Life Goals

A new year is about to come. It's always great to review this year, accomplishments and failures, new experiences and idle moments, and see what needs to be changed and get rid of the things that hold us back from living life to the fullest. It's time to set Faith Goals for 2012.
Reading some of my notes, I came across with a few guide to making life goals. I wasn't able to note who wrote it (it's not mine), but I just want to share it here.

 10 Steps to Setting Life Goals 

 "A grandmaster makes the best moves because they are based on what he wants the board to look like ten or twenty moves in the future." - Garry Kasparov

(most people spend more time planning their summer vacation than they do planning their life.) You can set goals that are absolutely unspiritual & you'd be better off spiritually if you didn't accomplish them.
"One of the primary reasons most of us don't accomplish more for the kingdom of God is we didn't have any God-ordained goals we're going after."

Hebrews 11:1 "Faith is being sure of what we hope for." 

 You know why most of us never get what we want? Because we don't know what we want! We're more sure of what we're afraid of than what we're hoping for! 

One of the greatest shortcomings in most of our lives is that we don't know what we want. 

 Proverbs 29:18 "Where there is no vision, the people perish." 

 Vision is a preservative. Goals keep us young. You start dying when you have nothing worth living for. You start living when you find something worth dying for. 

 1. START WITH PRAYER. 

"Dreaming is praying." - Catherine Marshall 

Dreaming is a form of praying and praying is a form of dreaming. 

There is no limit to what this combination of dreams and prayers can achieve. 

If all you do is set selfish goals then you'd be a better person if you don't accomplish them. 

Goal setting is a stewardship issue. 

2. CHECK YOUR MOTIVES

Make sure you're going after your goals for the right reason. 

The Creator wanted us to explore His creation. God couldn't wait until people started exploring planet earth so they could see everything He made. 

Travel can be one way to worship God. 

Here are some motives that "I" think are healthy and holy: 

 a. To honor God

 b. To maximize your potential. It's about taking care of the temple.

 c. To make a difference

 d. It will bring you joy

The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. 

3. GET IDEAS FROM OTHERS 

Goals create what psychologists refer to as "structural tension" in your brain. The brain wants to close the gap between your current reality & your goal. The brain is a goal-seeking organism. If you don't set godly goals, you'll pursue goals of lesser importance. 

4. THINK IN CATEGORIES 

 • family goals • travel goals • physical goals • experience goals • influence goals 

All of them are spiritual 

Physical discipline helps me be more disciplined spiritually. 

5. BE SPECIFIC 

Make goals measurable 

God doesn't answer vague prayers because they don't require any faith and God doesn't get the glory 

I think we're vague because we don't want to hold ourselves accountable. Or we're afraid. 

Goals are dreams with deadlines. 

6. WRITE DOWN YOUR GOALS 

Habakkuk 2:2 "Write down the vision and make it plain on tablets." 

The first step to accomplishing a goal is simply writing it down. 

The shortest pencil is longer than the longest memory. 

7. INCLUDE OTHERS 

It is about shared experiences. It is about creating memories! 

8. CELEBRATE ALONG THE WAY 

The best memories were once goals 

"Ebenezer" means 'hitherto the Lord has helped me.' 

When you accomplish a goal, it is an Ebenezer moment. And you need to celebrate it an commemorate it. 

Celebrate everything you can as much as you can! 

9. THINK BIG 

"The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it; but that it is too low and we reach it." - Michelangelo 

You need some goals, and they better be conceived in prayer, that are absolutely ridiculous. 

By faith you set the goal. 

Work like it depends on you and pray like it depends on God. 

"You want to set a goal that is big enough that in the process you become someone worth-becoming." - Jim Rohn 

You need a dream that is destined to fail without divine intervention because it will force you to get on your knees and seek God. 

Big dreams are the best thing for us spiritually. They make us pray. They make us seek God. they force us to love the way we ought to live - in complete dependence on God. 

Big dreams make you into a big person. 

We tend to overestimate what we can do in 2 years and underestimate what we can do in 10 years. 

Think long term! Think big! 

10. KEEP DREAMING 

It's never too late to be who you might have been. 

"One of the best things about aging is being able to watch imagination take over memory." - Harriet Doerr 

Year 2012 will be a great year full of Ebenezer moments! I am expectant an hopefully and prayerfully ready to elevate!

My December

Here's a series of Christmas celebrations this year!

