I’ve had a stack of messy notebook paper sitting in a tray next to my desk for years.

It’s a pile of papers I began doodling and taking notes on two years ago. They’re a mess that I’ve carried with me from one home to another, and to a coffee shop or two, and tend to revisit at the start of the year. But it’s not just any stack of papers – they’re my life goals.

I had never really given much thought about setting life goals until I heard it on a podcast. The idea of planning a life of noble things and strategizing a way to get there gave me hope. It made me feel like I could live intentionally and do something good with the days I’ve been given.

But it’s a lot of pressure, isn’t it?

It’s a lot of pressure to sit down in our twenties and cast vision decades in the future. 

Don’t get me wrong: God meets us there. We don’t show up to that meeting alone. When we meet Him at that table with our life ideas scribbled about and scattered around us, we talk to Him from a place of acceptance. We commune with Him at that table knowing that He loves us, has good and righteousness prepared for us, and dignifies us by calling us into gloriously remarkable lives.

But still. It feels vulnerable to think about who you truly want to become and is lofty to consider the great plans God could lead you through. It’s equally as scary to consider what great plans He won’t allow you to walk through. 

It takes courage to put your life goals in ink on paper. To listen and decide. To step into the question, “Why am I here, in this time and this place, Lord? How would you have me spend my life?”

I know because it’s taken me two years to do it. 

I’ve returned to those goals year after year.

The transformation didn’t happen overnight. I sat at a coffee shop with a composition notebook. I had given some thought to my life goals the weeks leading up to this moment and committed to penning my life goals before the chai was emptied from my mug. It was a Sunday afternoon in January 2020.

I started and didn’t finish. I felt like I was on the right path, but something about the dreams I was dreaming didn’t feel like me. Or who God was leading me to be.

And then last year, I returned to those pages again. As a confusing pandemic waged war outside, I bunkered down in our home to finally nail those goals down. Although I felt more peace about this round, I did it again. I started and didn’t finish.

The truth about setting life goals? 

It’s hard. It requires intentionality. Honesty. Patience. Prayer. For the perfectionist it means relinquishing your ideas of perfection and being okay with being in progress.

But it’s also noble. It’s a commitment to live like your life really matters – because it does. 

Just a few weeks ago, in the precious time between Christmas and New Years, I reflected. And something sparked within me. I went back to my writing desk, pulled out the messy bundle of life goals scribbled on notebook paper, and I resolved to finish it this time.

The quiet of that afternoon held the sound of my pen scratching against paper and breath prayers. I started with that same notebook paper I’ve been carrying. I marked words out and referenced my Bible for other words I couldn’t quite recall. I faced some hard questions. And slowly but surely, the process of refining brought led me to a final list of life goals. 

Some friends and I shared our life goals over dinner last week.

Casual, right? It’s one thing to write the goals down in a place only you know about. It’s another thing to entrust them to other people.

We shared stories and listened to one another. In the epitome of community, I shared when they asked. I read each one and only stumbled over a word or two. They nodded and asked questions along the way. 

It felt like speaking them into existence. Suddenly I had other believers to affirm these goals and encourage me they already see me striving in those specific ways. And in a way, I feel more accountable to living up to them and freed to do that in the safety of my community.

I know that I’ve never been alone in this process of writing life goals. But having a group of real people there to cheer me on was the most tangible presence of God I know how to feel on this side of Heaven.

I think this was one of the things missing from my previous goal-setting experiences. I kept them like a secret between me and God. He’s more than capable of holding my goals, but I can’t help but believe that something changed when I let others in on this. When I stopped hiding this very real – very honest – part of myself, encouragement flooded in.

A few weeks ago we talked about reflection and the practice of looking for the good behind you. Today I want you to believe that there is good ahead of us too. 

Reflection and goal setting – these intentional practices go hand in hand. We learn who God is and who we are in His plan by reflecting. But we don’t stay there. The days continue and we continue to press forward.

So. How do we begin?

Most of what I know about life goals I learned from the He Restores My Soul podcast with Jani Ortlund. 

I listened to it for the first time a couple years ago. I found it so helpful that I have reviewed her thoughts and encouragement on goals every new year since then. Her teaching gave me a desire to write goals, a plan for how to do it, and a vision for all the good that we could accomplish on earth.

The rest of what I know about life goals has been worked out in the context of safe and loving friendships. The friends who ask about this will be the ones who stick with you through it. Find your people, hang with them, and get honest. It’s so worth it.

It will take time, but you’ll get there. Those strewn papers beside the desk tell a story. They’re not just doodle or scribbles of words. No, those notes are an ongoing transformation. Those lines carry the unfolding of a journey.

Wherever you are in the unfolding of your journey – whether you’ve written the goals or have never given them a thought – may you cling to the truth that your life is full of purpose and goodness from the heavenlies.