As each year comes to an end, we can naturally find ourselves reflecting on how the past year has gone. Of course, such ponderings can help us close out the year and prepare us for the new. In turn, this can make us begin thinking about goals and plans that we would most like to achieve in the new year. Considering this, I want to encourage you to set goals and make plans for 2022 in a way that is healthy and leads to true gain. Below are five principles that can guide you as you seek to make 2022 a fulfilling and rewarding year.1. Hold to your goals and plans loosely.Admittedly, I have a love-hate relationship with goals. On the one hand, I see that they can give me purpose and motivation. On the other hand, they often set me up for failure by either painting an unattainable ideal future in my mind or being so rigid and specific that I have a limited opportunity to feel successful. To overcome this flaw in goal setting it is important to have a firm view of reality and realise that the future is very difficult to predict. There are just too many variables that can disrupt our plans. It is far healthier to set goals and make plans but hold to them loosely. This approach allows us to focus on today while being humble and flexible about the future. As James says, ‘Now, listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on a business and make money.”Why you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil.’ (James 4:13-16)2. Don’t let your plans for the future rob you of today.The other problem with goals and plans is that they can cause our minds to become so fixated on the future that we miss out on living fully today. In some cases, goals and plans can become a form of escapism. That is, we use them to escape our current reality rather than accepting it.For me, goals work best when they function as a compass. That is, they provide a general direction, but they don’t make me so focused on the destination that I fail to concentrate on what’s right in front of me. As Jesus says in Matthew 6:34, “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” Jesus isn’t saying don’t set goals, He is saying don’t let the future rob you of today.3. Remember that people are more important than your ambitions.Many families, fellow Christians, vulnerable people have been hurt because someone’s ambition became more important than people. For this reason, it is helpful to consider the impact of our goals on others and ask ourselves if our goals or desires are worth it in the larger scheme of things. Perhaps if King Ahab had asked such a question when he desired Naboth’s vineyard, he might have stopped his wife Jezebel from arranging Naboth’s death (1 Kings 21). Sometimes we can become so desirous of having something that we will run roughshod over people to get it. Even in the church, this can happen. That’s why James says, “What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t’ they come from your desires that battle within you? You want something but don’t get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.” (James 4:1-4). The key, then, is to keep your ambitions in check and value people over progress.4. Ensure you make plans with God in mind.It’s too easy to make plans for our life without any consideration about how God or His will fits into it. That was certainly the case with the Tower of Babel. In Genesis 11, we read that the inhabitants of the world had a very ambitious goal. They wanted to build a giant tower into the heavens with the motivation to “make a great name” for themselves and “not be scattered over the face of the whole earth”. The problem with their goal wasn’t the tower. It was the fact that they had given no thought to God and His will when they decided to build this tower together. Rather than working to glorify God’s name, they wanted to create a big name for themselves. Also, it was God’s will for the inhabitants of the world at that time to multiply and scatter throughout the world (Genesis 8:17, 9:7). But the people desired to stay together (Genesis 11:4). The goal of building this great tower into the heavens was contrary to God and his will. So, of course, they failed in reaching their goal.Whenever we set goals or make plans, we should factor God into it. Even though we may achieve some goals without considering God or His will, in the end it sets us up for spiritual failure. It is far better to include God in the process of setting goals so you can be confident He is with you in your endeavours while ensuring your continued spiritual progress (Luke 12:16-21). As Proverbs 3:6 says, “…in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.”5. Understand that being a quality person is a true mark of success.You can be successful in the eyes of the world but be a moral failure. You can have money, status, a great job and nice possessions but at the same time be deceitful, cruel, impure, and spiritually impoverished. From a Biblical perspective, true and lasting success in life comes from being a person of good character. That includes being honest, diligent, kind, God-fearing and loving. If you can possess qualities like these, then whatever else you gain in life is simply a bonus. As Proverbs 1:18-19 says, “Such is the end of all who go after ill-gotten gain; it takes away the lives of those who get it.” Also, Proverbs 16:8 states, “Better a little with righteousness than much gain with injustice.”Final Thought:Setting goals and making plans can be beneficial when done in a healthy and godly way. In 2022, as you set goals and make your plans, remember to hold them loosely, avoid becoming so focused on them that they rob you of today, value people over personal gain, prioritise God and be a quality person. Doing these can help you make 2022 a fulfilling and rewarding year.
