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Describe how the goals we choose are related to the emotions we feel. Offer personal illustrations.
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The goals we choose are related to our emotions, what is the greatest desire of my goal? Is it of importance or of necessity? For example, when I set a goal that I want my son to become a doctor or some one who becomes a minister of the gospel, I have found out that it is a good goal to set for my children but what is my greatest desire? To be seen as a fulfilled mother and when that turns out the opposite way it brings frustration and disappointment and loss of freedom. I must put God first in setting my goals and strategy in life . My geatest desire is for God to be glorified.
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When we choose a goal that is uncertain we ask will it happen? what happens if …? and we feel anxiety. If someone blocks a goal that we have made we might feel anger. For example, if we want to achieve a certain task but someone else says no my way is better and blocks the completion of the task, we can feel anger, maybe masked as frustration. If we have an unreachable goal, one that no amount of work will allow us to achieve, we get frustrated with our self and can feel self-hatred.
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The emotions we feel often identify the important areas in our lives where we want to improve or achieve. The drive to achieve goals in this area can sit with us above our desire for Christ. We substitute the necessary spiritual relationship with God for important things and these important things become demands because we focus so fiercely on them. However, goals can depend on other events happening, other people or our ability to achieve them. That can make their achievement uncertain, which brings anxiety into our lives. If something solidly blocks us from achieving our goals we feel angry, and if we set our goals above our ability to reach them we feel self-hatred when we fail to achieve them.
It is 31 December as I work on this lesson. This morning in my time with the Lord I looked at my goals for 2023. After doing this Lesson, I see the need to change the way I write up my ideas for the coming year. I have decided to have my goals flow from a godly vision, such as Dr Crabb has for each of his patients. Then my desires for next year will reflect necessities and the results will hopefully be the desires of importance.
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The goals we chose are an attempt to increase our positive emotions and/or decrease our negative ones
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All of us at times want to feel good, want to be applauded, want others to think well of us. Feeling good, being applauded and others thinking well of us give us a sense of satisfaction. Some years ago, my two sisters and I challenged each other as to who can get the most steps completed in a week. We had a app on our phones that allow us to monitor each other progress. I liked to win and got so much satisfaction out of winning that I worked hard to stay ahead of them on a daily basis. At the end of the week, if either of them was ahead of me, I would get on my treadmill at night when I see their activities had stopped and walk for however long it took to get ahead.