Financial Freedom Series: The Power of Setting Goals

Welcome back to our Financial Freedom Series, where we’re looking into God’s Blueprint for Building Wealth and Managing Your Money Well!

We dive into biblical principles and cutting-edge money management wisdom to help you…

• Honor God with your money
• Build wealth
• Shrink your debt
• And build toward financial freedom

“But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce  wealth.” (Deuteronomy 8:18) 

“Good planning and hard work lead to prosperity, but hasty shortcuts lead to poverty.” (Proverbs 21:5) 

“I will guide you along the best pathway for your life. I will advise you and watch over you.” (Psalm 32:8) 

“The wise man saves for the future, but the foolish man spends whatever he gets.”  (Proverbs 21:20) 

“The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower is the slave of the lender.” (Proverbs  22:7) 

“But blessed are those who trust in the Lord and have made the Lord their hope and confidence. They are like trees planted along a riverbank, with roots that reach deep into the water. Such trees are not bothered by the heat or worried by long months of drought. Their leaves stay green, and they never stop producing fruit.” (Jeremiah 17:7-8) 

“Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a dream fulfilled is a tree of life.” (Proverbs 13:12) 

It is your time to dare to dream. 
It is time to reset your goals. 
It is time to rekindle your passion. 
It is time to aim high. 
It is time to attempt great things with God. 
It is time to live on purpose. 
It is time to reignite your vision. 
It is time to be fruitful. 
It is time to get positioned for God to 
catapult you into your destiny. 

Your best days are ahead of you.

It is important to dream.

Dreams inspire, cause our hearts to beat a little faster, and can revive and reignite purpose and passion in us.

TODAY, I WANT TO ENCOURAGE YOU TO DARE TO DREAM AND TO SET GOALS. IF YOU WANT TO BUILD TOWARD FINANCIAL FREEDOM, YOU NEED…

A VISION…

“Where there is no vision, the people perish.” (Proverbs 29:18)

A PLAN…

“Good planning and hard work lead to prosperity, but hasty shortcuts lead to poverty.” (Proverbs 21:5)

A STRATEGY TO MAKE IT EASY FOR YOU TO ACHIEVE YOUR GOAL…

“Finishing is better than starting.” (Ecclesiastes 7:8)

Today, I want to share an extract from my new book, DARE TO DREAM. 

Through my community and business interactions, I meet people from all walks of life. One thing is clear: people from both the uppermost and gutter-most ends of society have stopped dreaming. Many have lost vision, purpose, passion, and hope. Many are just going through the motions, feeling disillusioned and down. 

I believe it is time to lift your head and dream again. With God’s help, you can turn your life around. You can get back up. He is the way maker. He can fix what is broken. This is the reason I have written this book – to help you get your life back with a new vision and to see you prosper.

The book is broken down into three parts: 

Part one: RISE UP

The aim of part one is to encourage you to dare to dream and to lift the lid. Using powerful illustrations and principles from the Word of God, this section will motivate you to formulate a fresh vision, overcome setbacks, and arise.  

Part two: THE PRACTICE

This section will give you a guide to help you articulate your dreams and develop a simple step-by-step strategy and an easy-to-follow blueprint to make it easy for you to stick to your plans until you see your dreams come to pass.  (This includes a goal-setting action plan and strategy to make it easy for you to go after your dreams and actually achieve your goals and make your dreams a reality. (I have used this strategy over the years and can tell you it works! With the simple system, I have dealt with debt, achieved financial goals or buying a home and cars, covered tertiary education, overseas holidays, ministry goals, and even lost 21 kgs since the start of the year.)

Part three: FINISHING STRONG

The book’s final part will help you overcome any limiting beliefs that may be sabotaging your dreams and holding you back from reaching your destiny. You will also be spurred on to keep moving forward, go after your dreams, and press on until your dreams become a reality.

If you want to put God’s principles to go after your God-ordained destiny, I’d highly recommend checking out DARE TO DREAM…

Today, I want to share about…

The Power of Setting Goals

Write Down Your Goals and Dreams.

Without having a dream or setting goals, you will drift aimlessly through life.

Failing to plan is planning to fail.

“Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but when dreams come true there is life and joy” —Proverbs 13:12

So, I want to encourage you to…

• Dare to dream
• Review your priorities
• Set goals so that you can build towards a brighter future

You cannot do much about your past. Whether it was good or bad, it is over. What has happened is gone. You can, however, do something about your future!

Something powerful happens when you write down your goals!

