Scott Fillmer » goals http://www.scottfillmer.com Life in Faith & Photos Tue, 07 Feb 2012 16:10:58 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Are Counterfeit Gods Giving Me the Most Self Worth? http://www.scottfillmer.com/2011/05/05/are-counterfeit-gods-giving-me-the-most-self-worth/ http://www.scottfillmer.com/2011/05/05/are-counterfeit-gods-giving-me-the-most-self-worth/#comments Thu, 05 May 2011 14:05:53 +0000 Scott Fillmer http://www.scottfillmer.com/?p=10277

Last Sunday we started a series at Cornerstone called Counterfeit Gods, somewhat based on the book by Tim Keller called Counterfeit Gods: The Empty Promises of Money, Sex, and Power, and the Only Hope that Matters, in a way of examining our lives to see exactly what we put in front [...]]]>

Last Sunday we started a series at Cornerstone called Counterfeit Gods, somewhat based on the book by Tim Keller called Counterfeit Gods: The Empty Promises of Money, Sex, and Power, and the Only Hope that Matters, in a way of examining our lives to see exactly what we put in front of God, to look at the idols we worship, other than or in addition to, God Himself. Often when we think of idols today we think about bowing down to the golden calf of the old testament, not something we do today, but our idols abound everywhere in 2011. When I started taking a closer look at this it becomes obvious that one man’s idol is another man’s gift, so to speak. Anything can be an idol. Even if it’s something inherently good, if it takes priority over the Lord, it’s out of it’s proper place.

What Makes Me Feel the Most Self Worth?

This question was on a list of ten questions we were asked to look at over the week, and this one, number six in line, was the one that poked a hole through my heart. To go along with the “self-worth” question, a series of questions was posed, like; “What am I the most proud of in my life?” and “Early on in a relationship, what do I want to make sure that people know about me?”

I have spent many years of my life trying to eliminate things within my own house that preside all over our culture, but this “self-worth” question is different than looking at something like materialism. For me, it seems like it would be easier to see if Apple has a stranglehold on your life than if your wife is more important to me than God, or if my work in ministry or photography is more important than God. The “who we are” questions that make us individuals and not clones is a fine line between obsession, knowledge, and proper place.

It’s those things in life, which drive our personality, it’s part of who we are as individuals, it’s what makes us unique among each other. Other people have skills and talents I can’t even imagine having, but I also have unique abilities, gifts from God, that I can use for His glory or my own selfishness. Reading Ephesians 2:8-10 yesterday reminded me that those gifts were not something self-made, but given to me. Apart from God there is nothing I posses, no ability I have, that is or was my own doing.

8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

On a more personal note, the answer I gave to these questions in my own journal is this entry below.

On a surface level I would have to say my job, my photography, or my blog gives me my most earthly self worth but that isn’t it, it is the praise of man that goes along with those things that shames me in being proud. Lord I ask that you help me succeed in glorifying your kingdom in the gifts you have given me while not boasting in my own abilities. I can take a great image of a dogwood flower but I can’t make the flower bloom. I can use the tools given me but I can’t create the life that appears in my images.

What I am known for and what I want to be known for are two totally different things still. This is exactly what Michael Hyatt goes over in his free eBook, Creating a Life Plan. What do I want to be known for is for being an honest, upright, and faithful man of God who turned to God in every aspect of life, more and more as I mature in life and age until the day the Lord calls me home. I want to be the best husband I can possibly be, and then the earthly things that come along with being a successful photographer or having a significant impact on people with my career in ministry, however long the Lord chooses that to be.

What am I actually known for? I don’t even want to ask, but it’s the gap between what I am today and the above paragraph where the work resides.

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]]> http://www.scottfillmer.com/2011/05/05/are-counterfeit-gods-giving-me-the-most-self-worth/feed/ 1 Photo of the Day for a Year Coming Up, I Think http://www.scottfillmer.com/2010/09/23/photo-of-the-day-for-a-year-coming-up-i-think/ http://www.scottfillmer.com/2010/09/23/photo-of-the-day-for-a-year-coming-up-i-think/#comments Thu, 23 Sep 2010 16:00:48 +0000 Tumble http://chiesadavi.wordpress.com/2010/09/23/photo-of-the-day-for-a-year-coming-up-i-think

For a long time I have wanted to take a photo of the day every single day for one year. I am going to start that on my Tumblr blog (over at http://scottfillmer.tumblr.com ) starting at the end of November, but this is the start of that transformation. For now I will post [...]]]>

For a long time I have wanted to take a photo of the day every single day for one year. I am going to start that on my Tumblr blog (over at http://scottfillmer.tumblr.com ) starting at the end of November, but this is the start of that transformation. For now I will post a single photo in each post and move forward to taking at least one single image a day for 365 days.

