build more wins in other areas.

Be sure to stay busy and plant a variety of crops, for you never know which will grow – perhaps they all will. (Ecclesiastes 11:6 NLT96)

When you can’t score every touchdown in ONE area (or even get on the field), step it up and WIN WHAT YOU CAN in other areas.

Why?

1. Winning Builds Confidence, and You’ll Need Confidence Later.

Leaders must feel like they’re taking ground in something, even when we can’t take ground in our preferred things (yet).

The confidence you gain from a lot of wins in LESS EXCITING but STILL MEANINGFUL areas will boost your courage for taking the shot when your circumstances change in the future. And they will change.

2. God Has a More Well-Rounded Version of You in Mind than You Do.

We gravitate toward those things which excite us, but we miss entire areas where God knows we need to develop. He doesn’t only want to mature our favorite areas, He wants to grow our whole person.

The Good Shepherd often takes us the longer way toward our destiny because there are life-skills we need “worked in” and personality-kinks that still need to be “worked out.”

Can’t be in your ideal job role right now?

Grow. Something. Else.

Build more wins.

Perhaps you can’t take that expensive course, but you CAN become competent in something else for free on youtube.
Okay – there are no opportunities to make a career change right now, but you know you COULD spend more time working on your budget and finance skills.
Maybe you can’t make it to the gym often right now, but you CAN focus more on articulating some overdue parenting goals and planning for them.

Keep. Moving. Forward.

Just because the door isn’t open to do EVERYTHING at the level you’d like to doesn’t mean you can’t use THIS time to build more wins, achieve more goals, and consequently build your confidence.

Here are 7 areas of necessary development from Zig Ziglar’s oft-cited “Wheel of Life.”

Intellectual Life
Spiritual Life
Physical Life
Family Life
Financial Life
Personal Life
Career Life

Which one or two could you create and achieve some goals in while you’re waiting and working for God to open doors elsewhere?

Leadership lesson: There is time to get good at more than you’re good at.

Father,

Give me eyes to see the opportunities for personal and spiritual growth and development around that I may be missing. Grant me the grace to be patient in this season, enjoy where I am on the way to where I’m going, and get better and better at the things You see I need to.

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