I had a full week. The highlight was our church congregation hosting our annual Fall Gospel Meeting. For those unfamiliar with the church of Christ, a Gospel Meeting is a series of sermons or lectures designed to explain the general aspects of Christianity, the “Good News” of Jesus, and the Plan for mankind to obtain a place in heaven. It’s given by a guest speaker, directed toward non-members, and by design, it almost always sets to encourage the existing church members as well.
This meeting was no different.
The main Theme was the “called” of God. Each lecture built on this theme culminating with Thursday’s topic of finishing what we start. The impact for me was most assuredly spiritual in nature, (I have a ton of work to do by the way, so don’t judge me) but as I sat there listening to our guest speaker, I couldn’t help but think about how his points actually work in everyday situations.
To this end, I wanted to share what I received from lesson.
1) Birth the idea – Its easy to start something, all you need is an idea. Everyone has an idea, or goal, or process they want to complete. EVERYONE. I’ve learned that creative juices flow more easily when you’re in the mode of coming up with ideas in rapid-fire mode. I tend to solve problems by literally calming my mind and dumping as many words I can on a piece of paper. I’ve heard it called “mind-storming”. It’s fun too. You never know what weird words come out when you’re just writing down the first thing that you think of or that pops into your mind. I time myself, and keep writing until my timer stops; two or three minutes tops. It’s hard. Really hard. I’ve dreamt up some fabulous amazing ideas in my storm sessions. And then again, I’ve fallen flat on my nose with the some lame-duck ideas, worthy of a Guinness Record for stupidity.
2) Start with the end in mind – It’s much easier to get where you’re going if you have an idea of where it is you’re going. Seems too simple, right? After all, to get to your second cousin’s home in Paducah, Kentucky, you don’t just start driving (or maybe you’re wild like that and just set out like a feather, whisking around where ever the wind takes you, I dunno). You most likely pull out a GPS (or map if you are over 70) and thumb in the destination. After you hit go, you’re on your way. Life goals and plans are no different. If you have a desire to be something, or do something, set that thing in your mind and THEN begin working toward getting to it. Just like your second cousin’s place. Where is Paducah, Kentucky anyway??
3) Create a step-by-step plan – Having a plan is the smartest way to be successful. Borrowing from a former colleague, “Have a plan, and work the plan”. You have to count costs before you begin too. It saves embarrassment down the road when you realize you don’t have enough resources for your plan. This applies to both monetary costs, and other resources. Think of it like the playbook football teams use for executing routes on a football field. I like wikihow’s quick formula. It’s a simple tool and hand written, so therefore easy. I especially like their step 7.
4) Validation before full implementation – Validate that your plan is feasible or practical before you begin full throttle. Do it manually and start small. If your plan made some really generic, vague and misleading assumptions, this step could help flush that out so you don’t end up like I’ve done and chunk a HUGE about of time and money into something only to realize you were drunk on your own awesomeness and your idea really lacks creativity, merit and awesomeness in its own right. I’m awesome at failing. And I’ve learned some great lessons about it. Once you validate, get to cracking!
5) Schedule regular breaks – Create milestones in your plan so you can regain energy, and look at your accomplishments. This does wonders for your confidence to look back to see how far you’ve come since you started. We all need an “at-a-boy(girl)” to help us along, so why not give it to ourselves, right? I use this step in almost everything I plan. It’s an internal mechanism for me because being positive all the time can seem so cliché sometimes. What I get emotionally is the reinforcement of movement toward my goal. It helps me stay on task when the goal I’m working on seems to drag on, or get boring (like all of them tend to do). This is when/where most people drop their goal or task and move on to something else.
6) Stay on track – Give yourself a regular gut-check to make sure you’re on target with your plan still. We all deviate. It’s human nature. If you can’t stay on track on your own with lists, goals and check boxes, then solicit someone else to monitor your progress and hold you accountable. I’m famously terrible at this step too. My lovely wife serves as my in-house (a-hem) accountability manager. She’s tenacious about reminding me about my goals. I won’t use the word “nag” but those of us married more than a few years might relate. I love her for it. It keeps me honest to my goals and myself.
7) Finish Strong – Give yourself plenty of time to finish and win, and when you do, reward yourself. You need some time to bask in your newfound ninja skills of finishing tasks. You OWNED that goal. You Rock! Now go into your bathroom mirror and thank the Academy, family, friends, fans, and God for believing in you and supporting you as you completely upset the critics by finishing what you started out to do.
I trust this short list helps you out. I’m sure there are some areas that might be expanded, so leave a comment, give some advise. We can all use it. For me, honestly, I mostly miss at steps 5 & 6 and find myself in full ADHD mode focusing my attention on something new before finishing things.
I’m a work in progress.
