You’ve spent 2 days in reflection. You feel good:

• You have a mission statement.
• You have a list of the 4 goals necessary for carrying out your mission statement.
• You like the wording of your mission statement and your goals.
• You feel like you have what you need—direction.

Question: What’s next?
 
Answer: Determining the action steps you need to take for each of your 4 goals—then taking those action steps. Why? Well, success is not having a mission statement and goals—success is accomplishing your mission and goals.
 
I recommend that each week you take time to determine action steps.
 
Bottom line: Determine your action steps. Then take them.

The point is not to have goals. The point is to achieve goals. To achieve your goals, take 4 steps: pray, put, take, and reflect.

Goals help. Goals help you get focused, get energized, get organized, and know what to say “yes” and “no” to.
 
But having goals is not enough. You don’t just want to have goals—you want to achieve goals. You want to achieve your goals in order to pursue your God-given calling. Is there something you can to do increase the likelihood that you’ll achieve your goals? Yes!
 
These four steps can help:

1. Pray. Ask God to guide you as you select goals and to provide the support, encouragement, and accountability you need to achieve your goals.
2. Put your goals on paper. Write them down. The act of writing your goals down will deepen your commitment to them. And if you write your goals down, you can easily review them.
3. Take one or more action steps on each goal every week. And make sure each action step is SMART (Specific • Measurable • Attainable • Relevant • Timebound). The SMARTer your action step, the more likely you’ll complete it. For example, imagine your goal is managing your email. Instead of identifying your action step as “only working on email at certain times,” identify your action step as “doing email for 30 minutes two times per day (11:30-12:00, 4:00-4:30), starting Wednesday.”
4. Reflect on your progress with a friend each week. Tell your friend the progress you’ve made on each action step and what your action steps are for the coming week.

Knowing where you are and where you want to go helps you make effective decisions:

• You’re at the train station. You need to buy a ticket. How much should you spend? That depends on where you are and where you want to go. If you’re in Ikebukro and want to go to Higashi Kurume, you need a ¥260 ticket; however, if you’re in Higashi Kurume and want to go to Tokorozawa, you need a ¥170 ticket.
  
• You’re planting a church. You want the church to become independent. What you focus on? That depends on where you are and where you want to go. If you have a pastor, sufficient giving, a facility, but not the requisite 2 elders, you need to focus on getting 2 elders; however, if you have a pastor, a facility, 2 elders, but not the requisite giving, you need to focus on increasing giving.
  
• You’re coaching basketball. It’s half-time. What do you want to tell your players? That depends on where you are and where you want to go. If you’re winning 29-8 and you don’t want to run up the score, you need to tell your players not to press and not to fastbreak; however, if you’re losing 8-29, you tell need to tell your players to press and fastbreak.
  
• You’re leading a school. Your goal is for 90% of your students to score at or above standard on each of your schoolwide learning outcomes. What do you want your teachers to focus on? That depends on where you are and where you want to go. For example, f 90% of your students perform at or above standard on applying a Biblical perspective, while 50% perform at or above standard on using their learning to serve others, you need to focus your teachers on helping students use their learning to serve others.

Bottom line #1: Know where you are and where you want to go.

Bottom line #2: To know where you are and where you want to go, take 5 steps:

1. Define what it takes to achieve the mission—for example, publishing and networking.
   
2. Transform your definition of mission achievement into SMART goals. For example, change “Publish” to “Publish 10 articles by June 30.” Or, change “Network” to “Start 5 communities of practice by Sept. 15.”
   
3. Measure the current achievement of your SMART goals. If your goal is to publish 10 articles this year, count how many articles you’ve already published. If your goal is to start 5 communities of practice, count how many communities of practice you’ve already started.
   
4. Consistently track your progress. Set aside time each week or each month to track your progress. This takes discipline, but doing this gives you the information you need to make effective decisions.
   
5. Regularly ask yourself 5 questions: What are my goals? What’s the current achievement level of each of my goals? Regarding the achievement of my goals, what satisfies/concerns me? Given that I have finite resources, which goals should I prioritize? For each prioritized goal, what key actions can I take? (Even better, get someone to ask you these questions on a weekly or monthly basis. How about getting a coach?)

Know where you are and where you want to go. Work smart. Today.