Goals vs Challenges

​I woke up this morning thinking about the difference between goals and challenges. I have an adverse tense feeling towards the word and idea of setting goals. I am more open and willing to accept or create a challenge. Why is this? Aren’t they basically thing the same thing? It seems they are quite similar to me. Something is set before you and you work towards doing, accomplishing, or participating in it. You can fail, you can succeed, but you work towards it. Maybe thats it. Maybe its my view of a goal doesn’t have the same freedom that I see in a challenge. For me a challenge has a freedom of how to get it done,  of it could be hard,  of maybe it won’t happen, and of it can change as necessary. Its about the process, the overcoming. My perception of goals is more stagnant and cold. Goals are set. They need to be known in advance. They have a full stop. They are an end. Transitioning from one to another is hard. Maybe this definition isn’t true, but I think it is behind some of the internal rejection I have of the word, the idea, the action of goal setting and accomplishing. 

I like the idea of a challenge, a call to battle, a fight. It gears me up and sets me out. I’m not much of a fighter in the physical sense. I don't like disagreements, war, hurt, pain, or destruction. But I think I am a fighter for certain things. For friendship, for beauty, for art, for understanding, for Spiritual matters, for emotional health, for encouraging others, for restoration of our broken world, for seeing and knowing our Creator and Savior Jesus within these things.  

Maybe its time for me to be intentional to accept and make some new challenges this coming week. I wonder what challenges need to be set before me this week. 

Do you have any specific thoughts or feelings about Goals or Challenges?  What challenge will you accept this week?