Where Are You Headed?

July 10, 2024

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about where I’m heading in life.

You probably know the usual thoughts.

“Where will I be at this time next year?”

“Where will I be five years from now?”

I won’t go into all the details about why I’m wondering these things, but I have a desire to make sure I’m doing the things today that will get me where I want to be in the future. Of course, there are no guarantees because, well, life happens, but I believe my chances are much better if I do some planning.

In what feels like a lifetime ago, as a project manager, I often followed the rule of lead and lag measures. For example, a lag measure is an outcome you want to meet somewhere out in the future. Lead measures are those activities you can do to better predict success of meeting the lag measure.

Take weight loss as an example. The lag measure may be to lose 25 pounds. You can’t just lose 25 pounds without doing some things to cause the weight to drop. So, you set lead measures like eating fewer calories and exercising more. You focus on the lead measures daily and let the lag measure take care of itself.

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Look at what Matthew tells us.

“So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” (Matthew 6:31-33, NIV)

So, my advice to myself is to bathe all plans, including my daily activities, in prayer so that not only am I working on these things, but God is helping. That means He needs to be part of setting both the lead and lag measures to help me with the outcomes I’m working toward and my daily activities to get there.

Maybe you are having these same thoughts around your future. If so, you can know that God knows your needs. He knows your struggles and your shortcomings. He knows everything about you—and He loves you and will provide for you all you need. Include Him in determining your desired outcomes and rely on Him to help with the daily things you need to do to meet them.