Reflections on Goals and Reality: Of Making and Embracing

On June 2 I wrote of my grand intentions. I wrote of My Summer Book List, which included seven books on topics ranging from fantasy to church membership to John Calvin to the Titanic, seven books that I wanted to read over the summer. I read four. Plus, around five other books that were not on the list. My goal was down the drain.

Goals are complex, psychological tools. Some people survive on them while others shrivel up and lose all cognitive functions because of them. Here are a few reflections on making goals and embracing reality:

Goals are meant for your good, not vice-versa. That is, goals are meant to assist your productivity, maximize your time, and help you get things done by a certain date. You are utilizing them to accomplish a task. You use them - so don't let them use you. Don't let goals wreak havoc on your emotional and mental states. Don't let them enslave you. Don't let them consume you. I speak from experience; good goals can become unhealthy obsessions if you're not paying attention. Use them for your own good.

Sometimes goals and reality get in a fight; reality always wins. I had three college exams and four courses over the summer. In other words, I was not basking in free time. Some of the books I wanted to read were too brain-achy (read: technical or intellectual) to get into after six hours of studying social sciences and history. I didn't force myself to read books I didn't want to merely for the sake of "The Goal." Reality wouldn't let me. Reality told me I was too tired and I didn't have time. Reality won.

So make goals humbly. Reality very well may mess up your best and grandest intentions. That's okay! That's life. It doesn't mean we stop making goals; it just means that we are aware that our plans are not always God's. It means that we have to make goals humbly, knowing that they may change. Sometimes we overestimate our own abilities, time, job, etc. and our goals are not practical. They might change or fall through. Our goals need to be humbly entrusted to God.

Goals are good things! They can give us deadlines to work under, help us maximize study or work time, and aid us in getting things done. But goals can take over our lives all too quickly. Goals can also conflict with reality and fall through. So embrace goals, but use them for your good, sacrifice them to reality if needs be, and make them humbly, knowing that they (and you) are in the hands of a sovereign God.