Connect S01E01_Re-Run - Effective Goal Setting

Resolutions fade when they are borrowed from trends, not built on purpose. We kick off the year by getting real about why goals fail, how routine quietly steals our time, and what it takes to move from vague wishes to outcomes you can measure. Drawing on timeless wisdom and lived experience, we look at life and time as core resources and show how focus, intention, and simple structure can transform your days.

We dig into a practical framework for setting goals you will actually keep. First, choose a destination that matters to you, not your peers, and then pick the best route for your season and capacity. To find what’s worth pursuing, we use two clear filters: pain points that signal where change is urgent and big‑picture vision that keeps your heart engaged when motivation dips. From career growth and financial stability to health and family life, we map out how to turn pressure into progress with small, consistent steps.

Along the way, we address the modern distraction trap. Shiny object syndrome makes everything look urgent; goals make it easier to say no. We explore how faith and wisdom shape daily decisions, why equal hours yield different outcomes, and how to be ready when opportunities return. You’ll leave with a simple way to write goals, choose next actions, and review your path without overcomplicating the process.

If this conversation sparked a shift for you, subscribe, share it with a friend who needs focused encouragement, and leave a review with the one goal you’re committed to owning this year. Your next chance is coming—will it find you ready?

Chapters

• 0:00 New Year, Resolutions, And Reality
• 2:30 Breaking The Status Quo
• 6:30 Faith, Wisdom, And Time Stewardship
• 10:20 Equal Time, Different Outcomes
• 14:20 Goals Are Personal, Not Group
• 18:10 Purpose, Fruitfulness, And Scripture
• 22:00 Destination And The Best Route
• 25:30 Focus In A Distracted World

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

Today's topic is on effective goal setting. We are just at the beginning of the year winning.

SPEAKER_03: 0:07

Yes.

SPEAKER_00: 0:07

And the year is still young, as they would say.

SPEAKER_03: 0:10

We can still say happy new year.

SPEAKER_00: 0:12

We can still say happy new year. Actually, happy new year to all who are joining us on Connect. Remember, you can interact with us on the comment section. And we have an email address that is shared for you to share your questions on real life and the word that you would want us to engage on this talk show. We are going to cover a variety of topics. And some will be based on your needs so that we can address some of the things that you are going through on real life that you would want us to address on this show as we connect the word of God to real life issues. And so today talking about uh goal setting reminds me of the way in the new year everybody has resolutions.

SPEAKER_02: 1:05

Yes, very good.

SPEAKER_00: 1:06

And we make new year. By the way, do you have any new year resolutions that you have made for this year?

SPEAKER_03: 1:11

Yes, I do.

SPEAKER_00: 1:12

And I hope you are doing well on your resolutions.

SPEAKER_03: 1:14

I'm trying, of course, one of them, as usual, is weight loss. But I know it is in many people's new year resolutions. But I think it's important to set New Year resolutions. I think I recently met a lady who told me resolutions. She loved making new resolutions. Why? Because she's not able to achieve, and she doesn't want to set things that would disappoint her come December, looking back and thinking, I never achieved anything. So she decided enough of it.

SPEAKER_00: 1:43

And I think that is not an isolated story, really, because there are many people who make resolutions and who actually, maybe our viewers today, somebody has made some resolutions, and probably by now they have already forgotten what the resolutions are. And some of them have already shelved those resolutions, and then they are back to what we may call default setting, going through the motions of life.

SPEAKER_02: 2:14

Of life.

SPEAKER_00: 2:22

And there is a beginning, there is an opportunity to begin again. You know, a new day can help you begin again. A new week can help you begin again, a new month. It doesn't have to be January to December. It can be on your birthday, and you decide I have an opportunity to begin again. I have an opportunity to set another goal. And so I think God has set time and seasons in such a way that it affords us an opportunity to rejuvenate, to recreate, to begin again.

SPEAKER_03: 3:03

Then what do we do with these opportunities? Because again, if we as we said, if you just live your life on routine, you'll realize you're always doing the same thing. That's what we call status quo, repeating things, and and and sadly the human behavior, like status quo. Just doing it is easier because imagine waking up every day. Most of us wake up same time, do the same things, go to work using the same route, do the same thing at work, come from work at four o'clock, go home, watch TV for three hours, sleep. And it gets easier. Why? Because our body loves routine. But when you bring in goals, it helps you think of changing behavior, it helps you doing, help you to do new things. Otherwise, you remain in what you call a status quo. That is when some people also suddenly you can get into a job for 40 years, do the same job and retire. But I believe there's still more. You can expand. But how do you expand? Through goal searching.

SPEAKER_00: 4:04

And I think uh what you're saying is so important because you realize that um there are people who are living a life that they they lack fulfillment in life because they have lived their lives in that routine kind of um a status quo as you've put it, but they expect different results.

