When you commit yourself to your vision and express it in achievable goals, you provide yourself with the motivation of where you are going and how you anticipate getting there. Are you passionate about achieving your goals? Nehemiah had a passionate and uncompromising heart to go after the goal that God had given him. He didn’t allow anyone or anything to compromise his goal of rebuilding Jerusalem’s broken down walls. My desire is to help you develop and implement a solid goals plan that will help bring your vision into fruition.

Our Twelve Simple Steps to Achieving Your Goals will help you write and implement an achievable goals plan. We will take a practical look from the Book of Nehemiah on how to set and achieve your desired goals.

1. Spend quality time seeking God for your goals

Before Nehemiah started rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem, he spent four months in prayer seeking God’s directions. He committed to spending the quality time needed to hear what and how he was to proceed with his goal and who he would need to ask help from. He prayed, “Let your ear now be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer of your servant…” (Nehemiah 1:6).

I advise you to get alone in a quiet place by yourself away from the distractions of life and begin to seek God’s face. Put away your mobile devices, shut down the computer and turn off the television. Tell your family and friends this is your set time for seeking God’s face to hear His directions and you do not want to be disturbed. Do you have a daily appointment with God to seek Him for your life’s direction?

2. Define your goals in writing

I believe that during Nehemiah’s four months of praying to God about rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem he developed a detailed written goals plan that helped him clarify what he needed from the king and the steps he needed to take to put his plan into action. “And a letter to Asaph the keeper of the king’s forest, that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the fortress for the wall of the city…And the king granted them.” (Nehemiah 2:8)

It is very important that you take your Bible, pen, paper and your Goals Matter! Planning Sheets with you during your quiet time. When you begin to define your goals in writing make sure they are SMART: Specific – Measurable – Actionable – Reinforcing -Trackable.

You want to record in detail what God is revealing to you because you are fooling yourself if you think you can remember everything He reveals to you. We tend to forget things. Write down your goals! Written goals will bring clarity to your life. When you document your goals you create a road map to focus your directions. You will begin to see clearly what you need to do and how you need to do it.

3. Create measures for success

Now that you have defined your goals the next step is to create ways to measure your progress. When Nehemiah’s goal was defined he set a targeted time with the king when he would return. “Then the king said to me, the queen sitting beside him, “How long will your journey be, and when will you return? So it pleased the king to send me, and I gave him a definite time.” (Nehemiah 2:6) It’s not enough to say I have a goal, but you need to have a way to measure your progress. Your measures for success can be defined by:

-1. Term (length of time)
· Short Term (within a year)
· Medium Term (within three years)
· Long Term (over three years)
-2. The Life Area- spiritual, relational, physical, social, financial, mental or professional.
-3. Dates- Start date, target completion date and actual completion date.

I believe when you add these measurables to your goals it brings a greater energy and excitement to achieve them. If you don’t meet your measurables please don’t give up, you may have to make some readjustments or changes. You may have to quit doing something one way and try doing it another way.

4. Define possible opportunities for success

One of the keys to stay motivated in achieving your goals is to define your opportunities for success. Nehemiah knew that rebuilding the walls would put the children of Israel in a more stable condition. The walls represented power, protection and peace for the city of Jerusalem and the people that lived there. The walls were desperately needed to provide protection for the people and the Temple from the enemies attack.

Without the rebuilt walls the city would remain defenseless against its enemies. Nehemiah was committed and consumed with accomplishing this goal because he understood the awesome opportunities that were possible for the success of rebuilding the walls.

One technique that I found very helpful to focus my goals planning was to list several opportunities for success in accomplishing a particular goal. I personally like to list three to four opportunities. Let’s use the example of a goal of losing 20 lbs. in four months.

Here are a few things I would list as possible opportunities for success: I will physically feel better, I will be more confident, I will have to buy a new wardrobe and I would be able to participate in more physical activities. You can list as many opportunities for success as you desire. Your list will become a huge part of your motivation to achieve your goals when times of discontentment, discouragement and doubt come.