(Music)
TERRI: Hey, I'm Terri Savelle Foy, your cheerleader of dreams.
Hey, if you've never subscribed to this podcast just push the
little red button right there to get consistent teaching tools
and tips to help you live your dreams, in fact today I want to
talk about how to achieve your goals, your life goals faster.
You know what they say a goal without a plan is just a wish.
Well, I want to show you how I've learned to achieve my goals
and how you can apply these simple steps to achieve yours
this year. Number one, is you have to write your Top 10 goals.
You know the Bible says in Habakkuk 2:2, it says, "The Lord
answered me and said, 'Write the vision and engrave it so plainly
upon tablets that everyone who passes by may be able to read it
easily and quickly as he hastens by.'" Now that's the Amplified
version. Well, to me, that sounds like a vision board. You
know, I always tell people, and you may have heard this on other
podcasts how I like to imagine it's the last day of this year.
It's December 31st and you just think about what you want to
have accomplished over the next 12 months ... what you've
accomplished the previous 12 months. Now here is the thing,
thinking precedes achievement. Nobody just stumbles upon
success and says, "Wait, how did I get here?" No, you have to
think about what you want to accomplish this year, and what I
like to do is actually write them in their past tense as if I
already achieved them. I like to imagine it's December 31st, and
for example you might say, "I lost 15 pounds," or, "I went on
my dream trip to Honolulu, Hawaii," or, "I saved $5,000,"
or, "I got a $5,000 raise," or if you have a dream to write a
book you would say, "I finished my manuscript." Write the
vision. Number two, is add images to match your goals. See,
adding images to your goals increases your desire to achieve
them, and here is why, your mind thinks in pictures, it doesn't
think in words, when you see your goal it elevates your
desire to reach it. Referring back to your list of Top 10
Goals for this year I like to go through each one, one by one and
research images, just look online, look in magazines that
illustrate each of your goals. Now for illustration purposes
let me just say, let's pretend that part of your Top 10 Goals
on your vision board could say this, "Goal Number One, Save
$5,000." Well, if I were you I would do just like we did here,
print out a picture of cash and then write the vision, make it
plain like the Bible says. Clearly type or write across the
photo, "Save $5,000 by December 31st." That's making the vision
plain, isn't? Or let's say you have a goal to go to the Bahamas
or Florida or wherever, you could put a picture of you in a
bikini or not, put a postcard or a printout of the Bahamas or
Florida, whatever it is, the resort you desire to stay at,
the excursions you want to take, and then do the homework.
Research the costs to achieve this goal. You could start
listing how much the flights costs, the hotels, the meals,
the excursions, your spending money, you see that's writing
the vision and making it plain. You would say, "Vacation in the
Bahamas by July 31st, $7,000." That's getting a crystal clear
picture of what you need to attain, right? Goal number
three, let's just say for example you want to purchase new
dining room furniture. Instead of just always saying, "I wish
we had dining room furniture. Man, I wish we could upgrade our
furniture." No, research the furniture you desire. You could
browse online. You could look through magazines. You can go to
the furniture store. Take a picture of you sitting at the
dining table as if it's yours, put that photo on your vision
board. Do it real quick while nobody is watching. Put it on
your vision board and just act as if it's already yours.
Research the cost and do what the Bible says, write
the vision, make it plain. You would say, "Purchased new dining
room furniture by Thanksgiving Day, $3,300." Let's say you have
a goal to pay off your car. Well, you could take a victory
photo of you standing by your car with your
hands up celebrating your debt-free car. Call the bank,
find out the balance remaining and then write
the vision, make it plain. You would say, "I am driving
a debt-free car of $7,436.08 by September 30th." You see,
that's answering the questions how much and by when, how
much do you need to pay off and by when? Now, I recommend
that you keep it as neat as possible. You see, when we get
too many items on our vision board it kind of starts looking
like a snapshot of confusion. Now personally I prefer to have
giant numbers attached to each of my goals for the year. I have
a vision board at my house and a vision board at the office for
all of my business goals, but then one at the house for the
personal and family goals, because a lot of times people
ask me, "How many vision boards do you have?" I have two. Now I
like to keep them separate like that. Now, I was listening to a
story recently about this woman named Sharon, who she said she
was at home one night eating pizza, and she said she's
learning all about vision boards. Well, as she's learning
this she got so excited about vision boards and she just made
this declaration, she said, "The next time I eat pizza will be at
1:00PM in Venice, Italy on May 1st. May 1st was her birthday.
Now this lady really loved pizza so that was a huge sacrifice to
say, "I am not going to eat anymore pizza until I'm eating
it in Venice, on my birthday," and this was a big dream. She
started telling people and they thought she was crazy, but she
just knew in her heart it's going to happen. She built a
vision board of the canals of Venice, photos of the hotel she
wanted to stay at. She put all kinds of stuff, pizza, pasta,
all kinds of Italian stuff, and she started getting focused on
that vision board. Well, this is amazing. Long story short, in
January of that year, she planned to start going. She
started saving money, getting ready to go. Somebody she met
earlier heard about her vision board and her desire to go,
decided to give her a trip to Venice with no strings attached.
Now here is the other thing, then the hotel that she really
wanted to stay at, that she had on the vision board, it was
booked solid for a conference coming, but she just kept
believing, she kept calling back, two weeks later they
called and said there's a room cancellation, and she got the
very room she wanted at the hotel on the vision board.
Everything on her vision board came true. What am I saying? If
this will work for a woman just wanting to eat pizza in Italy,
it will work for somebody wanting to impact lives and
reach your goals that you know are going to change your life.
Get serious about it. Number three, focus on one at a time.
