By: D. A. Slinkard
Hard to believe we are past Thanksgiving, and now we have a countdown to Christmas and then the new year. The year 2019 has flown past, and it seems like just last month we were welcoming it in. As I reflected over the past few days, I have thought about the many things I am thankful for. For instance, I am thankful for Jesus Christ dying on the cross to pay MY sin debt. I am thankful for my wife. I am thankful for my two beautiful daughters. I am thankful for the opportunity I have to work for a Christian company.
I am finishing 2019 much different than how I began the year, and surely the same can be said for you. What are you doing to prepare for 2020? How are you going to set yourself up for success? You may be thinking you will finish up with Christmas shopping, and then you will think about this question; but it is time we pay attention to the topic now. We face the possibility of doing the same old thing in 2020 as we did in 2019.
I want to achieve even more success in 2020 than I have ever done; this should be the mentality of everyone. Instead, many times we take a ho-hum approach to life, and because of this way of thinking, we end up with ho-hum results. Not this upcoming year. Decide now to make it great. Grab a piece of paper and pen and start jotting down some ideas you want to achieve.
If you have read my articles for any time at all, you will find I advocate for writing ideas down. I am big into goal setting and prioritizing your life. We see a decline in productivity throughout our society because we do not take the proper time to map out our goals. We have people telling their children they can be anything they want to be, but give them no realistic expectations on how they are going to be able to achieve success. If you cannot answer the Who, What, Why, When, Where, and How, then chances are you need to do some more homework.
I come at you from experience because I am proud to let you know I am planning on starting my own business in 2020. In getting my idea off the ground though, I am working on figuring out the Who, What, Why, When, Where and How. These are all crucial aspects I know I must be able to answer if I am going to be successful. It does not matter if we are talking about starting a business, starting a hobby, etc., you must know what it is you are wanting to accomplish.
For Thanksgiving, my family traveled back home to St. Louis, Missouri, and I felt a ton of gratitude on Black Friday morning when I woke up not having to go to work on that day for the first time in over a decade! As we traveled to go spend time with family and eat some turkey, we knew where we wanted to end up. We knew we wanted to start from Athens, Alabama, and we wanted to end up in Eureka, Missouri. Going back to the above example, we knew what we wanted to accomplish, and then we set forth on our journey.
Living life and accomplishing your goals is no different. You need to know where you are starting from, you need to know where you are wanting to end up, and you need to prepare for the course along the way. Now, on our trip we did not know what traffic was going to be like along the way, but we were prepared to be adaptable to what the GPS said. Three times we took a different path because of obstructions in our way due to car accidents, bad weather, and distracted driving by others. Despite having to take detours, we still knew what our final destination was going to be. And just because we sat in some traffic, we did not just turn around and go back home because of it.
How many times do we give up when life gets tough? If we plan better for the pros and cons in achieving our goals, then we can better prepare ourselves for any potential roadblocks. Instead of an obstruction halting our progress, we are able to simply redirect and go on another path to achieving success.
By: D. A. Slinkard
