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Setting Goals for 2012

December 27, 2011 in Experience, Faith in Action, Leadership, Mission, Prayer, Self-Leadership with 1 Comment

I hope everyone had a very, Merry Christmas and that you were able to spend time with your family and friends over the holiday weekend. In less than one week, we will be celebrating the New Year so today I want to give you a few tips on planning and preparing so that  2012 can be a great year for you and those closest to you.

For the last week, I have been taking a few minutes out of each day in order to plan and set some goals for 2012. Over the years, I have gathered a handful of tips that have helped me set and achieve goals. I have come across these tips in books or at conferences or from practical experience. It is my hope that at least one of these tips will help you. Nelson Searcy talks about living a philosophy of “Learn & Return.” He says that anytime you learn something significant you should gladly return it back to the Kingdom by sharing what you’ve learned with others. It is my hope that by sharing some of what I’ve learned about setting goals that your life will be impacted in such a way that you will want to share this with someone else.

Begin and End In Prayer
When setting goals you definitely want to begin with prayer. You want to make sure that the plans you are making or the things you want to accomplish are firmly set and find their meaning within the purposes of God. When I am in a season of setting goals I often start by praying through Psalm 139. Asking God to search your heart and to test your motives is a difficult but crucial task if you are going to do anything of real significance for God this year. The psalm ends by asking God to lead you in his way- his will for your life. You can pick some things to do this year or you can ask the God of the Universe to help you accomplish great things that will have a lasting impact on you and those around you. To me, the choice is easy. Spend some time praying before you just start listing things you’d like to do this year.

Also, make sure to end your planning time in prayer. Thank God for the wisdom and insight he has provided. Pray that he will give you the strength and focus you need to carry out the goals he has given you. Praying before and after your planning puts a Prayer Parenthesis around your goals.

Think in Categories
In 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Steven Covey encourages you list out the various life roles you play on a daily basis. For me, I have about six roles and relationships that I do life in every day. I am a Disciple of Jesus, a Husband, a Father, a Minister, a Friend, and a Son/Brother. Each of these roles call for a different set of responsibilities and growth happens differently in each of the realms. I have a different set of goals for developing my relationship with Jesus and I have different goals to help me be a greater spiritual leader in my home as a husband and father. There is a sense where growth in one area will impact the others but I feel like God calls me to list specific goals for each of these separately.

You can also break up your goals in to areas such as Emotional, Spiritual, Relational (What are my goals for my relationships this year?), Influence (Who do I need to influence this year and how?), Physical (What are my goals for my physical health this year?), Financial, and Intellectual (How am I going to grow intellectually this year?).

Breaking you goals up into categories helps you see what areas need growth and it can help you be specific about what goals to set.

Be Specific
Often, our goals are pretty vague. Getting specific helps us craft a plan for actually achieving the goals we set before us.

“I want to grow closer to God this year.” Ok. How? What steps are you going to take to grow closer to him? Will you spend more time reading your Bible? Will you make it a goal to pray more consistently? Be specific with this goal by stating something like this:

It is my goal to grow closer to God this year. In order to do this I will start my year off with a fast and I will read one of the gospels each week for the entire year.

“I want to love my wife more deeply.” What are you going to do to achieve this goal? Will you write her a love letter each week? Will you arrange a babysitter each week so that you can treat her to a weekly date night? Specific example:

It is my goal to love my wife more deeply through daily sending her a text message telling her how much she means to me, weekly sending her a card by mail, and monthly planning a date night to reconnect as a couple.

Don’t set vague goals. Vague goals do not change lives.

Tell Someone
Accountability is setting goals is a must. Tell someone your goals. Share with someone you hope and plans. Let a friend celebrate your victories and lift you up when you fail. Goals set in community impact a greater number of people. Don’t keep your goals to yourself.

Pray Hard, Work Hard
A phrase that I have always loved is “Pray like it depends on God, Work like it depends on you.” I have been using this phrase since I first heard it in college. This idea of Praying Hard and Working Hard recently popped up again because it played a big role in Mark Batterson’s The Circle Maker and Dave Ramsey’s EntreLeadership (two of my top 5 books for 2011). Batterson writes that too often we set goals, pray to God about what we want,and then fail to do anything because we want God to just give us what we’ve asked for. We shouldn’t simply pray and walk away. We should pray and entrust our needs and desires to God but then we should be faithful to get after it and work toward that end. Sometimes God is gracious and drops things in our laps. Most of the time though God answers our prayer when we are obedient to him. You aren’t working to curry God’s favor so that he will give you what you desire. You’re work is carried out as an act of faith and trust in the One who truly determines every outcome. God delivered his people from the hand of Pharaoh but Moses still had to travel to Egypt. God gave Jericho to the Israelites but Joshua still had to march. Jesus prayed that God’s will be done but he still had to go to the cross. Praying hard and Working hard are not at odds. Both are acts of faith and both are needed when you set out to plan and achieve godly goals.

