Roles and Goals
Mr. Rod McNair presented to us with an informative forum on the importance of schedules and goals. After our first week of classes has come and gone, we were able to take this information in and absorb it more appreciatively thanks to our currently full schedules.
What are your goals?
To start the discussion, Mr. McNair made it a point to interact with us by asking, and honestly wanting, the feedback we had to offer to questions he posed. He cultivated a closer connection with us by caring for and feeding the goals that we hold for ourselves to achieve throughout the program. He shared some of his own goals and reminded us that they should not be the same as the world’s. A key example of this is being a homemaker. With the feminist movement in the world today, being a homemaker, rearing children, and caring for the home is frowned upon, yet Scripture encourages the opposite. (Titus 2:4-5) “They admonish the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be blasphemed.”
Make goals a reality
Everyone has goals, yet what sets the successful apart from those that never achieve their goals is scheduling. Mr. McNair shared with us a schedule that he planned out for his life when he was a student at Ambassador College. Seeing this was enlightening for us because we could see the way it worked out after being written in ink. We are all thankful for the reminder he gave us, “Even if things seem overwhelming, you must make time for God!” God should be first and foremost in our goals and lives.
Focus on the short-term
While we are excited about what the future can hold for us, Mr. McNair made the point that we must put action into the short-term, day-to-day workings, to achieve our further-off desires. He provided us with one basic key to staying on track in the short term. He said that if we only take one thing away from what he shared it was, “Take the time to write out a schedule with goals for the upcoming week.” It may take a little time to become accustomed to this practice, but having the dedication will result in a more organized and productive week in which we can grow.
It’s about growth!
Mr. McNair said, “It is not about perfection, it’s about growth!” He made the point that we can write out our goals and create a schedule to achieve them, yet some situations may arise that affect our outcome. This is okay. To assist in making this point, Mr. McNair finished by playing a video on the Ernest Shackleton expedition from 1914. The goal of this expedition was to be the first to cross the continent of Antarctica, yet due to unforeseen circumstances, they narrowly made it back to civilization after two years of being shipwrecked. He said that looking at this story through the lens of goals, it was a massive failure because they didn’t attain their goal, and nearly died; However, this is an incredible story of leadership as Shackleton brought all his men back safely. While we work to achieve the end goal, unseen events can drift us off course to a different outcome. With our working to achieve goals, and God at the helm, nothing can drift us away from God’s plan for us.
We are excited to make our own goals and schedules to share with future generations. As Mr. McNair said, “It’s not rocket science…”