SPEAKER_02: 4:26

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 4:27

All right, yeah. So that's that's that's another challenge, it's another area of frustration. So somebody wakes up the same time, sleeps the same time, goes through the motions of the day the same way, but maybe at the end of the day they expect to be more fulfilled, they expect to have achieved more. Earn more money, maybe you know, maybe earn more money. Um, as you're saying, you started by talking about weight loss.

SPEAKER_03: 4:50

Yes, or lost weight.

SPEAKER_00: 4:53

They will have lost weight, you know, or found fulfillment in different other aspects of life, but going through life on normal motions. And and that brings frustration.

SPEAKER_02: 5:06

It does.

SPEAKER_00: 5:07

Does it also bring frustrations to Christians? Because uh maybe to the normal motions of life, they add praying. What do you think?

SPEAKER_03: 5:15

No, it's good to pray, but I think also it's good to pray with goals, purpose. And uh, so that's why we think we need we have some, we need to share. Then how then do we move from status quo to sharing to getting goals and changing our lives for the better? Because I think God expects us to grow and be better. And life in it generally is about growth. And somebody, I think, said if you are not growing, you're dying. And I think that is true even for a tree, even for any plant. If a plant is, plants are always growing, they're either growing or dying. I think even for us as human beings, because nature's principle applies to everything in nature, which includes us. So we need to always have a plan of personal growth. And I think goals are the easier way because they help you focus your energy into something.

SPEAKER_00: 6:07

And and then and then again, another aspect, especially for Christians, is where you're probably asking yourself, so where is the place of the word of God in my daily living, in real life? And you can be a Christian, you're going to church every Sunday, maybe you're even going for a midweek uh service, and you listen to a sermon, and maybe the sermon in itself is an end. You don't pick a principle, you don't pick something that you can then uh integrate with your daily living to propel you to the next level of your life. And so, in this program, uh in Connect, one of the things that we are doing is going beyond Sunday, getting into your everyday life, engaging. How does the word of God impact your Monday, your Tuesday, your Wednesday, your Thursday, your Friday, your Saturday, and cause you to be an effective Christian who is achieving something for the kingdom uh through your personal life? The Bible, does the Bible have anything to say about uh setting goals? Yes, it does. There is quite a bit of um uh the scriptures that you can pick a principle that would actually help you appreciate why it is important and necessary uh to set goals. Let me read one one passage in Ephesians uh chapter 5, verse 15. It says, Therefore, be careful how you walk, not as unwise men, but as wise, making the most of your time because the days are evil. So uh some very important words here: wise and unwise men are making the most of your time because the days are evil. Distinguishing between a wise man and one who is unwise has something to do with how they engage their daily life.

SPEAKER_03: 8:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 8:15

I don't know. What what do you think about that?

SPEAKER_03: 8:18

Yes, it is about making uh making the most of opportunity and also utilizing what you call personal potential. Because there's so much in you, but how do you plan it well, being wise to be able to bring out what is in you? And I think this is uh, as you said, it's beyond the church. It is actually even mostly at work, what you do in a day-to-day life. So living, so I think goals now will help you focus, be more focused using whatever the potential God has put in you.

SPEAKER_00: 8:51

And and this scripture basically talks about two very important uh resources that we have that God has given each one of us. One is is is is basically about life. Because when it says, therefore, be careful how you walk, is is is another way of saying, therefore, uh be careful how you live. Be careful how you live. So life is very important, and it is a resource that each one of us have been given. You know, we don't have a life of our own where we can manufacture life for ourselves. It is God has given us life, and that is a resource that He has given each one of us. An opportunity to live is from God. But secondly, it also talks about time. Yes, time is another resource. So it says, uh be careful how you walk, and then it also says making the most of your time. Again, when it comes to the resource called time, we are all given equal time. 24 hours every day. Do you have 24 hours?

SPEAKER_03: 10:02

Everyone.

SPEAKER_00: 10:03

Oh, everyone has the pastor, yes, the CEO, the gardener, the gardener, the driver.

SPEAKER_03: 10:10

The driver.

SPEAKER_00: 10:11

Even somebody who is not, let's say, for example, now they are not working. Yes, they are they are still given 24 hours. It doesn't matter how rich you are or how poor you are, two resources here. You're given life, you cannot give it to yourself, and then secondly, you're given time, which you cannot give to yourself, you cannot buy anywhere. And it is a resource. A student has the same amount of time as the president. The poorest man on earth and the richest man on earth, they both have 24 hours, and then they have life. The difference then is what now the Bible here is saying care being careful how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise. And then it says making most of every opportunity. And then Paul goes ahead to say, because the days are evil, the context in which we live in is uh a context that requires us to be focused. It's a context that requires us to be deliberate, and it is a context that requires us to be intentional.

SPEAKER_02: 11:23

Yes.

