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?

We all want to be organized. We all want to be better organized. The problem is that we might not be clear on what it means to be organized. For example, does being organized mean…?

1. Having SMART goals, having goals, or having values?
2. Using spreadsheets to track progress or being able to tell stories about progress?
3. Having a clean desk with everything filed away or having a messy desk with everything in stacks?
4. Planning ahead or seeing what happens?

 My answer?

1. Being organized doesn’t mean having SMART goals, having goals, or having values—being organized means being aware of your priorities.
2. Being organized doesn’t mean using spreadsheets to track progress or being able to tell stories about progress—it means being aware of progress on your priorities.
3. Being organized doesn’t mean having a clean desk with everything filed away or having a messy desk with everything in stacks—it means being able to access the resources you need to address your priorities.
4. Being organized doesn’t mean planning ahead or seeing what happens—it means being intentional about pursuing your priorities.

 So, what can you do? Reflect on the following 6 questions: On a scale of 1-10 (10 being high)…

1. How aware are you of your priorities?
2. How aware are you of your progress on your priorities?
3. How able are you to access the resources you need to address your priorities?
4. How intentional are you about pursuing your priorities?
5. So, how organized are you?
6. How organized do you want to be?

 Remember, being organized helps you pursue God’s calling. Get better organized. Today.

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...

You're at school, and you want to help others grow. Instead of giving advice or suggestions, ask questions that fit the DRAW protocol:

• Define: Get the facts defined.
• Respond: Get the facts responded to in terms of feelings/experiences.
• Analyze: Get the facts, feelings, and experiences analyzed.
• What’s next?: Get next steps considered.

 
Here's a set of DRAW questions you can use for a faculty meeting conversation about science-related issues. Read More...

You're at work, and you want to help others grow. Instead of giving advice or suggestions, ask questions that fit the DRAW protocol. Read More...