It’s summertime! Now what? Most of us look forward to the summer months of enjoying the sun, but there’s more to summer than just fun. Summertime can provide a great opportunity for rest, reflection, and growth. For most of us, life slows down a bit in summer, and instead of filling that space with constant activity, I’d encourage you to consider using the time in a more meaningful way. Read for 5 steps to create enjoyable, intentional summer goals!
5 Steps to Create Enjoyable, Intentional Summer Goals
1. Get Quiet
This will probably be one of the hardest, yet, most important things to do. Get quiet. In order to create any goal, we must quiet ourselves. If we don’t, we will find that we are just constantly doing things, without any real intention or thought from ourselves. Most people just constantly go with the flow of life without any real decision from within, because they never quieted themselves to determine what they truly want.
In order to determine what to focus on or what goals to set, you must get quiet.
2. Reflect
Quietness provides the opportunity to think and reflect. Again, this may pose some difficulty in our noisy world, however, reflection is a necessity! We just need time to think. Thinking and reflection allow you to actually assess your life, yourself, and your true desires. Though these are key aspects of goal-setting, truly, these are practices to incorporate into our day. It may be difficult at first, but like anything, once you start incorporating it, you will find that it can become apart of your lifestyle.
When setting enjoyable, intentional summer goals, you will want to take the time to reflect.
3. Consider
After you’ve gotten quiet and started thinking and reflecting, you will want to consider some areas to focus on. I encourage you to consider your current season, your current lifestyle, your current obligations, as well as your current interests, strengths, and areas of opportunity. This is where you will start brainstorming on where to focus your energies.
Goals are all about using your energies effectively.
It can be easy to overcomplicate goals, but one way to think of goals is that they are just the areas where you are choosing to use your time, energy, and resources. That’s it. When creating enjoyable, intentional goals, you want to keep it simple. You want it to be something you can start today, right now- not something that is dependent upon something else happening or changing.
You want to focus your energy on things you can control, not what you can’t.
4. Visualize
I can’t remember when I was first introduced to this concept, but I am finding that I rely on it quite a lot. Being a communications professor, I’ve taught my students to rely on visualization before delivering their speeches- To visualize themselves delivering a great speech. I have found that when setting goals, even setting goals/tasks for tomorrow, I rely on visualization. I visualize myself doing what I’m planning to do.
So, when setting enjoyable, intentional goals, see yourself doing it. See yourself doing the things you are planning to do. Like literally, close your eyes and visualize it. It’s quite powerful. There is much research on visualization and the power and benefits behind it. When you see something, it generates emotion within you, and leads to motivation to do what you are setting out to do.
When setting enjoyable, intentional goals, see yourself doing it.
5. Commit
Once you’ve walked through all the previous steps, now is the time to commit. Based on where you are, what you can do, and what you desire, create a few things (goals) to focus on. Don’t overdo it, because you don’t want to be all over the place. Remember, you also want to enjoy your goals, and you should, because you should enjoy doing better and doing things that will move your life forward.
I’ll also mention that while sometimes goals are externally focused, I have found that most of the time, my goals involve me. It sounds selfish to write, but I have found that when we change, the things around us change. I’ve written before that growth precedes change. We don’t want to be people who are constantly chasing things but never focused on changing us. That is backwards. To whom much is given, much is required. As we focus on positioning ourselves to handle our much responsibilities, God has a way of blessing us. Promotion comes from the Lord [Psalm 75:6-7].
Now, I’m not saying that our goals should never be on things, but I am saying that more important than the things is us. Our state [spiritually, emotionally, mentally, physically], our habits, our internal condition.
So, as you determine where to focus your energies, do not neglect you.
Setting enjoyable, intentional goals can be a process. You don’t want to make commitments hastily or emotionally. Instead, you want to spiritually and strategically consider the best things to focus on in this season of your life, and then commit to that.
Lastly, do not attempt to create any goals apart from God. Invite Him into the process by way of prayer, worship, and reading His Word. Allow Him to saturate your mind and your affections and allow the Holy Spirit to guide the process. He will bring to mind things that we would never consider on our own. He knows what is best for us and His way is always best, so we must allow Him to direct us in any plans that we make.
As we do, we will find that His Spirit will help us and empower us to do what He has led us to do, for apart from Him, we can do nothing [John 15:5]. As we create our goals, we want to ensure that they, and everything that we do, brings glory to Him [I Corinthians 10:31].
Read Awareness Precedes Maturity