SPEAKER_00: 11:24

Hence, I think goal setting and effective goal setting should be a priority for everyone, and even more so for those who believers in the kingdom.

SPEAKER_03: 11:35

Yeah, because we understand this this opportunity of life is God given. It's not our own making, as you said. So God has given us this time. So the question is how are you using your time? And I think that is where goal setting is. And I think sometimes the problem, sometimes we complicate goal setting. We feel that it is a concept too big. It is the big things. Maybe it is for the people who are out there, the CEOs, the bosses, but everybody set goals. And in fact, I think the most successful people are successful because they set goals that take them to that journey where they are. Nobody, I think John Maxwell says, nobody reached at the top of the mountain and said, Wow, how did I reach the top of the mountain? Going on top of the mountain is very deliberate. So that is what the essence of goal setting. So you have to set goals that will take you to that place that you like. It doesn't matter what you like, as in, is it a uh a good family life you want, then there should be some things you need to do to take you there. So I want us to think of goal setting as something personal to you. And it is not group because what is important to pastor to you might not be important to me. So personal goals are personal to you. And I think the only way to succeed in goal setting is owning the goals and then set things that are important to you. I think with that, then we can be able to have new resolutions that work, that we can work with and make us better at the end of the year. So it has to be really something personal to you.

SPEAKER_00: 13:11

So what we are saying, the Bible actually has something to help us put goal setting into perspective. But the other aspect also, there is a verse in Psalm 90, verse 12, where the Bible says, teach us to number our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom. And I think the second perspective uh or spiritual, I will actually call it um a spiritual principle, is knowing that we are here for a time. We are here for a set time. In fact, in the same passage, when you go to uh verse 10, it says that our time here on earth is 70 or 80 years, depending on grace and strength. Therefore, we are not here forever. We are not here on earth forever. And if we are going then to make the most of the limited time that we have, we then have to be very deliberate. We have to be very intentional. And one way of doing that as a Christian, as somebody in the marketplace, in the family, in your business, in your career, as a student, is to set effective goals, effective personal goals. But thirdly, the other principle I also see is that we are here for a purpose. You know, John 15, verse 8 says that Jesus is talking to his disciples and he says that they are here to be fruitful. He says, For this is to my father's glory that you bear much fruit. So goal setting is one way of measuring measuring fruitfulness and measuring whether we are actually working on purpose. Are we doing that which we are here on earth for uh as children of God? And so going into now breaking down this goal setting, probably we begin by uh setting a simple definition of what this goal setting is all about. What is this goal setting all about?

SPEAKER_03: 15:31

So the the the the the reason why we said personal goals is just like let's use the the normal example of a journey you want to go to Mombasa. First of all, you've set a you've made a decision of I'm going to Mombasa and I'm in Nairobi. So goal setting is uh helping you set a destination get a destination, and then now figure out what route will I use to to get to where I am going. So that is the essence of a goal. Have a destination and the how, how then do I reach the destination? And I think as you're adding, as you're talking about why even purpose. And I think the other thing about the world we live in, because we live in a very noisy world, and the social media and we live in interesting times, especially with the social media. Why? Because the the the world came right where you are. Initially, you used to have to walk, as we said, to the world. You had to really get out there to meet your friends, get out there to interact with people. But now, I think in this generation and setting, you cannot survive without goals because there are too many distractions, and the distractions come in even through your phone, through so many screens, so close to you, your computer. So at this season and in this generation, you have to work with goals. Be focused, otherwise, you're going to be all over. And there's a syndrome called a shiny object syndrome. Because everything is good, everything looks shiny and nice. But now, if you don't have goals, you'll realize you'll be chasing the wind. So goals help you focus, get something to work on, get a destination you are going to, so that every other journey becomes irrelevant to you. As I say, goal setting is very personal. Define what is important and define how then do I reach the important thing for me.

SPEAKER_00: 17:26

That's very interesting, especially the example that you just used. I realized that you can actually wake up in the morning and you can go anywhere. You can go everywhere.

SPEAKER_03: 17:39

And you can do anything.

SPEAKER_00: 17:40

And you can also fail to go. Alright? So you can wake up and if you decide to, you know, if you just go start going in the morning, somehow you will get to a certain destination. And you can get to any destination. But also, secondly, I hear what you're saying is that you can wake up in the morning and you start walking, you can wake up in the morning, you start cycling, you can wake up in the morning, you take a car, take a bus, take a train, you can even take a flight. So there is no shortage of destinations, and there is no shortage of means to destinations.

SPEAKER_03: 18:31

But the question is it an important destination to you?

SPEAKER_00: 18:35

Exactly. So so goal setting then helps us to define what our destination is, and then once we have defined what our destination is, goal setting further helps us to define what is the means.

