Setting Goals: 10 Ways You Can Lose Tomorrow Before You Even Get There

It seems from the time we’re barely walking, we want to run. Like a puppy at the end of a leash, we long for the next step, the next week or year or level. Even still, you may be in a rut and jeopardizing your future without realizing. If you want to reach your goals, it all comes back to the simple choices you make. Take a minute and check out these 10 ways you can lose tomorrow before you even get there.

It all comes back to the simple choices you make. #emptynest Click To Tweet

 

1. Wishing for yesterday.

Wishing to go back to something or someone from your past is not unusual. However, a preoccupation with what’s in the past keeps your heart and focus on something you can never have. Longing for yesterday comes with consequences. It holds you prisoner to an impossible dream even as today slips away and new opportunities for tomorrow with it.

2. Trying to relive the past.

When you take action to repeat a past experience you eventually discover, through pain and disappointment, yesterday can never be repeated. Never. No matter how hard you try to put the same pieces together to remake a memory or event, it will always be different, even as you are now changed. We know this if we think about it logically, but at times we need a good firm reminder: You can never go back. Only in letting go and leaning into today can you take the beauty of yesterday with you.

Only in letting go and leaning into today can you take the beauty of yesterday with you. Click To Tweet

 

3. Living half-heartedly.

Imagine if your doctor did his job half-heartedly. If he came to work only when he felt like it. If he didn’t study to keep up with current information and hadn’t practiced the procedures he performs daily.  What if his mind was constantly wandering to other things as he cut you open and sewed you back up? How many mistakes would be made before he eventually lost his job?

It’s frightening to think, yet this gives a picture of how significantly your life and those around you are changed if you live half-heartedly. How much are you missing by being distracted? How does it affect others?

4. Not dreaming about your goals.

No one reaches a goal without constantly dreaming about it. We hear stories of sudden fame or fortune, but I guarantee it was only sudden for those on the outside. For the one receiving the recognition or reward, they know firsthand the sleepless nights and endless workload. They know how often they were tempted to stop or give up. Instead they chose to feed the dream and let it lead them to success.

5. Isolating.

Life is found and nurtured in relationship. Although time alone is both necessary and healthy, if extended too long it will strip away the very strength, hope, vision, and joy it first brought you. Dreams are often birthed and understanding touched upon while alone. But in the nitty gritty, day-in and day-out workings of relationship, both the dream and dreamer are formed.

Life is found and nurtured in relationship. #emptynest #empowerednester Click To Tweet

 

6. Refusing to look at the facts.

Little is more frustrating than being around a negative person. Someone who finds the hole in every plan and is sure no dream is attainable soon drains the air from any room. But refusing to look at the facts before you is equally as detrimental to your future. Looking at an obstacle doesn’t give it power; it gives you the needed information to make a plan. You cannot overcome something you refuse to address. And the potential to reach tomorrow’s goals is greatly lessened with every hurdle you refuse to acknowledge.

7. Forgetting the bigger picture.

I love details. I love to celebrate minuscule pieces of life. It wouldn’t take you long to notice if you walked through my home: tiny seashells, pebbles, jars of sand, miniature paintings, little treasures everywhere. Yet part of their beauty lies in the fact that they remind me of the vast settings in which I found them. These tiny souvenirs remind me there’s a big picture.

The old adage “He couldn’t see the forest for the trees” never fades with time or cultural changes. If you’re not purposeful, today’s details will steal away tomorrow’s horizon.

If you’re not purposeful, today’s details will steal away tomorrow’s horizon. #emptynest Click To Tweet

 

8. Minimizing life to a box, formula, or list.

Boxes, lists, formulas – they all have a purpose and I use them each regularly. But if you can’t see possibilities beyond the box or list or formula, if you won’t let others step outside your sacred boundaries, you both become prisoners to a system. Part of the excitement of having a tomorrow is the potential of something new and unique.

9. Letting laughter slip away.

In the last year I’ve added a new item to my prayer list. It may seem silly, but I’ve been asking the Holy Spirit to bring more laughter into my day and it’s working! My attitude has altered to see the humor in what used to be frustrating. I notice silly details I didn’t before. And thankfully, I allow myself to lighten up and savor moments in the middle of a busy schedule. This not only affects my health (“A joyful heart is good medicine…” Proverbs 17:22 NASB), but it also makes life much more enjoyable, positions me to accomplish more today, and makes me excited for tomorrow.

10. Guarding yourself from your potential.

Fear. Anxiety. Worry. Whatever name you give it, the end result remains the same. Risks are not taken. Doors remain closed. Paths are not walked down. When you guard yourself against the possibilities of failure, pain, or loss, you also guard yourself against the rewards of victory and success.

After making my own excuses for several projects, I printed out this quote from Jim Rohn and keep it on my desk: “If you really want to do something, you’ll find a way. If you don’t you’ll find an excuse.” Don’t let excuses steal away who you are before you even get there. Push through and live fully. Your goals are waiting!

 

What other ruts have kept you from moving into your future?
How did you refocus and overcome them? I’d love to hear!

The the Lord answered me and said,
‘Write the vision and make it plain on tablets,
that he may run who reads it.’
Habakkuk 2:2 NKJV