The Power of Knowing What You Don’t Want!

IT… may very well be the most powerful life changing force you can harness… knowing what you want and where you are going.

Being focused on a goal or objective is extremely powerful. It can help you overcome weaknesses and make dramatic improvements… in health, in your mind, and most importantly… in your spirit.

The key to really powerful goals, of course, is making them both meaningful and specific. But tonight I do not want to discuss forming positive goals. Right now, it’s about setting negative goals.

What do I mean by setting negative goals?

It is just as important to set negative goals, it is to set positive ones. In other words, you need to define what you DON’T want in your life… just as much as you need to define what you do want.

Perhaps it would be a helpful exercise to actually make a list of all the things you absolutely, positively, unflinchingly want to eliminate from your life.

Is this a biblical concept?

Absolutely.

Jesus taught… in graphic, figurative language… that amputation is better than destruction – Matt. 18:8-9

Paul wrote to the Christians at Philippi: “Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. ” – Phil. 3:13-14.

And then this interesting passage: “let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, ” – Heb. 12:1

You see, we need to amputate, forget about, and lay aside the negative things in our life that prevent us from attaining the prize set before us. But you can’t take remedial, surgical action if you don’t know what needs to be eliminated.

What needs lopping off?

So what in your life needs a hatchet? I’m sure if we spent enough time really meditating on this, each of us could come up with a long list… if we are honest. May I suggest three areas you might want to start with?

Here they are:

• Habits
• Attitudes
• Distractions.

Habits are the routines you’ve gotten into that help you get through the day or respond to events… without thinking. Some habits are good and healthy. Others, not so much. Identify habits that need to go.

Attitudes are feelings about people, places, things, and events. Again, some attitudes are healthy, others are harmful. Make a list of the feelings you have for people and things in your life that need to be eliminated. But please, keep this private. This list is for your own personal development, not for posting on Facebook.

Not every negative feeling needs to be eliminated. Some negative feelings are justifiable. But even when a negative attitude is justifiable, it is still possible that it is unworthy of your time and energy.

Other attitudes and feelings are simply self-indulgent, emotional wrecking balls. If you cannot control your attitudes, then eliminate your exposure to the source. Take control of how you are affected by others. Controlling your emotions is BIG.

Finally, think about distractions that are preventing you from working toward your goals. I think this is one of the most effective tools Satan uses to create crippled Christians.

We are hamstrung and strung out on so many meaningless distractions. Sometimes it seems that if we have any measurable progress at all, it is at a snail’s pace.

Learn to eliminate distraction and its source in your life, “redeeming the time, because the days are evil” – Eph. 5:16. You will likely see dramatic improvements in your life.

Yes, accentuate the positive, but also remember to eliminate the negative.