“I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me. No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.” Philippians 3:12-14 NLT
Writing a book has been on my goal list for a long time. Often it seemed like I was making no progress at all. Yet, I was. Truthfully, God was doing much in me to deepen the message before it was ready to write. I understood the concept I was writing about, saying yes to God is the secret to a satisfying and fulfilling life, but I needed to do more living before the message was “ripe.”
Now that I am in the home stretch, I am not saying I have achieved “perfection” when it comes to living out that message, but I know that God has released it into the long-planned book. Before the end of this summer the book will be published. It’s hard to believe.
Why am I sharing this with you? Like me, you may be experiencing discouragement along your goal-accomplishment journey. You may feel like you are not making progress. It was easy for me to feel like I was failing because there was no book to point to. No manuscript or cover design. Only an outline and a few chapters. I did not allow myself to celebrate what I had done. I felt like a failure because of what I had not done.
Dear friend, learn to celebrate what you accomplish, not how much. We can get bogged down in comparisons. We compare our accomplishments to someone else’s or to our expectations of ourselves. Is what you expect of yourself reasonable?
Here are some questions to help you evaluate your progress.
Read more