Why is It Important to Set Goals in Life?
Feb 09, 2026Summary
Have you ever wondered why you are supposed to set goals? Is there a real spiritual reason, or should you just float along with the current and see where God takes you? In this episode of the Arise, Women of God podcast, host Tamara K. Anderson and advisory board member Sandy Falter tackle the foundational question: Why is it important to set goals in life?
We explore the concept of "Spiritual Atrophy"—the dangerous reality that doing nothing doesn't mean staying the same; it means declining. Sandy explains the life-changing concept of "The Gap and The Gain," teaching us how to measure our growth against where we started rather than where we aren't, which protects us from discouragement. We also dive deep into the Parable of the Talents, revealing why God values your effort over your outcome and how setting "toddler-sized" goals is the secret to building adult-sized spiritual confidence. If you have been feeling stuck in limbo or afraid to move forward, this episode will show you how goals are actually the training ground for your soul's ultimate purpose: preparing to meet God.
Episode Takeaways
- Spiritual Atrophy: Just like muscles, your spirit does not stay static. If you do nothing, you atrophy. Goals are the resistance training required to keep your spirit growing and progressing.
- The Gap vs. The Gain: Frustration comes from measuring yourself against the ideal (The Gap). Gratitude and confidence come from measuring yourself against where you started (The Gain). Look back to see God's hand in how far you've come.
- The Parable of the Talents: God gives gifts "according to ability." He isn't judging you against the person with five talents; He is only looking at how you stewarded the one or two He gave you. Comparison kills stewardship.
- Toddler Confidence: Just as a toddler builds confidence by taking shaky first steps, we build spiritual confidence by setting small goals and achieving them. God isn't disappointed when you stumble; He is cheering that you are trying to walk.
FREE Resource
Ready to stop floating and start growing? Download our FREE Guide to Goal Setting. It includes the "Sacred Brainstorm" worksheet to help you identify the specific talent God wants you to develop next. 👉 Download the Guide Here: https://www.womenwarriorsoflight.com/offers/WyaLn2gS/checkout
Reflection Questions
- Are you currently "floating" in any area of your life? If so, have you noticed signs of "spiritual atrophy" or decline in that area?
- When you look at your goals, do you focus on the "Gap" (how far you have to go) or the "Gain" (how far you've come)? How can you shift that perspective today?
- Read the Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25). Have you ever buried a talent because you were afraid it wasn't as "big" as someone else's?
- What is one "toddler-sized" goal you can set this week to build your confidence?
Host & Guest
Tamara K. Anderson @tamarakanderson
Sandy Falter @sandyfalter_coaching
Transcript
Tamara K. Anderson
00:00:00.160 - 00:02:12.340
Have you ever wondered why you're supposed to set goals in life? Is there a reason or should you just float along with the current?
By the end of today's episode, we are going to tackle this important question by talking about Muscles of Progress, the Gain versus the Gap, a cool story about comparison and how goals help you build confidence in who you are. Stay tuned.
Ordinary Women Extraordinary Faith When God calls, we say yes The Arrival of the Arise Women of God Podcast hello and welcome to another episode of the Arise Women of God podcast. I'm your host, Tamara K. Anderson and today I'm joined by Sandy Falter, a member of our Women warriors of Light Advisory Board.
She is an amazing certified grief coach who empowers women to heal from heartbreak by equipping them with practical tools, compassionate support, time tested principles and faith based insight. One of the things I love about Sandy is that she has proven by her own experience that you truly can heal from grief through Jesus Christ.
You can find Sandy on her website, sandyfalter.com and while you're there, be sure to check out her free healing workshop or or book a free coaching call with her. And today we're looking at why doing nothing is the most dangerous decision you can make.
First, we'll talk about the muscles of progress and why inactivity leads to spiritual atrophy in our daily lives. Second, we'll explore the gain and the gap principle, how to measure your growth against where you were, not just where you aren't.
Third, we're going to dive into the parable of the talents to see why God values your efforts over comparison. And finally, we'll share how setting toddler size goals is the secret to building adult size confidence.
But first, let's dive into spiritual atrophy and limbo.
Sandy Falter
00:02:12.500 - 00:02:43.460
You know, I've thought about this and I've thought about, you know, my goal to go to the gym. And it's not always successful. But why do we do that? And what happens with our muscles if we do nothing? If we do nothing, they atrophy.
They don't stay the same. And so goals are so important because they help us to grow and progress and we have to put in effort to grow and progress.
And so doing nothing isn't the solution. And setting goals and setting intentions is. That's how we grow.
Tamara K. Anderson
00:02:44.180 - 00:04:04.810
It's important to set goals to make progress. I think some of the most frustrating points of my life have been when I'm in a limbo situation. And you know what I'm talking about.
It's those points in Life where you know you're getting ready to make a change, but it's like you're in a holding pattern. You know, you're like, I can't move forward yet. It's almost, almost, almost, almost.
And that is one of the most paralyzing, frustrating things for me. I didn't realize how important progress felt to me until I felt the lack of progress. And then you're like, this is so hard.
I don't like this feeling of being stuck, of not being able to move forward. And so I think that also conveys it in just another feeling or emotion. Right.
That feeling of being stuck is actually a signal that your soul is ready for the next level of training. But when we start that training, we often make the mistake of looking at how far we still have to go rather than how far we have come.
Sandy is going to now share a powerful concept that really helps with this frustration.
Sandy Falter
00:04:05.770 - 00:05:09.470
There's a book that I've been reading called the Gap and the Gain that is so good. And measuring ourselves against our gain. Not the lack, not. I'm not there yet.