Celebrate
There are 366 days, 52 weeks, and 12 months in 2012. Celebrate little victories along the path of achieving your goals and celebrate big time when you are able to cross a goal off of your list. Two passage that will help you celebrate small and large victories are Ecclesiastes 3:11 and Lamentations 3:22-24.

He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end. (Ecclesiastes 3:11 NIV)

“The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. “The LORD is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.” (Lamentations 3:22–24 ESV)

God wants to accomplish great things in and through your life this year. It is my prayer that you will set aside some time in the next few days to plan and dedicate your time, talent, and treasure to following after the goals God sets in your heart.

For more on prayer and setting goals, check out The Circle Maker by Mark Batterson which helped inspire and give structure to today’s post.

Clean Out

November 25, 2011 in Best Practices, Personal Leadership, Resources, Self-Leadership with Comments Off

I’m spending a little time on the Black Friday to clean up and clear out my office up at the church building. The space where I work is often (most often) cluttered with notepads filled with ideas, post-it notes with reminders, articles I haven’t read yet, forms I have to filled out, catalogs, cups, pens, and other miscellaneous office-like things.

One of my favorite ministry management books is Youth Ministry Management Tools by Olsen, Elliot, and Work. I have consistently  come back to this book over and over in ministry in order to draft forms or plan events. The whole first half of the book is dedicated to Getting Organized so I am cleaning out the office based on some of their suggestions and tips. Here’s what I’m doing:

1) Sort the stuff in your office
Quickly sort everything into 4 boxes
  • Stuff to FILE: Fill this box with forms, old pictures, personal notes, archives, anything “paper-ish” that you need.
  • Stuff to READ: Fill it with magazines, catalogs, brochures, fliers, event posters, conference brochures,  curriculum samples, and general ministry mail
  • Stuff to GIVE AWAY: In this box sort all your miscellaneous items, free stuff you’ll never read or use, old stufff you’ll never really need, pens, desk junk
  • Stuff to THROW AWAY: Anything you can’t put in the other 3 boxes. Ask, “Can I get this information somewhere else if I throw it away?”
2) Go through the boxes
  • FILE: label each item in the box with a Post-It note giving the name of the folder in which the item belongs. Then invite you assistant or a volunteer to file each one.
  • READ: Use Post-It Notes to identify any article you wish to save. Ask your assistant or a volunteer to rip out or photocopy necessary articles, toss the rest of the magazine, and then file the article.
  • GIVE AWAY: Give yourself 1 week to find  home for all your “good junk.” Then toss it in box 4!
  • THROW AWAY: Give it to the Trash gods ASAP!

In a little over 2 hours I was able to tame the chaos and regain control over my work space.

My next step will be to clear out and organize my file cabinet so that I can actually file the important things that I have uncovered today by cleaning my desk area. My hope to also utilize Evernote to digitally file everything where it is easily accessible and searchable.

I hope you found some of these tips helpful. Having a clean and usable work space is key to getting stuff done. We all have important work to do. Clear the clutter and get back to work! People are counting on us!

Choice Cuts from Linchpin

January 29, 2010 in Ethos, Leadership, Remarkable, Self-Leadership with Comments Off

I have been reading Linchpin: Are You Indispensable? by Seth Godin this week and I have just been soaking in the leadership goodness that overflows from this book. This book is one part field training manual and one part kick in the pants to help you get out and make a difference right now. Here are a few of the gold nuggets I’ve highlighted so far:

You Are a Genius If a genius is someone with exceptional abilities and the insight to find the not so obvious solution to a problem, you don’t need to win a Nobel Prize to be one. A genius looks at something that others are stuck on and gets the world unstuck.

The tragedy is that society (your school, your boss, your government, your family) keeps drumming the genius part out. The problem is that our culture has engaged in a Faustian bargain, in which we trade our genius and artistry for apparent stability.

