On Setting High Expectations and Goals

Verses:

Proverbs 21:5: “The plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance, but everyone who is hasty comes only to poverty.”

Proverbs 24:27: “Prepare your work outside; get everything ready for yourself in the field, and after that build your house.”

James 4:13-15: “Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit’— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.’”

Thoughts:

It is good and helpful to set high expectations and goals for yourself. We are enabled by God as His children to accomplish great works. God created us with distinct, amazing skills and passions that He wants us to use for His glory. I love the parable of the talent where the owner gives 5 talents to one man, 2 to another, and 1 to the last. The first two men create an increase, but the last man hides his talent to keep it safe (Matt.25:14-30). Although the parable obviously applies to money, it also literally applies to our God-given talents. God has endowed us with amazing skills that we are to use and cultivate for His glory. He expects us to bring a profit, and we have confidence in our work because it comes from Him. 

The Bible speaks of the one who plans and is diligent as being one who will have abundance. This abundance can either be physical or spiritual, but it is ultimately from the Lord. To plan means that you have to have some sort of expectation or goal for yourself, something specific to work towards. Working towards goals is a good thing, blessed by the Lord.

I’ve heard this analogy before for setting high expectations: Imagine you have a bow and arrows. You face a circular target with a bright red splotch in the middle. You lift your bow, just hoping to hit the target. Pulling back, your muscles tense. You breathe out and release. The arrow zips through the air and smacks into the outer ring. You hit it, but nowhere near the middle. You lift your bow again, but, this time you are determined to get closer to the bullseye. Aiming your arrow with your eyes locked on the red circle, you release. The arrow zips through the air again and smacks about an inch away from the bullseye. 

The first arrow hit the target, but it wasn’t anywhere as close to the bullseye as when you were aimed for bullseye. My point: make specific, high expectations that you can aim for. Don’t just make general goals with the hopes of accomplishing great things. You will hit far nearer excellence if you aim for a specific, hard goal. 

But, although setting goals is important, I want to make it clear that these things should not be your “life goal.” High expectations help you exceed further than you would have otherwise. But, when you start idolizing those ideals you have made in your mind, that is sin. God is king. We are to do all for his glory and not our own. When anything but God, whether it be physical like money or mental like a goal, becomes an idol, we are in sin. Nothing should drive our every choice throughout the day but the desire to glorify God.  

Ask yourself: What type of person do you want to be? What are objective things you’d want people to be able to say about you? Okay, now, what weekly and daily goals do you set to get there? I recommend writing these goals out. You can write your daily goals on an index card or sticky note.

(Note: these goals can be physical/material or spiritual/emotional. Ex. Run a 5k or be a joyful person)

Summary: Setting high expectations that glorify God is good. We are all writing a book of our life and each day is a page. Write a book that you are proud of. Trust God for his strength and know that he enables you to do exactly what He desires. Who do you want to be? What story are you writing? And lastly, if someone were to look at your book and read it, what type of person would they see you as? A godly Child of God?