As a photographer this is not actually as easy as it sounds.  People get busy, get into a routine of doing the same thing every day, and this is what makes taking a photo every single day great.  Sometimes you really have to hunt and dig and become creative.  That’s the idea, to get more creative and think outside the box.  Time for the sun to rise on some new images.

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]]> http://www.scottfillmer.com/2010/09/23/photo-of-the-day-for-a-year-coming-up-i-think/feed/ 0 A Look at the Highs and Lows of My Blog for 2008 http://www.scottfillmer.com/2008/12/31/year-in-review-for-2008/ http://www.scottfillmer.com/2008/12/31/year-in-review-for-2008/#comments Thu, 01 Jan 2009 01:00:50 +0000 Scott Fillmer http://www.scottfillmer.com/?p=1422

As is customary during this time of year, we all have a tendency to look back at what 2008 had in store for us and look ahead to 2009.  A lot happened in 2008 and I thought I would do what many bloggers are doing of course and post of few of my [...]]]>

As is customary during this time of year, we all have a tendency to look back at what 2008 had in store for us and look ahead to 2009.  A lot happened in 2008 and I thought I would do what many bloggers are doing of course and post of few of my favorite blogs posts, top posts, searches, and tweets for 2008.  What was the highlight of your year?  I think we tend to remember the mosts recent and forget about what happened in January or February of this year but that’s what is great about a blog, all you have to do is go back and look at your archives.

What Was the Highlight of 2008?

For me personally, my highlight was probably joining the staff of Cornerstone Church as their IT person in December.  This was something I had been looking at, praying about, and preparing for, for many years, long before I ever moved to Auburn.  What made it even better to me was how outstanding the existing leadership staff (Rusty, Josh, Brian, and Jack) was when I came on board, and I can’t wait to move ahead in 2009 with the goals set forth by the church and the Church body as a whole.

I have only had time to just get my feet wet through the month of December but looking ahead there are great things in store for this small, but growing, church body, and hopefully I can contribute to its continued success in leading people to know and serve Jesus.

What Was the Lowlight of 2008?

Can you have a highlight or a best without a worst? I know many who believe this to be true, that you don’t have to have the existence of evil to good but that is for another post.  Probably the low point of 2008 for me and my immediate house was when we lost my mother-in-law Georgia to cancer.  It was not something I will ever forget, and is something I remembered in one form or another every day from April to this day.  I learned a lot, prayed a lot, and miss her as well.

Best of the Blog in 2008

These are some of the best according to me stats, but I am also picking the blog posts that I liked the best, which is not something stats will tell you.  It is interesting that stats will only tell you exact numbers, not feelings, so enter a feeling into the equation and it will change everything.

My Favorite Posts of 2008

Top Posts by View

Most Active

And as a bonus, the top searches.  This one is always weird to me.  If you pay attention to your searches (much deeper than this) you will see that people find your blog in some of the strangest ways, but yet the information is still relevant.

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]]> http://www.scottfillmer.com/2008/12/31/year-in-review-for-2008/feed/ 0 10 Ways to Set Goals for Your Online Internet Business http://www.scottfillmer.com/2007/10/23/goals-online-business/ http://www.scottfillmer.com/2007/10/23/goals-online-business/#comments Tue, 23 Oct 2007 16:09:14 +0000 Scott's Misc http://scott.islandzephyr.com/?p=166 After registering this domain name and setting up this blog I wanted to set some goals for its effectiveness. After all, how can you tell if what you are doing or want to do is working without some kind of ongoing self evaluation of goals reached or not reached. This goes the same for a [...]]]> After registering this domain name and setting up this blog I wanted to set some goals for its effectiveness. After all, how can you tell if what you are doing or want to do is working without some kind of ongoing self evaluation of goals reached or not reached. This goes the same for a small business and certainly is in place in large companies as well. I reached one of those goals this week, Reaching a Set Goal and Working on Others, and I wanted to look at some of the ways we set goals for our companies and what we can do with that information.

