About a month ago, God revealed to me that it is very important to set goals that are doable. Setting overly ambitious goals can undermine our confidence if we don’t meet them. We can become discouraged and down on ourselves if we can’t live up to an idealized vision of who we should be and what we should be accomplishing.
This word I got from God was very simple: get some little victories going now. Do the things you know you can get done. When we take these smaller steps, we start to trust ourselves more to follow through on what we start. Confidence comes when we finish even small tasks, because we know we are capable, and that we can get ‘er done! (That’s for any Larry the Cable Guy fans out there, myself included)
Satan tries to defeat us by making us believe that we have to have large accomplishments to feel good about ourselves. This sets us up either to fail or to put all of our energies and focus exclusively into our pursuits. Family time, time for praying and studying the Bible, time for fun and relaxation get pushed aside by ambition. There’s nothing wrong with setting challenging long term goals, unless they can only be achieved at the expense of our relationships with our families and with God. The Holy Spirit is an integral part of our decision making team, because He can guide us toward activities that will increase our confidence without overwhelming us with endless obligations.