Episode 7 Part 1 of The Living Life Well Show: Resolutions, Goals, and BHAGs?????
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[00:00:00] Welcome to the Living Life Well Show, the intersection of God's Word, today's science, and healthy living with common sense application, all based on the truth of the Word of God. I'm your host, Dr. Jon Skelton. Now let's get straight to the truth.
Yeti Nano & FaceTime HD Camera: All right. So resolutions goals and be hags. What in the world am I talking about? Well, let's get straight into it. So a resolution I like to say is a wish without a why. It's typically an I will, or I won't statement based upon a particular behavior. So I will stop smoking. Or I will start working out or I won't eat junk food.
So it's an absolute [00:01:00] with no real measurable outcome on a day to day basis, I guess you could. take a log and have a tick box there. For when you do or don't but most people don't do that. Most people just generally, when they're making a resolution they are making a statement that is an absolute that, that they want to have a mindset issue around.
Right. And so they're wanting to change their mindset with regards to something they have been doing or haven't been doing. And so that is where a resolution is rooted. Resolutions can be good. But we know that through research when people make new year's resolutions, the vast majority of them. Gone by February. March for sure.
And virtually nobody is continuing in a resolution in an April. ~ ~
So when we think of resolutions, we want them [00:02:00] to be good and beneficial. Statements and mindset ideals, but we need to go a little bit farther. Right? And so going a little bit farther would be goals. And so goals would be something that typically is a very well-defined, has a specific outcome. Maybe even has a series of steps or activities. Or, behavior changes that you will employ to reach that goal?
Many times goals can have a why sometimes they don't sometimes reaching your goals without a why can still be good. Sometimes you don't discover your why until you're moving forward with those goals. And so goals can be very good. You know, a good goal would be something like, I want to lose 20 pounds in four months.
So that's a very specific goal that has a timeframe associated with it. So that [00:03:00] is a very good goal, right? And you could even back into achieving that goal by instituting daily activities that you know, that are going to propel you forward to lose that 20 pounds in that timeframe that you've set.
So goals can be very good. The problem that we see with goals a lot of times is there's a, a. Arrival, fallacy that is placed on it. And a lot of times we see this when there's not a bigger, why involved. So, an arrival fallacy would be I like to think of a Tom Brady. In this regard, Tom Brady he's won so many Superbowls and has had so much success in the NFL and a professional life.
And it's really undeniable this success that he's had. But one of the stories I really think illustrates this quite well is when he won a super bowl. I believe it was with the Tampa Bay Bucs. And literally he had just won the [00:04:00] Superbowl. And he is in the locker room. Already trying to prepare for next year. He's hasn't even changed out of his uniform yet.
Hasn't showered. And he's already planning. He isn't enjoying the moment. He's already pushing forward he can't even enjoy the moment because. He hasn't had that internal feeling that importance that he put on achieving this one goal. And now he's empty. He thinks that he has to continue to push and push and push.
And so there is a bit of an arrival fallacy that can occur when you're just living with goals. Okay. So BHAG what in the world is a BHAG well, to my knowledge, this was first coined by Jim Collins and his [00:05:00] 1994 book. Good to great. And it was really applied to businesses. With a long-term mindset towards achieving some big overarching goal for the business itself. And for its employees , and those people that served.
, BHAG the way it's defined is a big, hairy, audacious goal. Well, what I like to say is you are the managing partner of your life. I believe God is the CEO. You are the managing partner. You handle day to day operations. You handle the spending of the budget. Whether that is your budget with food, finances, energy. Whatever the case may be, you are the one that is in charge of the day-to-day operations of it.
And so BHAGs are really important for you. So your life is a BHAG, it's a big, hairy, audacious goal. Your purpose in life. Is the driver of all those little [00:06:00] goals and resolutions that you put under that BHAG. BHAG really is your vision for what you want your life to , look like it is going to have some component of resolutions, and it's going to have some component of goals.
You are going to have some absolutes that are unique to you and your God-given purpose. And you're going to have goals that are unique to you and your God-given and purpose. You see, we know that when we are living. Our purpose fully. That our health and wellbeing is much improved when we tie our everyday activities back to our bigger God-given purpose. We know that our health is going to improve.
And so we see this through, even through research that isn't based upon biblical principles. We see this when you have [00:07:00] a big. Idea of an outcome for yourself that your health improves. So. There was a study that was done and conducted by the university of Texas. When they were looking at multiple sclerosis patients and they were looking at patients and goal settings. For themselves.
