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I started mapping out my goals and objectives for 2012 and like most years they are pretty ambitious. My list probably looks like most people's with a few minor exceptions. I have financial goals, health and fitness goals and spiritual goals. There are specific things I want to accomplish and places I want to go, but all in all it probably mimics many of your lists.

Over the years I have had some great successes and miserable failures when it comes to this goal-setting thing. My current weight indicates that excercise did not top my list of successes last year, but my retirement account shows that at 52 I am finally taking my golden years seriously. This year I decided I want to take a very different approach to achievement - it is based on a blessings philosophy. When I do my goal setting each year, one thing I do is list resources available to help me meet my goals. As I was going through my list of resources (also known as blessings), it really sank in how truly blessed I am.

In the past, next to my list of resources I would make a list of additional resources that I would need to achieve my goals. That is where I plan to experiment this year. When it really registered just how blessed I am, I decided to "work from my abundance." In other words I am going to see how much I can accomplish with what is already in my hands. I am going to try to avoid buying that hot new app, or the electronic gizmo that has caught my fancy. I really want to learn how to differeniate wants and needs. For example in the area of exercise. I have been looking at purchasing some free-weights to work out in the garage. I already have a treadmill, dumbells and the local recreation center. I haven't used those resources very well to date, adding resources won't do anything until I demonstrate the ability to use what I have effectively.

In 2011 I took over a foundation that was struggling. We didn't have much in available funds or resources, but we did have a rich history and a worthy work going on in Africa. I had no choice but to begin to rebuild the organization with limited resources. God blessed African Christian Schools last year in ways I couldn't imagine. While our resources were limited, God's were not. So this year I plan to approach my own life that way. Be thankful I am blessed with so much - now to use what God has already put in my hand to achieve great things in 2012.