You know it takes energy. You know it takes energy to ride your bike to church. You know it takes energy to buy bananas at the store and to lead a Bible study on Romans 12. And you know it takes energy to write an email to your donors about Sachi’s baptism and to talk with Thomas and Kim about the culture shock they’re experiencing.
 
You’re wishing you had more energy—10% more, 5% more, even 1% more. Just more energy. If you had more energy, you could work on balancing your personal/professional life, developing relationships with 3 neighbors, and translating training materials on house churches.
 
While it’s true that if you had more energy you’d be able to work on these goals, maybe the issue isn’t having more energy. Maybe you have all the energy you need, but some of your energy is being sapped by frustrations.
 
Maybe your energy is getting sapped by frustrations you have with email. You’re frustrated that your thinking keeps getting interrupted by the sound email makes when downloading. You’re frustrated that you don’t have big blocks of time to work because you have to attend to email throughout the day. You’re so frustrated about email that you use energy to talk with others about your frustration and to listen to their frustrations.
 
Instead of using your energy to tolerate your energy-sapping frustrations, use your energy to reduce your frustrations. For example, use your energy to turn the sound off for downloading email and to schedule doing email twice a day.
 
Question: What can you do to reduce one or more energy-sapping frustrations?
 
Remember, reducing your energy-sapping frustrations frees up energy you can use to pursue God’s calling. Reduce one frustration. Today.

Want to empower others to reduce their frustrations? Ask questions that provoke reflection, for example:

1. What are 5 frustrations you have?
2. How do you feel when these frustrations are present/not present?
3. How would you feel if you could reduce 1 or more of these 5 frustrations?
4. How would reducing 1 or more frustrations impact your ministry?
5. If you reduced all 5 frustrations, what might happen?
6. What helps you reduce your frustrations? What hinders you?
7. What’s 1 frustration you want to reduce?
8. What can you do to reduce that frustration?
9. What will you do?

Do you want to reduce your frustrations so you can get on with what God's calling you to do? If so, reflecting on these 5 questions can help.  

You want improve in planning. You know this is going to feel like climbing a steep set of steps, so you decide to take it 1 step at a time.
 
Question: How can you climb the next step?
 
To find out:

• Read about the 5 developmental steps (below).
• Then, use some reflection questions to identify what you will do to climb the next step.

 
Here are the 5 steps:
 
Step 1: You work.
You’re a missionary, you’re out of language school, and you’ve just started doing full-time ministry. You’re sitting in a room, getting introduced to other missionaries. Each person introduces him/herself by name and job title. Your turn comes, and you say, “Roger, evangelist.”
 
A few weeks later, you’re out walking in your neighborhood. You’re feeling a little fuzzy about your ministry. And you find yourself thinking, “What’s my plan?” A few days later, you take time to pray and to write out your plan. It describes the activities you want to do, for example, teaching English Bible classes, making and distributing tracts, and talking with those in your neighborhood. You look at your plan and feel better.
 
 
Step 2: You work, and you have a documented plan.
You look at your plan every once in awhile. But you notice that having a plan hasn’t helped you as much you thought it would. You think maybe that’s because your plan isn’t as good as it should be. You wonder, “How good is my plan?”
 
You take a look at your plan, pray, and decide to revise it. Instead of just listing your activities, you decide to:

• List your overarching ministry purpose, the 4-6 goals you need to accomplish in order to achieve your overarching ministry purpose, and the key activities you need to do for each of your goals.
• Make everything SMART: Specific • Measurable • Attainable • Relevant • Timebound.
• Keep your plan to 1 page.

 
Step 3: You work, and you have good documented plan.
You continue to look at your plan every once in awhile. And you notice that upgrading your plan hasn’t helped you as much you thought it would. You find yourself asking, “How can I really use my plan?”
 
A couple of days later, you read an article about paying attention to your goals. The article suggests that you review your goals on a daily, weekly, quarterly, and annual basis. You pray about it and decide to do this. And you decide to measure your progress on your goals and to reflect each month by talking with a fellow missionary about ministry progress. You know that reviewing your goals, measuring your progress, and reflecting will take time, but you think it’ll be worth it.
 
 
Step 4: You intentionally use your plan to guide your work.
As a result of reviewing your goals, measuring your progress, and reflecting, you find that you’re using your plan a lot more to guide your work. And you find that you’re more clear about what you want to accomplish. So, you improve your plan by putting in better activities, revising your goals, and by tightening the alignment between your overarching ministry purpose, goals, and activities. You share your “improved” plan with colleagues, invite feedback, and use feedback to further improve your plan.

In addition, you increasingly recognize that you have limited time, energy, and abilities. You find yourself wondering, “How can I manage myself better? How can I get more focused, work smarter, and pursue excellence?”
 
You pray, watch a video, read an article, take a self-assessment, and explore getting a coach. As a result, you decide to get a coach. Your coach empowers you to:

• Identify what helps you focus.
• Target your strengths and reduce your frustrations.
• Determine the amount of time you will invest in each goal.
• Identify 3 articles you will read about best practices in evangelism.

 
Step 5: You think success is being a person who is focused, works smart, and pursues excellence.
As a result of working with your coach and using your plan to guide your work, you find that you’re more focused, working smarter, and intentionally pursuing excellence.
 
And you’ve shifted your thinking about success. Instead of thinking that success is having a plan or even achieving a plan, you now think success is being a person who is focused, works smart, and pursues excellence—as evidenced by the achievement of your plan.
 
You’re wondering, “How can I empower others to strategically pursue God’s calling?” You pray, and you watch a video and take a self-assessment on leading by asking questions. And you decide to apply your learning to empower others to reflect, get clear, focus, prioritize, and pay attention to their goals.
 
 
Now, ask yourself the following 5 questions:

1. Which “step” best describes me? (Be brutally honest. When doubt, choose the earlier stage.)
2. How do I feel about being on this “step”?
3. In terms of climbing the next step, what helps/hinders me?
4. To climb the next step, what do I need to keep doing? start doing? stop doing?
5. What will I do to climb the next step?

Improve your planning. Start climbing the next step. Today.

What frustrates you? What has frustrated me includes not having proper travel gear, not having necessary software, and unclear job expectations.
 
Notice, I listed what has frustrated me, not what frustrates me. Why? Because I’ve eliminated these frustrations. Doing this has helped me get on with what God has called me to do.
 
Tip: Eliminate your frustrations. One by one, eliminate your frustrations. If you don’t have the proper travel gear you need, get good luggage and clothes that don’t wrinkle. If you don’t have the computer software you need for organizing your tasks, get OmniFocus. If you don’t have clear job expectations, ask for a job description. Eliminate your frustrations so you’re freed up to focus more fully on God’s calling.
 
Work smart. Eliminate your frustrations. Today.