SPEAKER_03: 18:53

The best means to my destination. Yeah, because every other means could be good, but for me, is it the best way to my destination? So I think in this generation, you cannot afford to live without goods.

SPEAKER_00: 19:08

So when we talk about uh identifying important uh goals, personal goals, what what what indicators can we give our viewers that this is what you will be looking out for for you to say I this is an important goal that is worth pursuing.

SPEAKER_03: 19:25

Oh, yeah. So, and I said, I think for me, I believe personal goals should be personal because we cannot have group goals. And I need and you see there is this trouble of peer pressure. Peer pressure is uh group thinking. We all think like this, we all want to go hiking, good things, but the question is without personal goals, you get very distracted. So you have to personal goals, and I said the other the the the for you to have effective personal goals, they have to have meaning to you, meaningful to you. And I think the easiest way to identify what I should be worth. Working on this year is using, I think, two parameters I want to use. I know there are many, but something very meaningful to you is use your pain points. Sounds weird. But what really is troubling you? What is really the trouble? What other these things giving you sleepless nights? I think those are pointers. And you know, pain, pain even in a normal body, normal in your body. The reason why you have pain, pain serves as warning, signals that there's something wrong. When you have pain in your leg, the body's telling you that you need to, there's something you need to check in your leg. So pain points, and these are even emotional pain points, are uh pointers. You can start working with us so that don't set goals that are out there. The reason I think we all fail is we set goals that are out there, goals that are not meaningful to me. So use your pain. What was the thing that was troubling you last year? Was this promotion? There's a promotion that really bypassed you, and you felt no, I needed the promotion. So use your pain points clearly. Let's start from there. Is it then do you really want the promotion badly? So make promotion one of your objectives for this year because you felt really bad. You felt that you all those pain. You felt that you are left out, you felt that you deserved. So make it your goal this year. Then the question is now put it as a priority. Priority for this year, I want to be promoted. That is your goal. It is meaningful to you. You feel it, it's important, it's time. With that, then you'll be able to set goals that are meaningful to you. The other, the other way to set personal goals is use big picture building, big picture, it's called big picture scene. What do you want to see? Even for yourself. I mean, you can, I think I can almost feel the emotion. What do you want to see? For example, uh, if you're a um a mother, what do you want to see? When do you want to see in your family? What would make you really happy? You want children who are doing what? Or what do you want for yourself as a as a as a father in this house or a what? So the things that you really want to see, make them personal goals. So own goals, use feelings, emotions. So I say big picture things that excite you and pain points. What are some of the pains that you want to avoid? Last year to start for me to pay school fees. And I I think this is not what I really want this year. Make it a goal, then to improve your finances so that school fees paying becomes easier for you. So own goals, make it personal. And I think with that, it will be easier now to move to the next step of how then do I make these goals better?

SPEAKER_00: 22:39

Wow, that's that's a very good way to to to to um ending this uh session. I I like that combination of pain and excitement to create goals. Yeah, that um when pain is supposed to be a discouragement, uh, many people give up because of whatever pain they may have gone through. You're saying that we can pick our pain points and use them as our springboard to the next level. So that thing which pained you, you missed an opportunity because you didn't have a certain qualification.

SPEAKER_02: 23:23

Yes.

SPEAKER_00: 23:24

Instead of going into despair mode, wisdom here is dictating that prepare yourself because there is a way sometimes opportunities come again. They always come. There will always be another opportunity. And the question is: will that next opportunity find you ready? Yeah, will that next opportunity find you qualified? And yes, I agree with you. I lost an opportunity one time simply because I started a course, I didn't finish it, you know, I I didn't stay focused. And so I die I pursued something else, and then this opportunity comes, and it finds me not ready to occupy it. And so somebody else gets the opportunity. And you see, what the worst thing to happen is for you to feel that life is unfair because that other person got the opportunity. But uh, as you're saying, Weenie, instead of getting into that uh uh, you know, depression mode, look at yourself as that other person uh by being ready next time to be the one now grabbing that opportunity. Yeah, effective personal goals. We have life as a resource, we have time as a resource, we have now pain as a pointer, as a pointer that will help you to spring to the next level. And then we have the the beauty of a big picture that you can you can imagine anything. God has given us such a resource that you can imagine anything. Don't just leave it at imagining. Sit down, scribble it, set it as a goal, get excited about it, start pursuing it, and indeed, you could be the next person that we will be talking about uh, you know, being successful in effective goal setting.

SPEAKER_01: 25:33

Thank you.

SPEAKER_00: 25:34

Wow, wow, that has been a great session. Connect. This is where we connect the word of God and real life. Make use of the comment section. Let us know what you think about our goal setting. Let us know what has troubled you as far as goal setting is concerned, and uh we will get back to you. You can use this email address to also let us know what are the topics that you would want us to address here on Connect. God bless you as you go to set effective goals. Thank you.