Needed: Goals

"It takes action to achieve excellence - deliberate, careful, relenteless action.  There are no shortcuts to quality."

Before we left on our trip to Ireland I'd been read a wonderful little book titled, "The Pursuit of Excellence" by Ted W. Engstrom.  I am now rereading it because I feel like I got so much out of it the first time around, and I know there's more I could soak up.  If you've been with my blog from the beginning, or even just read the "About" section, you'll know why I wrote this blog and you'll understand why I'm loving this book.  Decision making has definitely not been my strong point, but it's something I want to get better at doing - this excerpt from the book is exactly what I need:

"There are so many things to do.  How can I possibly decide what is really important for me and my life?  How can I be sure that what I choose to do is what I really ought to do?
Perhaps the simplest advice to you who face this dilemma is Do something. Choose a goal and work toward it.  Later you may modify it, expand it, or even eventually abandon it for a better one."

His book is obviously focused on excellence, but there have been so many little nuggets of wisdom that you can apply to life.  It's a tiny book, and less than 100 pages so you can easily read a chapter in about 5 minutes and I love starting my day some wisdom and Godly guidance.  It's so easy, as I've said before, to just float through life, but "that which is easy and non-demanding is seldom truly fulfilling."  I especially struggle with how my love of travel can relate to, and strengthen, my Christian walk.  How can my pursuit of traveling the world mesh with my pursuit of a Godly life?  Plus, sometimes I feel guilty for the amount of money I spend on travel, knowing how much good missionaries could do with the money - not to mention when I travel and it's NOT a missions trip specifically.  While the book doesn't necessarily speak to that specifically, I do think that personal excellence is a chance to worship God, because as my Pastor has stressed, worship is life. I'll leave you with this small bit of wisdom, which also happens to be a pretty good summary of the book:

"Now is the time to develop new habits, new goals, and new perspectives that will give your life a quality that will bring honor to the God who loved you so much that He gave His life for you."

excellence (noun)

1.  the fact or state of excelling; superiority; eminence
2. an excellent quality or feature