9 Actions You Must Take to Reach Your Biggest Goals (Part 2)

By Rick Warren

In my last article, I talked about the first four actions you need to take to reach your biggest goals. After you’ve…

1. Determined your present position,
2. Described exactly what you want,
3. Found a promise from God, and,
4. Asked God for help,

Then you…

5. Identify the barriers.

Identify the barriers between you and your goal, between you and your vision, between you and your dream for the next year or two or ten years of your life. The question you want to ask is this: Why don’t I have it already?
There may be relational problems, financial barriers, or educational barriers. There may be emotional barriers that keep you from your dream. A lot of people sabotage their own success because they don’t feel they deserve it.
Faith says, yes I see the problem but I believe God is bigger than the problem. Faith doesn’t deny the problem, it just believes God is bigger than those roadblocks.

6. Create a step by step plan.

To reach your goals, you must plan it one step at a time. You need to think through a course of action. A plan has three parts.

• A plan has steps.
• A plan has deadlines.
• A plan has a schedule.

A goal is worthless until you get it on your schedule because everything eventually deteriorates into work. Eventually you have to wake up from your dream and go to work. So you want to ask yourself two questions as you make a plan. Where do I want to be? And How am I going to get there?

7. Be patient and persistent.

The reason why you have to be patient and persistent is because it isn’t going to happen overnight. The bigger your goal, the longer it will take. The more significant your goal, the more time and energy will be involved.
Too many people set their goals too low and try to accomplish them too quickly. We overestimate what we can do in a year but we underestimate what we can do in ten. I suggest you set big goals and then take a long time to reach them.
The difference between successful people and unsuccessful people is successful people do the things that unsuccessful people are unwilling to do. Successful people often do things they don’t feel like doing. Unsuccessful people always do what they feel.

8. Enlist a team for support.

You’re never going to reach your goal on your own. You’re never going to fulfill your vision by yourself. Success is never, never, never a one man show. It takes teamwork. It takes cooperation. If you want to go you’ve got to go with other people.
Why are other people so important to your goals? Because God wants to teach you how to love other people, which is more important than what you accomplish.

9. Pay the price.

There’s always a price tag for fulfilling a dream. There’s always a price tag, a cost for reaching every goal. Never desire the success of another person without first finding out what they gave up for it.
The only thing free in life is salvation, because Jesus paid for our sins to be forgiven when He died on the cross. All you have to do is accept that gift by faith. You can’t work for it, earn it, deserve it. You just say God, thank you for sending your Son to die for me on the cross to pay for all my sins. It’s already been paid for. It’s a free gift. It cost Jesus his life. But for everything else you want to accomplish, there’s a price tag.
Great goals require great sacrifice – of time, of money, of energy, of reputation. As you set goals and count the cost, you need to ask three big questions:

• What will it cost me?
• What am I willing to give?
• Is the cause worth the cost?

photo credit: John Maddin