And when we do that, I feel like God can better guide us when we're staying in that place of gratitude, and we can look back and see his hand, and we can see the growth, and then we're not. So maybe frustrated when we're on step five and God's like, oh, I'm gonna take you on a little detour.
Actually, I just wanted to get you to step five, because actually, now I'm gonna have you jump tracks and go this way, and. And I'm like, but wait a minute. My goal was, you know, was this direction, and.
But when we're living in that space of gratitude and we're looking for God's hand and seeing the growth, measuring against where we are, not against somebody else and not against what we haven't achieved, that makes all the difference. And it keeps us open to God's guidance and direction, to something greater that he has in store.
But we did need to go this direction, get to step five so that then he could detour us. And I've seen that so many times in my life. Have you, too?
Tamara K. Anderson
00:05:10.120 - 00:05:40.040
Absolutely. God is the master of the detour. He knows what we need to hit certain milestones to be ready for the track ahead.
This is not just about reaching the finish line. It's about the stewardship of the gifts God has already placed in your hands.
But sometimes fear makes us want to bury these talents or gifts instead of growing them. Let's listen to the discussion Sandy and I have as we talk about this.
Sandy Falter
00:05:40.620 - 00:07:30.690
What I love about the parable of the talents is that God knows our ability, right? He doesn't expect us to do what other people do.
You know, he gave 15 because he knew the ability of that person, and then he gave another two because he knew the ability. We all come with different abilities. We still have capacity to grow, and we. He knows we can.
And he is not judging us against anyone else, just what the stewardship that we have and how we are accountable for the gifts that he gives us. And so I really love that because sometimes I might get in a comparison mindset, right? And. And I have to remember, no, no, no, no. I'm an individual.
I'm unique. But I also have been gifted this from God.
He knows what I'm capable of, and so I can do this if I keep my eye on him and am accountable for what he's given me. Because we've all been given something different. We all have different challenges. We all have different blessings and different directions.
And that's what's so great, is I can learn from other people because of that. And so I really love that one. The parable teaches us that God knows we have ability, and that's why he's blessed us with these things.
And also that maybe he won't give us more than we can have at one time, right? He's gonna give us a little bit, and then he'll see us grow, and then he'll give us a little bit more. I mean, there's so many lessons in that.
But also, I think sometimes I have been the person that's been given one. Maybe I have been too distracted with all the other things around me, or. Or I'm waiting for the right time and I'm halted.
And I don't really move forward with some of those things. Have you experienced that?
Tamara K. Anderson
00:07:31.560 - 00:10:21.120
Yes, definitely. I love that parable.
And one of the things that it says, the reason the servant in that parable says he did not act on developing his talent is because he was afraid. And how many times do I let fear hold me back in moving forward with a goal?
Because it just seems so far out there, so hard, so big, so heavy, or I am comparing myself to somebody else, and I'm afraid that I will never be up to that standard. You know, I'll never reach what they are reaching. I can totally relate to that feeling of fear.
And yet another thing we're taught is that faith or belief can always overcome fear. And so it just Depends on where our focus is. If we focus on our identity as God's children, the comparison truly just fades away.
We realize that we really are just toddlers in his eyes. And every time we stumble or fall as we're reaching for a goal, he isn't disappointed. He is cheerleading because we are trying.
I think one of the reasons also that we're supposed to set goals is because it helps us gain confidence in ourselves and in our capacity. I remember as.
As my kids were super little and they were learning to, like, walk or do these little baby things, it was important to let them try because they wouldn't know what they are capable of until they actually stumble and fall a little bit. But look, now I can walk. Look, now I can run. Look, now I can climb the stairs. You know, now I can pedal a bike.
And it's just those baby things of progress that help us gain confidence in ourselves. And I think we can take that lesson and apply it to ourselves as adults.
There's things that we are that I know I'm being stretched to do now that probably in God's eyes, he looks at me as like a little toddler. Hey, Tamara, guess what? You're try doing this now. I don't know if I can do that.
You know, when I first started this journey of writing a book and launching a podcast, years and years ago, I didn't know I could write a book. I didn't know I could do a podcast. I was not technology savvy at all.
And yet now I look at who I become, and I can record and edit podcasts, and I know a lot about audio and video recording that I never would have thought I had that capacity, but it has built my confidence in who I am and in what I can do. I never would have guessed I would have this capacity, but God could see it in me. Do you know what I mean? So I think that's part of it, too.
Sandy Falter
00:10:22.060 - 00:11:13.400
The other thing that I. That I loved is as I was reading the Parable of the Talents, I just started the beginning because chapter 25 in Matthew is so good.
It's got three great parables to learn from in there. And it kind of took me back to the priority here. Like, what am I even. Why am I growing? What am I doing? I'm preparing to meet God, right?
That's what the parable of the. Of the ten virgins or the bridesmaids. That's what that is. It's preparing to meet God. That's why I want to progress. I'm preparing for his coming.
And and so having that purpose deep down in why I'm even doing these things helps me. Knowing why and knowing who I am are kind of the core of the beginning for me in setting my intentions and setting my goals.
Tamara K. Anderson
00:11:14.130 - 00:11:51.950
Setting a goal isn't just about getting things done. It's about preparing your soul to meet God who gave you these gifts and talents to begin with.
You aren't just busy, you're in a season of divine preparation. If you're ready to get out of limbo and start your own walk of faith, go download our free A Guide to Goal Setting for Christian Women.
It features the Sacred Brainstorm and the Don't Quit Emergency Kit that we've talked about to help you through those difficult detours in life. So my friends, go take that baby step of progress today. Your muscles are ready for growth. Arise. Do it God's way. God strong.