You know, Dave Ramsey says there is power to focus. He says, "If
you don't focus on something nothing gets done." Well, he
says money is the same way, when you try to focus on 16 different
things at once nothing happens. In fact, Dave Ramsey says,
"We're so crazy we tell people stop doing anything with money
except paying your minimum payments. Stop the 401K
temporarily. Stop saving money temporarily." He says, "Let's do
one thing at a time and totally focus all of your energy on that
one thing, then you can move on." For example, if you've
written down three big financial goals, well, in order to achieve
any of them you must get focused on one at a time until it's
accomplished. If you've listed financial goals such as, "Save
$10,000 by December 31st, Eliminate credit card debt of
$7,000," or, "Pay off my student loans of $3,000," well, what you
have to do is focus on one at a time. Which one do you allocate
all your time, energy, and resources to? The smallest one.
You focus on eliminating the smallest debt first. Your major
goal in that story would be pay off the student loan of $3,000.
I remember years ago I had my Top 10 Goals for the year, which
included three different books on my heart that I wanted to
write, and I was equally passionate about all of them.
Well, I was getting so frustrated because I had all
these desires to write this book, but because I wasn't
focused on one project at a time I was consumed with stress,
frustration, anxiety because none of them were complete. I
had three half-written books affecting nobody. Finally, I had
to eliminate the distraction of the two other books and focus on
one single manuscript until it was completed. Once I finished
it, I sent it off to the publisher, then I could move on
to the next manuscript. Focus on one at a time. Number four
is look at it everyday. The more you look at it, the more
compelled you are to check it off. I want to challenge you,
you know what they say, keep your goals out of reach but not
out of sight. Keep it in front of you. Number five is build
your faith. Build your faith. You see, what you achieve isn't
nearly as important as who you become as you're working on your
goals. Here is the truth, as you're working on your goals,
the goals are working on you, so you got to keep your faith built
up. You know, successful people never stop growing, in fact I
want to read this to you real quick, this is from a sweet girl
named Amanda, and listen to what she said. "Greetings to you from
Sri Lanka." She said, "I've been listening to your messages for
about nine months now. I thought I must share my testimony with
you of how God has used you to impact my life." That's a
blessing. She said she lost her father this year to a very rare
brain condition, he suffered a lot and ended up dying. His
death shook her faith and she started questioning everything,
"How could God let this happen to a man of God, who loved Him
and served Him for so many years?" She said, "I was so
depressed and I was moving away from God. Then when I
accidentally watched one of your podcasts on YouTube, I continued
to listen to your teachings and the Lord touched me and opened
my heart. I was able to forgive myself and those who hurt me,
and received God's love." That's awesome. Then she said this,
"Your teachings about living and achieving your dreams really
inspires me. I follow everything you say about having a vision, a
vision board, writing it down, confessing it, and listening to
God's Word as," she said, "I was looking for a job desperately
after my father passed." She said, "I was not having any luck
with it, so I started praying as you said. I wrote down
specifically what kind of job I wanted, the location, the
working environment, the salary," what kind of coworkers
she wanted and the type of boss she wanted. That's specific,
isn't it? She said, "I prayed and thanked the Lord for what I
wanted according to His will, and in a few weeks I got exactly
what I prayed for. Praise God." She says, "This is one of many
testimonies to come. Love, Amanda." Isn't that awesome? I'm
telling you, God honors that. The first step toward going
anywhere is to decide you're not going to stay where you are and
setting goals is how you get there. Earl Nightingale said
this, "People with goals succeed because they know where they're
going." Les Brown said this, "I'd rather aim too high and
miss than aim too low and hit." I want to challenge you, dream
as big as you can and God will go beyond that. Well, you know,
this month we are offering the special download that we've put
together to help you get crystal clear on your goals. Now this is
something that I practice in my life, we're calling it the
Isaiah 46:10 Method. I want you to get a hold of this because I
believe it will help you answer questions and get really
specific on the goals that you want to achieve this year, and
it's going to help you stay focused all year long. I would
love for you to send me your Top 10 Goals, that way you have the
accountability of making yourself write your Top 10
Goals, and because I want to pray over them with you. I'm
declaring 2018 is going to be your best year yet, in fact our
YouTube subscriber this week, I want to mention real quick is
Hayley. Listen to what Hayley said, "Terri, I've not even
watched this content yet," I guess she was getting ready to
watch the podcast, "but I know I'll love it," she said, "I want
to let you know how much I appreciate and look forward to
your new content. You're helping me grow constantly." That
blesses my heart. She said, "You're on as I'm getting ready
in the morning, in the car with me, and as I'm cooking meals.
Thank you so, so much, seriously," she says. Thank you,
Hayley, I so appreciate your comment and I would encourage
you, send me your Top 10 Goals, I'd love to pray over them, and
use the link in the description right there. If you haven't
subscribed be sure to push that little red button and
follow us on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest
so I can keep you motivated to achieve your dreams.
Thank you for watching, I'll see you next week.
TERRI: The NEXT conference is right around the corner. It's
the number one success training conference based
on God's Word to help leaders grow. Join us on the
lake in Rockwall, Texas, January 26 and 27 for two days of
insight that will take your business, personal life, and
ministry to the next level. My special guest is Keith Craft,
he's a pastor and a success coach, who's worked with Zig
Ziglar, George Bush Sr., Les Brown, and former New York Mayor
Rudy Giuliani. He'll teach you how to elevate your thinking so
you can elevate your life. If you're ready to go to the next
level, this is a weekend vital to your growth. Seats are
limited and will sell out, so head over to terri.com/next to
register today so you can connect with influencers,
elevate your thinking, and go to the next level in 2018.