So far in this series, we’ve talked about goals that are definable, and goals that are doable.  The last thing we need to talk about is making sure our goals have deadlines.

Setting Deadlines

All three of these D’s are interrelated.  Part of making a goal definable is making it measurable.  Part of making a goal doable is making sure it is the right “scale” for the time-frame you’re looking at.  Well, the deadline is the cut-off of that time frame – the point at which you want to measure your progress.

If you decide that you want to read the entire Bible, but the definition of your goal ends there, how will you know three months from now (when you haven’t read the whole thing yet) if you’re on track, or if you’ve missed the boat?  You failed to determine whether you wanted to read the whole Bible in a month, six months, a year, ten years…

If you’ve considered your goals carefully in light of the last two posts, this one should be pretty easy.  In fact, you may have already put deadlines in place in the process of making them more definable and doable.  If not, this is a good time to add them.

Does each of your goals have a deadline?