It’s the New Year.
It’s the time of resolutions.
The time for goal-setting.
It’s also the time when failure slaps us around like the bully on the playground.
We set goals, plan to make changes, strategize the best year ever, and get about two weeks in to our new diet or fitness plan and fall off the wagon. And failure rears that ugly head.
So my resolution this year… more writing.
Whether it’s here on a blog, crafting songs, working on a (*gulp*) book… just MORE writing.
In that attempt, here’s day 1 (on day 2) of the New Year.
And I want to offer - humbly - a principle I teach in leadership. Common sense? Yes. Really difficult to implement? Absolutely. So here it is:
If everything is important, then nothing is.
Seriously. If you make everything important all at once, then it becomes really difficult to differentiate priorities, focus, and clear vision. So let’s apply this to the New Year situation, to goals and resolutions, and maybe you can make the jump to your own leadership as well. A few overflow tips from this:
Zero in on fewer changes, goals, resolutions, etc. and work at them over a longer span of time.
In all seriousness, one of my goals this year is write MORE. That’s a terrible goal if you’re wired for the S-M-A-R-T goal world (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, I forget the “R”, and Timely). Terrible. But it’s my goal. And it’s a bit more life-giving than fleshing out something that says I’ll write two books, three blog posts a day, etc. Of course, writing for me isn’t performance or vocationally-based. It is life-giving, so I’m trying to keep it that way.In that regard, then, narrow your goals down to 3-7 major items. And let them be broadened. We live in a culture of performancism (see David Zahl’s great book for more on this). Drop your performance and just work at getting better at a few things.
Set goals that bring life.
Last year, my family and I made a plan to be more creative. We simply wanted to spend less time vegging out and more time flourishing. And you know what? This was the most life-giving resolution we lived into. It was fun. My wife learned some fancy writing. One daughter learned a sewing machine. I built a fireplace. Goals don’t always have to suck our energy, they can actually bring energy to us.Take time to determine what really matters.
Get away for a bit. Start with a clean piece of paper. Pretend you’re facing down December 31 of 2020 and ask what matters most on that day, not what matters most on January 2nd. Because taking the long-view will help you prioritize what matters most. Once you zero in on those things, go as hard as you can after them.
There. One resolution solved. I wrote MORE. Now, on to the other 35 resolutions I made. :-)