Wake Up!

"(Wake me up) Wake me up inside
(I can’t wake up) Wake me up inside
(Save me) Call my name and save me from the dark
(Wake me up) Bid my blood to run
(I can’t wake up) before I come undone
(Save me) Save me from the nothing I’ve become."
lyrics from Evanescence - Bring Me To Life (written by Amy Lee, Ben Moody and David Hodges)

Tomorrow is my birthday. Another year older! And I am encouraged to wake up and to set some Life Goals to achieve by this time next year. And they should be realistic and achievable!

Don't get me wrong: it's not that I've been living in some idyllic fantasy dream world, always reaching for the unattainable. No, if anything, I've been dozing off for a little while.. Pottering along, but capable of so much more - with short bursts of frantic activity!

You see, the goals which I set for myself as a young adult are quite a long way behind me. In fact, many of those dreams were shattered by the twists and turns of life. Some said that I needed to lower my expectations. Some hold a contrary view and think that I now need to raise them!

Time to wake up and start again. I've considered those aspects where I've achieved real fulfillment over the past five years and used that for the basis of my renewed target setting.

I also read this quote yesterday on the net - this also resonated something within me:

"How far we are away from achieving our goals or fantasies and whether or not we feel that we are steadily moving towards these goals will determine how happy we are and how much life satisfaction we have."

And here's one final point before I start putting these goals down on paper - and it's to remind me that the Lord needs to be actively involved in the decision:

James 4:13-16 (The Message)
And now I have a word for you who brashly announce, "Today—at the latest, tomorrow—we're off to such and such a city for the year. We're going to start a business and make a lot of money." You don't know the first thing about tomorrow. You're nothing but a wisp of fog, catching a brief bit of sun before disappearing. Instead, make it a habit to say, "If the Master wills it and we're still alive, we'll do this or that." As it is, you are full of your grandiose selves. All such vaunting self-importance is evil. In fact, if you know the right thing to do and don't do it, that, for you, is evil.