This book is about love and art and change and fear. It’s about overcoming a multigenerational conspiracy designed to sap your creativity and restlessness. It’s about leading and making a difference and it’s about succeeding. I couldn’t have written this book ten years ago, because ten years ago, our economy wanted you to fit in, it paid you well to fit in, and it took care of you if you fit in. Now, like it or not, the world wants something different from you. We need to think hard about what reality looks like now. What if you could learn a different way of seeing, a different way of giving, a different way of making a living? And what if you could do that without leaving your job? This is not a book for the wild-haired crazies your company keeps in a corner. It’s a book for you, your boss, and your employees, because the best future available to us is a future where you contribute your true self and your best work. Are you up for that? One promise: the world to come (and this book) is neither small nor flat.

It’s time to stop complying with the system and draw your own map. Stop settling for what’s good enough and start creating art that matters. Stop asking what’s in it for you and start giving gifts that change people. Then, and only then, will you have achieved your potential.

After years of being taught that you have to be an average worker for an average organization, that society would support you for sticking it out, you discover that the rules have changed. The only way to succeed is to be remarkable, to be talked about. But when it comes to a person, what do we talk about? People are not products with features, benefits, and viral marketing campaigns; they are individuals. If we’re going to talk about them, we’re going to discuss what they do, not who they are. You don’t become indispensable merely because you are different. But the only way to be indispensable is to be different. That’s because if you’re the same, so are plenty of other people. The only way to get what you’re worth is to stand out, to exert emotional labor, to be seen as indispensable, and to produce interactions that organizations and people care deeply about.

Every successful organization has at least one linchpin; some have dozens or even thousands. The linchpin is the essential element, the person who holds part of the operation together. Without the linchpin, the thing falls apart.

If your boss won’t raise your bar, you should.

Fearless doesn’t really mean “without fear.” What it means in practice is, “unafraid of things that one shouldn’t be afraid of.” Being fearless means giving a presentation to an important customer without losing a night’s sleep. It means being willing to take intellectual risks and to forge a new path. The fear is about an imagined threat, so avoiding the fear allows you to actually accomplish something. Reckless, on the other hand, means rushing into places that only a fool would go. Reckless leads to huge problems, usually on the boss’s dime. Reckless is what led us to the mortgage and liquidity crisis. Reckless is way out of style. Feckless? Feckless is the worst of all. Ineffective, indifferent, and lazy.

You are not your résumé. You are your work.

Chase the Lion Week 3 Notes

November 5, 2009 in Chase the Lion, Discipleship, Ethos, Experience, Faith in Action, Life, Ministry, Self-Leadership, Worship, Wrestling With Scripture with Comments Off

This is the midway point in our Chase the Lion series. This week is all about reframing your problems. Each day brings it’s own set of problems, issues, and challenges. We can choose to view these problems through the world’s perspective and find ourselves crushed under the weight of life’s problems or… we can begin to see our problems through the frame of Scripture and find that God meets us and carries through anything that is thrown at us.

Chase the Lion Week 3: Reframing Problems
Reframe (verb): to recondition a mental attitude or outlook
Problem (noun): a source of perplexity, distress or vexation

In order for us to put our faith firmly in God we must learn to reframe problems. Life throws everything it has at us and we feel overwhelmed by the responsibilities, expectations, crisis, and problems facing us.

We shared stories though about people facing extreme situations- cancer, poverty, injustice, and death. The men and women, in the face of extreme problems, stood tall and proclaimed “God is Good!”

Have you ever wondered what it is that enables someone to overcome adversity? How can someone have that “God is Good” attitude in the midst of suffering? Their problems have been reframed. Rather than seeing a problem, they see an opportunity. An opportunity to worship.

“Who you are is not determined by your circumstances. The outcome of your life will be determined by your outlook on life.”

This isn’t some pithy, new-age, believe-and-achieve, feel-good statement. If you look at your problems through the frame of Almighty God and His Word- if he is bigger than your fears or problems- than you can begin to see as He sees. Your outlook will begin to be His outlook.

Scripture will reframe your perspective on everything:

It reframes your Identity (Who you are)
It reframes your Destination (Where you are going)
It reframes your Circumstances (What you’re going through)
It reframes your Legacy (What you leave behind)

“Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” (Matthew 5:11–12 TNIV)

“Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” (James 1:2–4 TNIV)

“For you have been given not only the privilege of trusting in Christ but also the privilege of suffering for him.” (Philippians 1:29 NLT-SE)

Charizomai- Greek word meaning to grant favor, in kindness.

