“An optimist stays up until midnight to see the new year in. A pessimist stays up to make sure the old year leaves.” ~Bill Vaughan

It’s a new day, a new year and a new decade in your life!  Let it begin in 2010!  You have just completed another decade of your life!  This is a good time to take a look back to see where you’ve been and what you’ve done the last 10 years of your life . . . and more importantly, where you want your life to be 10 years from now.

I read an article online from a guy named Ken McCarthy who asked these 3 questions:

#1. What did you accomplish in the last decade?
Without being cynical and feeling like ‘not much’ you probably have done more than you realize.

#2. How many more decades do you have to play with?
In other words, time is ticking.  It goes by much faster than we realize.  Research proves that at most we live 80-100 years.  How many more decades do you have?

#3. What are your plans for the coming decade?
That seems so far away, doesn’t it?  To think of the year 2020 rolling around, it just feels like forever.  But the truth is . . . ten years flies by!

I challenge you to sit quietly for one hour and just think about your future.  Write down your goals for life.  What do you want to accomplish by the year 2020?  How much money do you want to have saved or invested?  Write it down.  Where do you want to live?  Where do you want to travel?  What do you want to do for God?  Who do you want to bless?  Which ministries has God called you to support?  Write your goals down in every area.

Don’t rush through your goals.  If you try to write every single goal you can possibly think of in that one hour of time, you will most likely not think through what you really want.  Practice setting time aside to consistently write your goals and review your goals.  Don’t make this a one time (January 1st) ritual.  Practice ongoing goal-setting.

Next, you will need to list the tasks needed to accomplish your goals.  I’ve seen in my own life, I used to list all kinds of goals without ever thinking through HOW to realistically accomplish them.  For example, if you set a financial goal to give $1200 to the Lord’s work this year, then you need to break that goal down into measurable steps.  Giving $1200 this year would mean giving $100 each month or approximately $25 week.  Mark it on your calendar and then follow-through.

Finally, keep your goals some place where you will consistently review them.  In the past, I would write my goals on January 1st, put them in a drawer all wadded up some place and never look at them again.  Results: I never changed!

If you have an planner/organizer, put them in there so you can review them consistently.  You must see your vision in order to pursue it.

Habakkuk 2:2(The Message) says:
And then God answered: “Write this.
Write what you see.
Write it out in big block letters
so that it can be read on the run.
This vision-message is a witness
pointing to what’s coming.
It aches for the coming?it can hardly wait!
And it doesn’t lie.
If it seems slow in coming, wait.
It’s on its way. It will come right on time.

This is the best time to begin planning your new year and new decade!  I am believing with you that the greatest days of your life are just ahead of you.  I am also believing that your relationship with Jesus will go to an all new level.  You will experience His love, His anointing and His favor on your life like never before!  Happy new year and happy new decade of walking towards your destiny!