Write your goals down:

“And the Lord answered me and said, ‘Write down the vision clearly on tablets, so that even a runner can read it.’” —Habakkuk 2:2

When you write down your goals, not only does it help you commit to your goals, but it also helps you clarify what you want, and it will spur you on to take action.

The Power of Setting Goals

I heard about research at a large university about 50 years ago. I do not know which university it was done at or who the Professor involved was, but the story inspired me to write down my future dreams and set goals. 

According to the story, one day near the end of the term, the class professor sent half the students home an hour early. The balance of the class was instructed to write down their goals and aspirations for the future. After these students had finished the exercise, the Professor collected their papers and dismissed the class. Without reading his student’s responses, he filed their notes, and nothing further was said of the exercise. This class graduated and continued their lives, many starting careers in various fields and having families.

After 20 years had passed, the Professor started his research. He checked in on each of his students who had graduated 20 years earlier and analyzed what they had achieved in their lives since graduation. He then reviewed the results, comparing those who had written down their goals against those who had not participated in the goal-writing exercise.  

The results were startling…

According to the story, roughly 80% of those who took the time to write down their goals and aspirations succeeded and achieved them, while only around 20% of those who did not write down their goals ended up being successful.

A Personal Testimony

In early 2000, when Janet and I were newlyweds inspired by this story, we decided to write down our goals and aspirations. Just before we got married, I had recently settled my outstanding debt, which I shared earlier in the book. I had very little savings. At the time, we were living in a small two-bedroom apartment. We had one car between us and had to budget our money carefully to ensure we could put food on the table and cover our bills.

One night, we decided to write down our goals. We were very specific. We wrote down our financial and personal goals. 

• These goals included that we wanted two cars. I wanted to drive a silver BMW. We dared to dream some big dreams. 
• We wanted to own our own home in the suburbs with a double garage and a pool. 
• We wanted enough money in savings for short-term emergencies and to have enough money invested each month to build toward financial freedom. 
• We also wanted to have more than enough so that we could be a blessing to others, too. 
• In our goal setting, we included how we wanted to be able to travel overseas. We also wrote down how we would love to have three children and be able to raise them well without any financial burdens. 
• I also set ministry goals of wanting to reach those who were lost and hurting, bringing hope to others who were less fortunate than we were. 

After writing down our goals and aspirations on a single piece of paper, we committed our goals to God. This paper was filed and forgotten about.

Two years later, we had our first child and moved into our new home in the suburbs. Another few years passed, and we now had three little boys running around. 

One day, out of the blue, about ten years later, I was searching for a book on our small bookshelf. As I pulled a book out, a discolored piece of paper wedged between two books fell out of the bookshelf.

It was the goals we had set when we first got married. As I read through the goals, I got goosebumps and I started to tear up. I sat there in absolute awe and gratitude. Guess what? Every single goal had come to pass.

We had three sons. We had our home in the suburbs. It had a double garage, and we had recently put in a pool. We had been on four international trips: one to Namibia, one to Mauritius, a cruise from Venice in Italy, and a trip to Spain. We had also managed to build up savings and investments. 

On the ministry front, God had also opened doors and increased my influence, opening doors to minister and bring hope, with tens of thousands coming to Christ and finding new life.

Since writing down our goals in 2000, we have continued to dare to dream and attempt greater things with God, and I have seen many more dreams and goals come to pass, including being blessed with a fourth son. I pray that many more of our dreams and aspirations will come true in the years to come.

I need to encourage you to write down your goals!  

Take some time out to dream. 

You may need to arrange a date night with your spouse. All you need to take with you is a pen and a piece of blank paper. Dare to dream. Chat through your hopes and aspirations that you want to achieve in the future.

Where do you see yourself in 5 years from now? In 10 years? 20 years? 

But for now…

All you need is to take time out to dream and set goals. 

Dare to dream. Write down your goals. Be specific. Aim high.

Something powerful happens when you write down your goals!

Above all, do not try to do it alone. God wants to walk the journey with you. Commit your life to him. Give him your dreams and disappointments. 

I pray that God will birth a new vision in your heart today. 

Dare to dream. Aim high. Lift the lid. Attempt great things with God. 

Something powerful happens when you begin to dream and have a vision. 

Write down your goals, hopes, and aspirations.

Commit your plans to God.

May God unlock your life and catapult you into the very destiny and purpose for which he made you.

Next week, we will examine a simple strategy for setting goals and share how to implement a plan to achieve them.

“May He give you the desires of your heart and make all your plans succeed.” —Psalms 20:4