And so what they found was that the same people had the same disease process. MS. But the ones that had specific and big goals that really involved every day activities. Those MS patients experienced. Less relapses and less symptoms than the clients that didn't have any type of health or wellness goals for their life. And so we can see that right there. That drives our brain, right.
That, that drives the way we think and view [00:08:00] and go about our day. And so when we have that big, hairy, audacious goal out there, it's really going to drive everything that, that we do. And so having that as important, I like to think of, you know, that big, hairy, audacious goal is if you were looking down on your funeral one day and seeing what people were saying about you, seeing how people were reacting to you, or, you know, put another way, if you knew what people said about you, when you weren't there. That is what you want. Your life to look like everybody wants to have those conversations , be nice and beneficial , and realizing that they have somehow contributed to helping someone else, because really your life is that your life is a BHAG.
You are going to impact more people than just yourself, regardless of whether you're married and have [00:09:00] family or not. Whether you're young or old, you are impacting someone each and every day as to the way you choose to go about your life and your day. And so. Having that vision for your life, having that vision of how you want people to feel and the impact that you want to have is very important. It's an exercise that most of us don't really go through too often, but it has tremendous benefit. And so what I would like to share with you today is I'd like to share with you. A story of a, BHAG a story that was over 140 years in the making. A story that had multiple attempts in the past to accomplish the same goal, but we're always unsuccessful. A story that is of restoration a story that. Seems to do the impossible.
You see, [00:10:00] Nehemiah was the cup bearer to king Artaxerxes in Persia. It was a very important position. He was the, the Kings basically biggest and primary source. Of preventing any type of a terrorist attack if you will, on him or assassination attempt. And so he was a very trusted colleague of the king.
Well, while, Nehemiah was serving as cupbearer for the king. His brother had gone to Jerusalem and come back and told him about the horrible state of Jerusalem about how the walls were broken down. And the people had no protection. That they essentially were destitute. And so. He relayed this information to Nehemiah.
Well, it immediately hit Nehemiah like a ton of bricks. This created the vision for Nehemiah Nehemiah then went and spent four [00:11:00] months praying about this, fasting about it. He couldn't stop thinking about all the people in the state of his home country, which he may or may not have ever even been to. And so. Nehemiah had this vision that he was called to go and fix this. Well, Nehemiah one day is ,four months after this, is in front of the king.
And he's been praying about this, thinking about this, even asking for a time for favor. And he gets it. But he gets it because he's looking very, very sad and upset. And so the king asked him what's the matter, and this could have been a situation in which. He was killed. You did not go in front of the king looking troubled or distressed or distraught, disheveled anything like this. That was grounds for, death. And so [00:12:00] Nehemiah found favor with the king.
The king gave him permission to go and even supplied him with what he needed to get there. Letters for safe passage even an entourage to go with him for protection. And supplies that Nehemiah knew that he would need from what his brother had already told him. And so Nehemiah went on this journey.
It took him another two months to get there. And then once he gets there, he surveys the whole area. So the wall was very important in this time in a history. Walls were the main line of defense for any people group against someone's attack. And so the walls would be anywhere from about. Eight feet thick. To between eight N 16 feet high.
And even in some cases, the walls were 25 feet wide and then they [00:13:00] would have multiple areas where you could access the city through different gates and different gates were used for different things. And we'll talk more about that in a minute, but. Nehemiah. Had. Found out about this six months earlier. This wall had been broken down for. More than Nehemiah's lifetime, probably two lifetimes over 140 years, multiple attempts along the way had been made to, to rebuild the city to re fortify it. But they were always unsuccessful.
They, never had success. The wall in and of itself with those dimensions that I gave you was about two and a half miles long or so, and probably would have taken a couple of years, at least to build with. You know, hundreds and thousands of workers working on this. But Nehemiah went in. He [00:14:00] looked around, figured out the lay of the land. And then went about giving that vision, that vision that had been given to him, he gave it to the people that were there. Those people then started working on the project with him. And they had challenges along the way.
They had threats along the way. But they accomplished something in 52 days that had not been able to be accomplished and 141 years. Even if they had been able to not have any threat from outside a typical project, like this would probably have taken a year or two years. But with a vision and. A. Clear goal and steps to accomplish that vision. They were able to do so, and then a bigger vision, a bigger purpose was behind all of this, which [00:15:00] was a turning back to God. So. This is a great, great story. And I think there's several principles that we can get through this story that we can apply to our own life. When we are looking to set goals, to take our life in the direction that we want it to be so that we can accomplish God's purposes for us.