Do we really see our suffering as a privilege gift from God? We should.

The ultimate key to reframing our problems is the act of worship. In the face of suffering, in the midst of trials the key to turning our pain over to the Lord is pure worship.

The best example of this is found in Acts 16.

Despite (in spite?) of their dire circumstances, Paul and Silas reacted with worship and actually witnessed to those around them.

“Worship reframes circumstances. The circumstances you complain about become the chains that imprison you.”

What about you?
1) Are there any circumstances that are currently imprisoning you? What are they?
2) What things have you complained about this past week? How can you turn those situations into opportunities for worship?
3) List 10 things you are thankful for

My Murtaugh List

April 1, 2009 in Collecting Experiences, Ethos, Life, Popular Culture, Self-Leadership with 9 Comments

I started watching How I Met Your Mother on the recommendation of a friend last year after the writer’s strike. I love the way that friendships are presented on the show and I absolutely love how the show deals with getting older. The protagonists are all young 30 somethings dealing with growing up and moving forward through life.

On Monday’s episode the guys brought out their Murtaugh list- the list of things that they are now too old to ever do again. The idea for the list came from Danny Glover’s Det. Sgt. Roger Murtaugh from the Lethal Weapon series. In the films Murtaugh is always about one week from retirement when some crazy terrorist group of money-launders or dirty South African diplomats crop up to threaten his well-deserved R&R. His famous catchphrase was “I’m too old for this stuff!” (this is a PG site)

On How I Met Your Mother things like crashing on a friend’s futon, dying your hair a crazy color, and pulling an all nighter were all on the Murtaugh list. The episode was really funny and, of course, it got me thinking.

Today is my 29th birthday so I asked Sandy to help me come up with my own version of the Murtaugh list. I asked her what are some things that I am too old to do anymore. I sometimes still pull an all nighter- my recover time is a bit longer though. I still like going to concerts during the week nights- again recovery time is more of an issue. I still eat crazy mexican food without the help of Tums or Prilosec.

In some ways I’m still as young as I ever was. However, the bell tolls for everyone so I wanted Sandy to help me start a list before my memory starts to fade (joking!).

Here is what we came up with:
“I’m too old for this stuff.”

I’m too old… to forget which days the trash is picked up. (acc. to Sandy)
I’m too old… to drop clothes next to the hamper. (acc. to Sandy)
I’m too old… to keep sneaking “Black iTunes Cards” ($50, $100) into the shopping cart in the hopes that Sandy won’t notice. (acc. to Sandy)
I’m too old… Windows down. Sunroof open. Stereo blasting… In a school zone.
I’m too old… to shop at American Eagle.
I’m too old… for lava lamps.
I’m too old… to decorate our bedroom exclusively with Christmas lights.
I’m too old… to play crab soccer.
I’m too old… to forget toothpaste on a trip. (I never forget my toothbrush. Just the paste)
I’m too old… to “get” the Jonas Brothers.
I’m too old… to teach other drivers a “lesson” with my horn or deceleration.
I’m too old… for flip-flops.
I’m too old… to get anything pierced.
I’m too old… for the front tuck.
I’m too old… to take quizzes on Facebook.
I’m too old… to eat mexican food everyday for a week. (I’m pushing 3 days already)

Seriously though… I’m almost thirty. Most people go through life never out growing the really negative and immature things in life. As I get older I try (try, try, try) to get wiser and better with age. I haven’t learned much it seems at times but I have hung onto a few truths recently…

I’m too old… to hang onto grudges.
I’m too old… to argue with you.
I’m too old… for winning points.
I’m too old… to care whether they like me or not.
I’m too old… to care about getting the credit or the glory.
I’m too old… to keep up with the Jones… of anyone else for that matter.
I’m too old… to blame others for my shortcomings.
I’m too old… to waste time.
I’m too old… to wait for someone else to clean it up.
I’m too old… to avoid responsibility.
I’m too old… to remember how they slighted me.
I’m too old… to let others get me off my game by snide comments.
I’m too old… to waste any time fretting over past mistakes.
I’m too old… to give up on the future.

What are you too old for?

Here’s to getting old everyone! Have a great day and may your Muratugh lists- the funny ones and the real ones- be short lists!