This week we are going to prepare for the new year and will then resume our dialogue on practice….though this is in some ways a year end practice post
Each year end, I would guess, we all have some routines of review and anticipation. We look at goals from the last 12 months, assess our progress, reflect on strengths, learn from our missed marks and recalibrate for a new year ahead. For some of us these are very intentional, measured, specific and helpful. For others of us these are thought about in our head, sit in the background of self conversation and are even dreaded because this year end, like so many past, is another example or procrastination, and unmet hopes and dreams.
Ben Franklin said, “There are three things extremely hard: steel, a diamond and to know one’s self.”
You know deep deep down what you need to do…if you reflect and are patient long enough Most of us aren’t struggling with knowing what patterns we need to engage, what prayer/mediation times we need to establish, that we do need to monitor our diet better, or have deeper relationships. But we do struggle for clarity and execution.
If you are unwilling to take the time to really reflect then count on 2010 being another year like 2009. If you always do what you have always done you will always get what you have always gotten. I first heard that from John Maxwell nearly 20 years ago, and while not original with him, it is dead accurate.
So you need to spend some time reflecting and asking the right questions. Here are a few reflections and anticipations that can start to bring clarity.
You need to engage the Janus Precedence Effect. Essentially this is the name given to the result of reflecting on the past and the power it gives you to see how much has been accomplished and it’s trajectory and how that can help you find your way into the future. Omar El Sawy of the University of Southern California asked CEOs to look into the future at events that may happen to them, and then review events that took place in the past. He divided them into two groups, one of which started with the future events, the second of which started with the past events.
Surprisingly perhaps, those CEOs who listed their past events first had significantly longer time horizons than those who listed the future events first, showing that the practice of looking to the past really does help look further to the future. (For more on this see the classic leadership text and possibly the best single volume The Leadership Challenge by Kouzes and Posner.)
1. What are the islands of health and strength that have emerged for me this year, how can I build on those? God must be at work in these areas or they wouldn’t have emerged.
2. What are the biggest learnings of the year and what should I do with those, how will they inform this next year? What is God saying in those learnings?
3. What things ended up in my schedule, on my desk, or on the calendar that really shouldn’t be there? Every year my staff and I talked about Peter Drucker’s principle of planned abandonment. What will I abandon
in the interests of freeing up space for building on those islands of health and strength?
4. How should my daily, weekly and monthly rhythm change this year?
5. What are the areas I am going to intentionally work on developing and growing this year? How? Mentors, classes, e-learning, books to read? This is essentially setting up a 2010 learning plan.
Part 2 is coming.