So let let's talk about those. So the first thing, and then Nehemiah goals is you got to get the vision. You don't necessarily know where that vision is going to come from. And in this case it was a conversation that Nehemiah had from his brother. I'm sure. Nehemiah suspected that you know, his real purpose in life was to continue to serve. The king to live out his days there in loyal service to the king while still practicing. His faith as much as [00:16:00] he, he could and still live. But. you see Nehemiah was placed there so that the bigger purpose could come. So you really have to see the vision for your life to really understand what it is that you are there to do.
Sometimes before we have that big vision for our life. We need to practice goals. We need to continue to be faithful. We need to continue to do things that we know that are going to help our life and our wellbeing and move us forward. So number one, you got to get the vision. Number two is you've got to get the go.
And so you've got to understand that vision and you have to get permission to attack and start carrying out that vision. And so we see that with Nehemiah he got the vision, but it was four [00:17:00] months before he got any sort of a go. Then after he got the goes another two months just to get there. To be able to start this process.
And so you have to be patient. Nehemiah has spent time with prayer and fasting if you're not a person of faith. And what you're going to want to do is look at this overall vision, this overall goal that you have for yourself and really help define, , the purposes, the resolutions and, start making those goals that, you see are going to have to be accomplished to get to that overall vision.
So. That is brings us to our third step is really don't wait, start making your plan. We see this in, in Nehemiah three. So if you only look. At the end result, if Nehemiah were to only look at the [00:18:00] wall being built, especially once he got onsite. He would have been just overcome like everybody else had for the 141 years prior to his arrival. So. You want to start making a plan.
You want to get that assessment of what it is that you're going to need, how you're going to need to go about this. Nehemiah had done this even before he arrived. He was told that the gates were burned down. He knew he was going to need wood to replace these gates. He achieved that. He knew that it was a long journey that was going to take him from Persia over to Jerusalem.
He got permission. He got letters for safe passage and he got physical support, physical protection as well. Along the way, as well as provisions, he was given [00:19:00] provisions for the journey. You can start making plans and start lining things up before you ever really even go. Okay. So you want to understand the vision.
You want to get the go and you want to be patient for it. An example. I like to give of this from my own life was my journey into becoming a physician. You see. Most of you know, that the process is long and, and is a pretty arduous. From high school to actually being out to practice is anywhere from. 11. To really like 15 years. So it's typically a very, very long, long process. There are some things in place now people can do it and a little bit shorter time, about nine years. But in general it is a very, very long arduous process.
So, when I went to undergrad, I wasn't really sure what I wanted to [00:20:00] do. I started having this idea that I thought that I probably would want to be a doctor. So. I was able to secure a position in the department of family medicine. Which actually taught the medical students specifically the second year medical students and their introduction to patient assessment.
Well, I got to work in that area. And so I got to see from the inside what medical school was like, Being in that department of family medicine I also saw what the rigors of residency were like. In addition being there. I also saw what life was like after you had finished that whole process. And so through my employment there in the department of family medicine, even before I got to medical school, I had a really good idea as to what it was going to take of me to get to medical [00:21:00] school. To finish medical school to finish residency and what life was like on the other side.
And so I was able to really take a look at that, evaluate that and determine if that was really right for me, is that really where I was supposed to be going. And so. When you have a big goal for your life, getting as much information upfront. To make sure that you understand the vision, what it's going to take, and that it's probably going to be a lot longer than you think. Is always a great idea so that you can be prepared as you go into it.
You can start making those plans, start understanding the steps that are going to be there. The goals, the little checkpoints along the way to get you to that ultimate. Ultimate vision.
Yeti Nano: That brings part one to a close. So remember you want to get the vision, you want to get the go and you want to [00:22:00] understand the vision. Next time, we'll talk about the further steps Nehemiah employed to really
activate and accomplish his BHAG.
Yeti Nano & FaceTime HD Camera: That's it for this episode of the Living Life Well Show. If you like what you've heard and want to learn more, or want to know how to put this into practice for yourself, go to livelifewellclinic.com. Until next time, this is Dr. Jon Skelton saying, go out and live the truth so you can live life well. The preceding is for entertainment and educational purposes only. It is not meant to be used to prevent, diagnose, treat, or cure any condition. The information contained in this show does not substitute the need for a qualified medical professional, nor is it meant to provide medical advice or services.
If you feel information presented in this show may apply to you, we recommend you seek out the help of a qualified medical professional who can evaluate and treat your [00:23:00] specific concerns.
