The Well Ordered Life – Set DUMB Goals for Yourself!
The current wisdom about goal setting comes from the business world. They talk about making SMART goals. Goals that are:
Small
Measurable
Attainable
Realistic
Timed
There are some good bits of this wisdom. SMART goals make it easy to recognize what kind of progress you’re making. If you’re meeting your SMART goals, you know for sure that you’re making progress toward your long-term goals and that you’re living according to your priorities.
But there’s also a weakness of this method of goal setting – as Brendon points out. If SMART goals are the only kinds of goals we make for ourselves, we keep ourselves from dreaming big. We limit ourselves to our current level of capability. We don’t stretch ourself. Brendon gives a number of examples of goals that weren’t SMART goals that caused us to make great progress.
We can apply this same message to the Catholic life. Jesus did not set SMART goals for us. “Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect” is not a SMART goal. The Pharisees taught SMART goals. If you follow these practices, then you’ll know that you’re following the Law and you’ll know that you’re a true Jew. The practices of the Law were not God’s law itself – they were practices that were designed to ensure God’s law. They were specific, measurable, attainable (well, sort of), realistic, timely goals. And Jesus hated them. Why was Jesus so hard on the Pharisees? Because their SMART goals kept them from seeing the bigger picture. These practices kept them from truly loving God and their neighbor, which is what the Law was calling them toward. SMART goals made the Pharisees legalistic and hard-hearted.
Brendon recommends DUMB goals. Of course he’s being a bit facetious in his choice of acronym, but I love what he comes up with. A DUMB goal is:
Dream-based
Uplifting
Method-Friendly
Behavior-triggered
That sounds more like what Jesus was getting at. Holiness is a DUMB goal. But notice that Brendon didn’t throw the baby out with the bathwater (sorry for the cliché). The last two goals still make our goals concrete enough that we know whether or not we’re making progress. A method-friendly goal is really about creating habits that lead you to your goal. And a behavior-triggered goal makes use of triggers and behavioral pairing to establish habits.
These are strategies that I teach in the Planning for Grace course. If you’d like to learn how to live a well-ordered life so you can focus on what is truly important in your life, then you would be a perfect fit for this course. Planning for Grace offers practical strategies for applying the virtue of prudence to your life so you can focus your time, your energy, and your other personal resources on what is truly important. This course is for you if you find yourself frustrated about not having time to pray or to nurture relationships or to serve in the way you know God is calling you to. It’s for you if you find yourself exhausted before you’ve even met the demands of your day – so you have nothing left to give your family, your friends, or God. Let’s work together toward building order into our lives so we can live purposeful, meaningful lives.Her’s what I want you to do. Click here now to visit www.planningforgrace.com. Watch the video about this course and make sure it fits your needs. Then buy the course. Don’t balk at investing in your faith and in your life. Buy the course, then participate in it. Get help from me and from other members. Help other members when you are able. Let’s help each other do this. Go now. Click here – watch the video – register for the course. I look forward to meeting you inside the member’s areas!
You can also get started with this program really easily by enrolling in a FREE introductory course called “The Keys of Spiritual Growth” by clicking here.This course will introduce you to five key areas of spiritual growth that we all need to nurture if we hope to deepen our relationship with Jesus. Join us and start rebuilding your inner abbey – the place in your heart where you can shut out the distractions of the world and focus on your relationship with God.
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