To see anything growing and producing fruit, there is intentionality. Your Life Grove won't see the fruit you are hoping for unless you are purposeful in how you are growing these specific areas of your life. Think of each of these specific domains as areas of your life that have to go through seasons. Just as in the natural, our lives have a winter, spring, summer and fall to harvest from, each of these areas of our lives have to go through seasons to see the fruit come and for you to flourish.
So we set goals and be intentional to see the "fruit" come from our labor. Each time we set goals a new season , each limb a goal and each fruit a result of what you have done. Your season depends on where God has you, what your stage in life is. For example, your fruit from your relational tree will look different when you are in the season of being a new husband than when you are in the season of being g a father of a teenager. Just like trees have limbs that are carrying the potential fruit, think of each limb on your tree as a goal for this year. Each limb carrying the fruit buried in it's branches that will grow and develop over time till harvest. Finally each fruit will be the result of your hard work, spiritual disciples and forged habits over time.
“Your Life Grove is not supposed to be a struggling and languishing grove of sadness but an orchard of life where you and many are enjoying it’s fruits.”
So begin to write down a goal from each area from your Life Grove. Michael Hyatt says there is a study that supports how writing down goals helps us achieve them. Gail Matthews of Dominican University of California, author of "The Effectiveness of four Coaching Techniques in Enhancing Goal Achievement", did a study by recruiting 267 professionals from different careers: attorney's, educators, artists, entrepreneurs, etc. After tracking them over several weeks she discovered that writing one's goals increased achievement y 42%. Writing them down helps you to clarify what you want, motivates you and helps you celebrate or as we would say "eat the fruit of your labor."
You have heard of the SMART goal setting system: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time-Sensative. I want you to see your Life Grove from a perspective and with the intention of you wanting these areas to experience GROWTH. For you to see “growth” in your life you need to set goals. You need to be asking yourself questions about what specifically do you want to grow in and how you will accomplish this growth in your life.
For you to see your goals succeed you must haveGROWTH:
G – GAUGABLE
Your goals must be measurable. You have to know HOW your progress is being charted. Monitoring your progress is the fun of reaching goals and it gives you incredible satisfaction. How will you gauge your progress? How do you notice when you've reached your goal?
R - RELEVANT
Your goals must be relecant. It’s about having your goals be in alignment with your season, your values and your vision. These goals are meant to be relevant to the season of your life (if not, you won't see the growth your hoping for). For example, going back to school when you just had a baby might not be the most relevant based upon your season of life. Do your goals align with your seasons? Do they encourage progress for you and others around you? Do they complement the demands and needs of you and others in your life? Do they align with your values as a person, family and follower of Jesus?
O - OPERATIVE
Your goals must have a specific action step attached to it. In other words, how will you operate your life by defining the action that you have to take to get to the result. To have a directive to accomplish your goal is critical (for example, "be more consistent at working out" isn't operative but "run 3 days a week" is operative). What action step is necessary to accomplish your goal?
W- WELL DEFINED
The next attribute is that your goals should be specific. You goals should be well-defined and should have focus. The more focused and specific your goals are, the more inspiring they become. Identify exactly what you want to accomplish (for example, "advancing my education" is too vague but "get a masters from U of M" is more specific and will make your more productive). What exactly do you want to accomplish in this domain of your life?
T - TIMED
Your goal should have an urgency to it to finish. Or in other words, what you want to do should have an "end date." have to know WHEN you reach your goal. Your goals should be time-sensitive. It should have a deadline and a frequency. Deadlines will force you to give it attention and action.
H - HABITUAL
What is the new habit you are defining for yourself? Essentially you want to have an articulated routine that is memorable and doable for you to accomplish your goal. This habit should persuade you to keep going and giving you momentum so that you continue to be personally “willing and able” to work towards this goal. What new habit will this evoke from you to finish your goal?
Use this GROWTH template to set goals or “branches” for each “tree” in your life to see the fruit that you are hoping for in this season of our life. Imagine a branch on each specific tree in your Life Grove. Just like a caregiver in an orchard goes out each day to inspect the limbs to look for the fruit, you can do the same thing. Imagine you walking through your Life Grove on a daily basis, slowly walking between the trees, inspecting the roots, admiring and branches and expecting the fruit.
“Each new year a new season , each limb a goal and each fruit a result of what you have done. ”
Your Life Grove won't see the fruit you are hoping for unless you are purposeful in how you are growing these specific areas of your life. Think of each of these specific domains as areas of your life that have to go through seasons. Just as in the natural, our lives have a winter, spring, summer and fall to harvest from, each of these areas of our lives have to go through seasons to see the fruit come and for you to flourish.
It’s the start of 2019, so set new goals and be intentional to see the "fruit" come from your labor. Each new year a new season , each limb a goal and each fruit a result of what you have done. Your season depends on where God has you, what your stage in life is. For example, your fruit from your relational tree will look different when you are in the season of being a new husband than when you are in the season of being g a father of a teenager. Just like trees have limbs that are carrying the potential fruit, think of each limb on your tree as a goal for this year. Each limb carrying the fruit buried in it's branches that will grow and develop over time till harvest. Finally each fruit will be the result of your hard work, spiritual disciples and forged habits over time.
Now comes the exercise:
Take out a sheet of paper. Draw 7 simple trees and label each tree with the domain names above. From there, begin thinking about each tree and what you want to see God do in each area of your life this year. Begin praying about the goal and imagine the fruit of what you want God to do in you this year. Write it down next to the tree or better yet, draw lines out from the trunk just like “limbs and write your goals on lines you’ve drawn. And watch God give you a fruitful year in 2019!