AT MEN OF JUDAH’S MEN’S DAY-OUT (1)

Evangelist Michael Elumeze,
Coordinator, Men of Judah Ministry

Yesterday, I had the privilege of sharing thought with a gathering of men at an event tagged, Men’s Day-Out.  Organised by a men’s ministry known as Men of Judah, founded and run by Evangelist Michael Gabriel, I was one of three speakers and was handed the topic, “Setting and Achieving Your Goals”

Given my antecedents, my current activities and my current spiritual “mindset”, I couldn’t have had a more difficult assignment. Let me explain. Since leaving the Daily Times of Nigeria Plc in 1987, after 15 years, I have been an entrepreneur, albeit in areas related to my media calling. In all of those years and till today, I have had to “set goals” and attempt to achieve” them – with varying degrees of success. In the process, I have attended seminars, borrowed, bought and read books on this all important subject. Such great authors like Mike Murdoch and John Maxwell remain on my book shelf. These are great minds that have had many profound things to say about this subject. So, to ask me to talk about a subject with an array of experts available and with literally hundreds of articles on the World Wide Web to choose from, seems like inviting a mere mortal to tread where angel have.

To make matters worse, I would be speaking to men. Men, many of whom can tell you a great deal about the subject. Men who have read, things like “Seven Ways to Set and Achieve Your Goals”; “Goal Setting For Champions”; “Goal-Setting Tactics of the Rich and Famous”, Goal Setting Made Easy”. Men, some of whom know those sure-fire steps to setting and achieving goals by heart!  You get the picture? If I agree with what they have read, I would be guilty of parroting or even plagiarizing other people. If I disagree with them, I would be setting myself up for bashing.

In the event, I momentarily considered the advice one wit recent gave to men on Facebook recently. He said: “Arguing with a woman is like being arrested. Whatever you say will be used against you. Exercise your right to be silent!” But I knew that my dear Evangelist Michael would never have allowed that! So, I gave up that option and decided, in a manner of speaking, to bite the bullet.

Mercifully, I do not disagree with most of what is already out there on the subject. You know them. They almost always come to these set of steps: Set simple and achievable goals; Set a timeframe; Count the cost; Strategize and plan; Take action and; Do a periodic review of your progress.

Now, let me ask a few the basic questions: what is a goal? What does it mean to set a goal? How do you go about the task of setting a goal? Having set your goal, how do you go about achieving it? It is in attempting to answer the questions in the context of what I described as my current spiritual “mindset” that some points of departure would become obvious.

Dictionary.com defines a goal as “the result or achievement toward which effort is directed, aim, end” and “the terminal point of a race”, among others.  Though these two definitions should suffice, you may add words like “target”, “destination” etc. We have been taught that such goals must be simple and achievable. Somebody says goals must be believable.

To set a goal is to determine that simple, achievable and believable result you want to achieve, your aim etc. How to go about setting that goal; that is how to identify that particular simple, achievable and believable target is not often easily explained. It is, in many cases a matter of preference, an attraction or even a whim. This in my opinion is where the problem begins. But I’ll come back to it.

How to go about achieving that simple, achievable and believable result or target or aim or destination has been more copiously addressed: “Set a timeframe; Count the cost; Strategize and plan; Take action and; Do a periodic review of your progress.” The “hows” of many of these steps in the process have also been variously proffered by various experts. I do not intend to go into the efficacy of those recommendations here. It should suffice to say the success or otherwise of each depends on other variables. It is, as the economist would say, a case of other things being equal.

Incidentally, one of the most famous Biblical passages quoted in support of goal setting and cost counting are these words of the Lord Jesus Christ found in the St Luke’s gospel:

“And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple. Forwhich of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it? Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him, Saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish. Or what king, going to make war against another king, sitteth not down first, and consulteth whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand? Or else, while the other is yet a great way off, he sendeth an ambassage, and desireth conditions of peace. So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:27- 33).

 Clear and prescriptive you will say and it does lend credence to the need for determining your goal and convince yourself that you have what it takes to get there, until you dig deeper! That was one of the things I did at the meeting yesterday, which I shall share with you next time. Stay tuned.