Some of the suggestions below are specific, some are much more general in nature, but without a goal of some kind, how do you know where you are going or have gone? Remember, all goals are not the same. Setting a lifetime objective for your business is not the same as a goal to reach a certain sales revenue volume by a certain date. Some people set goals by the length of time it will take to reach them, others set goals by the accomplishment itself, but I would consider for the sake of this article there to be minor, intermediate, and long term goals, all of which are necessary for a well rounded business.

A goal properly set is halfway reached. Abraham Lincoln

Make Goals Realistic to Reach

Many goals set are realistically unobtainable goals which will breed disappointed when they are not reached. It is important to set some milestone goals that are realistically obtainable by your company, business, or blog. When you have achieved these goals, set new, higher ones knowing that you have reached a minor goal you set forth to reach.

Another question to ask here would be, do you have all the resources you need to be able to achieve this goal in the first place? If not, it may not be very realistic. One of the goals may be to get the resources to achieve the next goal.

Make the Goals Measurable in Some Way

You need some good way to measure the success or failure of a certain goal. This is pretty easy on a blog, just check all the traffic rankings, feed subscriptions, ad spots filled, but you do need some kind of standard to which you measure how close you are to obtaining that goal.

Set Minor, Intermediate, and Long Term Goals

You don’t want to just set short term minor goals either. Set a well rounded mix of easier and harder to reach goals so you can judge when you have made some real progress. Whatever your goals, they will be reached, or not, over an extended period of time, setting a mix of goals will get your head out of today and now and get you looking at the future of your business.

Goals Should be Flexible, Not Set in Stone

What if you are moving right along and realize that your goals for the business have changed. Well your goals need to be able to change with your business. Don’t make or think about them as set in stone. As you develop your business you may find that you no longer want to reach a certain point or it has less importance than it did when you first set the goal. Keep them flexible and change them when you need to.

Focus on Strategies That Will Reach Your Goals, Stay Focused

Stay Focused. This may sound dumb, but if you actually want to reach the goals you have set, do things that work towards those goals. We can often set goals and then what we actually do is counterproductive to the set goal. If we want to keep going in that direction, fine, just read the step above and change the goal you want to achieve, or change the direction you are going to try to meet the goal as you stated it in the first place.

Review Your Goals From Time to Time

If you don’t look at them once in a while how will you ever know if you reached them or not? Do be obsessed as many of are with the actual numbers on a day to day basis, but if you have some short term goals, check on them at the end of the work week. That is easier said than done, especially on a blog. We all want to keep looking at our many different numbered areas like Digg, Technorati, Feed Subscribers and so on, but it is better time spent to check on them once in a while. You will also see larger jumps in the numbers than if you check them every day.

Focus on Your Goals, Not Your Competitions Goals

I actually went back with this one, simply because we all keep tabs on our competition, right? Well keep focused on your goals (some of which may be the same as your competition) and don’t worry about what the Jones’ business is doing, goal wise. If you work to achieve your goals you will probably be outrunning your competition anyway and it is always better, in my opinion, to worry about making your own business better than making your competition worse, they can do that on their own.

Be Specific, Don’t Be To Vague

Setting goals that are very broad or vague are hard to reach for the fact that it is hard to determine if you have actually met the goal or not. Don’t set a goal that says I want to increase the traffic to my blog or increase my revenue. All business want to increase their revenue, I think, and most blogs want their traffic increased. These are vague goals. Better would be, I want to increase the traffic to my site by 50% by the end of the year, or I want to increase our revenue of product ABC by 25% over last year.

Don’t Focus on the Disappointment of Not Reaching a Goal

We are not going to reach all the goals we have set, we just are not going to do it if we have any aspirations other than the most basic milestone goals. Don’t let this stop you from trying to continue to work toward a stated goal. Focusing on the disappointment of not reaching a goal will actually keep you from obtaining your goals. Focus on the positive.

Have Fun… When You Reach the Goal. Evaluate Your Success

If you have read any of my top ten lists you will know that, for me, number 10 is always have fun. If you have reached a goal, review how you met the goal. Did you meet it very fast, perhaps it was not set high enough, is it time to set another one? Do something you enjoy, go out to dinner, give your employees something, large or small, celebrate it in some (enjoyable) way.

I have a few more article editions to this one so stay tuned. I will outline my goals for this site and offer specific suggestions for your business goals and how to archive them. Since I just reached one of my goals for this site (obtaining an Alexa ranking of any kind) I think I will go to step 10, have fun.

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