30 AUGUST 2013 :: Figuring out how to achieve my GOALS!

My scheduling effort seems to have worked well...I can see the world is going to be "on a schedule" soon. :-( This is good for some things, but not forced human labors...making us into robotic humans...who knows where the ungodly will take us.

For my blog, I have to learn more about the long writing effort. I mostly write this just as a way to let you know what is happening in the moment, with me, with WT, with the battles between Satan and GOD. I am going to have to figure out how to write drafts of entries on topics that take more time to share...single subject, controversial, etc.

I am continuing my daily effort to write a minimum of ten goals. If I write them in the morning, after a good night of sleep, I have more energy and excitement about the possible future. Later in the day I am hard-pressed to write much. I have already noticed how the list is becoming more concrete... I repeat the same main issues/goals that matter. As I write these goals every day, I am reminding myself what I need, what is most important, what I have to focus on. It is really a great tool.

One of my goals is to pay my debts off, especially my student loans, so I don't have that hanging over me anymore. That is like getting my life back to a zero balance, a way of starting over.

The need for a certain kind of property, with an adequate home, is a long-held dream, and a repeating goal. I am learning more and more about our food supplies, and I would rather have more control over what I eat.

Another repeating goal is to get all the things I need to accomplish the work I feel GOD has created for me. I have had to start this process over and over again because of the issues I encountered over the years. I hope that GOD will deal with the problems I have to endure right now, and that I won't have to start over again.

It is challenging to write a goal as though you have already achieved it. Each day, when I write, I try to decide if I should focus on big goals or on little goals. I am getting into more and more details of what would be my ideal future, and I keep putting several goals together or taking others apart. It is an interesting process.

More important than just writing these goals is trying to figure out how to achieve them...especially in my situation (in poverty, health issues, etc.). Breaking a big goal into smaller pieces, achievable pieces, has always been the main challenge.

Through the years I have struggled to overcome my various situations, I have always marveled at the differences in what people call suffering. I think, in America especially, we have come to believe that abundance is the norm. Christians associate this abundance with GOD, others associate their abundance with hard work, talent, education, or other parts of our lives. Obamacare is, to me, another evidence of an increased judgment by GOD on America, a reflection of our slowly eroding condition. It is bringing the "middle class" into dependency through the insurance program/s of the government. When the government began to provide social services, it was to meet the needs of the poor, I think it had a lot to do with soldier's widows and orphaned children. It is now expanding into all levels of our existence. This is NOT a good sign about our economic situation.

As a struggling parent at a Welfare level, I searched and searched for ways to provide my sons with replacements for the normal progress into responsible adulthood. My favorite complaint example is every article using money as an incentive for the better behavior goal -- allowances, chores, etc. Most of the publications I am talking about are focused on middle-class readers. Poverty households don't have too many resources to access, and lots of problems to deal with. There is little energy left for finding solutions beyond government or program mandates.

I think personality is another issue in goal-setting and achieving. I took a bunch of tests through one program I went through as a government mandate. It said business and management were good goals for me. I liked seeing that. It didn't tell me what part of the business process I was best suited for, but I was heading in that direction already.

One of my biggest handicaps is not being as aggressive as some "successful" people I have met, read about, etc. I sometimes wonder if I had start-up funding in the beginning, would everything have been different. Only GOD knows the purposes of the years that have passed, I am trusting that He had a reason for all the issues that have been beyond my control.

With my focus on goals, I am listening to my sales tapes again, reading the sales help books I have, and trying to think of better ways to reach my goals for Working Together and myself. Now that I have a clearer vision of what to do with membership, I am able to see a better future. I can focus on individuals for membership, and seek out churches, ministries, and other organizations for CORD listings as their form of membership.

Pricing is still a guess, but I decided to use my own payment structures and what other online businesses use as a guide. After we have it going for a year or two, and see the way things evolve, then pricing will be better. LIFETIME options are probably a better deal now...when I get it all figured out, they will have to cost more. I almost have a monthly payment option figured out, and have been trying to work out the details for autopayments. All these things cost money I don't have, and have to wait for GOD to provide.

I have created an Excel file for all my GOALS and lists of ways to achieve them. I think this will work out nicely. I am putting one goal at the top of a column and then trying to make a list of the smaller parts under the title. I can move the list around by using Excel, and change the priorities as they happen. I keep discovering new things that have to be done. The flexibility of using Excel helps me to adjust all the details. If I had it on paper, I would have a mess, and would spend a lot of time writing it over and over.

I hope you are using this ten goal process to focus your life, too.