You want to achieve your mission. So, you get out of the office and take time to identify 5 key goals. Good. When you return to the office, you focus on achieving your goals all week. Good.
 
And then things head downhill:

• In week #2, you notice that you’re not quite as focused on your goals.
• In week #3, you have a crazy week where you can’t work on your goals.
• By week #4, you can’t remember 2 of your goals. Not good.

 
Question: What’s the problem?
 
Answer: You didn’t document your goals.
 
This means…

• You can’t easily review your goals.
• You can’t easily use your goals to schedule your next action steps.
• You can’t easily find out what your goals are when you can’t remember them (something which happens to everyone).

Tip: Document your goals. Today.

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 the reflection questions to identify what you will do to climb the next step.

 
Here are the 5 steps. Read More...

Reflecting on 4 questions can help you figure out how much time you should invest in each of your goals.

You want to carry out your God-given mission: To empower Christian leaders and organizations to close the rhetoric/reality gap.
 
You have reflected on your mission, prayed and thought about what God would have you do in the next 5 years, and established a 2-part vision:

1. 200 Christian staff from 40 Christian organizations with increased capacity/results
2. 15 Christian organizations with total of 25 new annual capacity-building goals

You have also developed goals that address your vision: To increase capacity/results for…

• 30 Christian staff through coaching
• 75 Christian staff through consulting
• 40 Christian staff through networking
• 40 Christian staff through resourcing
• 150 Christian staff through training

Question: How much time do you want to invest in each of your goals? Read More...

Make sure you schedule time for your key priorities before you schedule time for other things.

You’re at the end of a hectic week, the kind where you can hardly remember what happened. You’re sitting at your desk, doing some reflection. You’re noticing that you’ve accomplished some goals (building your network list and preparing a message) and that you haven’t accomplished some other goals (developing a debriefing tool and a conflict resolution workshop). You wonder why some goals get done, while others don’t. Read More...

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.

You’re pursuing God’s calling. Good. Three weeks ago, you developed a list 5 goals that are part of pursuing God’s calling:

1. Pray more.
2. Make spouse happy.
3. Answer email immediately.
4. Coach students.
5. Provide training for Christian schools.

Now, you’re seated at your desk, reflecting on your goals. Read More...

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! Read More...

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. Read More...

You’re focusing on working smart, not hard. And you want to move forward on this. Good.

What can you do? Define your goals. How? By making your goals SMART. Read More...

Your organization’s budget system works. Your organization uses common categories and common line items. Individuals track expenditures. Individual data is compiled into the overall budget. Your organization uses budget data to make decisions. What if your organization could do the same with its mission? Read More...

I don’t try to manage certain things. I don’t try to manage gravity. I don’t try to manage the revolution of the planets around the sun or the rotation of the earth on its axis. And I don’t try to manage sunrise or sunset. Read More...