Christmas Date in Manila with Abby, Gianne and Lyssa  

An early Christmas Party with (cw) Che, Ate Ria, Gel, Jackie, Myrence, and Pretty. Posing with home-made chocolate chip cookies from Ate Ria. 

 Kids Ministry Team 2 Christmas Party 

 

Volunteers Appreciation Night, with GiAnne and Abby. 

 and Christmas Celebration with my Bestfriends at Ace Water Spa. It was Karla's treat for us.

Tree Top Adventure

This was my second Tree Drop experience, and it was all excitement and less fear. I was excited because I was with my family the second time, and am looking forward to sharing the experience.

My first try on the different rides was with my bestfriends. The original plan was to go to the annual Hot Air Balloon Festival in Clark, Pampanga, and maybe try Tree Top Adventure if we have extra time. So we left Laguna as early as 5am to get there in time, but there were so many who came earlier that we did not get to buy tickets and see the hot air balloons up close. Many of those who weren't able to get inside looked for their own perfect spot to take pictures instead, so we did too.

 It was a good thing that we did not get there early. As soon as we got good shots, with the balloons up in the sky, we decided to leave so we won't get caught up with the traffic once it's all over. We then went around Subic Bay, took pictures, then to Tree Top Adventure. It was our Valentine's gift for our then 9-year friendship.

We tried these rides: Tree Drop (free fall from a 60ft high tree), Superman Ride (Che and I rode together), and the ride where the three of us together (I forgot what the ride is called).

I enjoyed the whole experience! I was never afraid of heights and love trying out new things and discovering more about myself. That was (then) the most death-defying stunt I have tried.

I went back New Year's eve of 2010 with my family. Subic was our second stop after Baguio. Almost everyone tried the Tree Drop, and the Superman Ride.

All, except Mama, Papa and Ate Monique rode the Canopy ride. I thought this ride was scarier than all the others, although all we had to do was sit and enjoy the view, and transfer seats at each stops. Maybe because  it was slow and we were hanging higher than the other rides. 

Jumpshot in Baguio. (^___^)

Mindless Words

More mindless airing of opinions and frustrations, and insensitive arguments.
 It's painful to hear because each one's aim is to win.
  Nobody really ever wins an emotional fight.
   You will not be awarded a medal for dominating the argument, just hatred and discord.
    Who would want that?
      Why can't it all just  be passionate and loving discussion?

Conflicts may be a natural part of any relationship, but arguments and fights aren't/
 You talk about the problem with the goal to solve it with less-to-no injury for both parties.
  But most times, there are casualties and lots of blood.
   Everyone ends up wounded and injured.. =(

"The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him.

But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken." 

Matthew 12: 35-36                                      

Life's Change Agent

I was never really into knowing the genius behind the gadgets I have. But today was different. Almost every page and website I visited today showed Steve Jobs picture. So I read some of the notes and captions to find out what all of it was about. 

"R.I.P. Steve Jobs." That caught my full attention. The last news I read about him was shocking, as he resigned from Apple, the company he founded. Now this!

The only Apple product I have is the 3rd gen iTouch, which is turning 3 this December. It's old but the new apps make it new every time. It can only be replaced with another Apple gadget.

So, I watched some of Steve Jobs' videos and interviews. Here are some of my favorite quotes from him:

From the Stanford Commencement Speech 2005:

You cannot connect the dots looking forward. You can only connect them looking backwards.                                                

It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. (on getting fired from Apple at 30)                                                

Sometimes life's gonna hit you in the face with a brick. Don't lose faith.                                                                        

The only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work, and the only way to do great work is to love what you do.

Don't settle.                                                                                                                                                                                                              

If you live each day as if it were your last, someday you'll most certainly be right.                                        

If today were the last day of my life, would I wanna do what I'm about to do today?                                                                                 

Almost everything, all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment and failure, these things just fall away in the face of death; leaving only what is truly important.

Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose.                                        

Death is very likely the single best invention of life. It's life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new.

Your time is limited. So don't waste it living someone else's life.                                                                                      

Don't be trapped by dogma, which is living with the result of other people's thinking.                    

Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

 More quotations:

Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn't matter to me. Going to bed at night saying we've done something wonderful - that's what matters to me.

The thing that drives me and my colleagues ... is that you see something very compelling to you, and you don't quite know how to get it, but you know, sometimes intuitively, it's within your grasp. And it's worth putting in years of your life to make it come into existence.

Money was never Steve Jobs' key motivator.