Expect The Unexpected As You Achieve Your Goals

“You may make your plans, but God directs your actions.” Proverbs 16:9 GNT

The first self-help book I read was “Goals” by Brian Tracy. Before then, I was only used to fiction novels on mystery, horror or science fiction. Never romance.

One Saturday morning, we visited our cousins and joined in cleaning their rooms. As I lifted up the mattress, my eyes caught a book with a title that looked nothing like fiction.

So out of curiosity, I asked my aunt if I could take it home and she agreed. This started a personal transformation I never expected.

I’ve come to love setting goals and planning how to achieve them. But over the years, I’ve realised that there’s something fundamentally wrong with how we’re taught to set goals.

The popular statement is, “write your goals down, state how you plan to get there and DON’T let anything distract you from following your plan.”

This makes sense especially because the teacher often says it with so much certainty and vigour. But the few times I did this, I resisted every unexpected event that I felt wasn’t in the plan. The result was exhaustion because I moved in my own strength, forgetting that my small brain wasn’t as intelligent as the One who created it.

Now, when I tell people to set goals, I tell them to write how they plan to get there but to also be open to uncertainty because such events will reshuffle your line of action towards that goal. The reshuffling allows you to grow through the achievement of that goal.

You are not all-knowing. Your plan may look spot on, but God always has other ideas. Redirections off the course you set are sometimes for your good, to avoid negative events from harming you.

You are not all-present. You may set a timeline of 5 years to fulfil your goal and God may decide to do it in 3 years because He knows that an opportunity will spring forth within the first year that will fast track your progress. You on the other hand have no idea about that opportunity.

For God, achieving the goal isn’t the main goal. He’s more concerned about whom you become when that goal is achieved.

The bottom line is this: make your plans but don’t worship those plans. Keep your eyes on the goal and yield to the direction of the spirit.