Getting started in twenty-eleven...

Here we are...the 2nd day of the new year!  I bet by now you have a list of items that you ARE going to do in 2011 and items that you ARE NOT going to do in 2011.  I know 'lists' all too well! Matter of fact, I would consider myself the queen of lists.  Sometimes I can 'list' myself to death!  Setting priorities, especially at the beginning of a new year, has always been important to me, but how accomplished I was at attaining those new goals was a whole different picture.  This past fall something changed.

While teaching a small group of students at the school where my teenagers attend, I did something that I had never had the guts to do...write my very own personal mission statement.  Yes, I knew that it was important and that my direction may be more pointed had I known exactly where I was going but what a daunting task!  Where to begin?  Where to end?  What should I include?  Overwhelming was the only word I could get down on paper.  So, that's where it ended!  Back to the small group...

While researching how to teach the students to write their own personal mission statement, I stumbled upon a tool from one of my favorite authors, Stephen Covey.  Before I share the tool that I found, let me share one of his quotes...

If you don't set your goals based upon your mission statement, you may be climbing the ladder of success only to realize, when you get to the top, you're on the wrong building.

WOW!  Loved reading his take on 'the personal mission statement' but I was still scared to death to begin.  That's when I found it...Stephen Covey's Personal Mission Statement Builder.  So with eyes wide open, I entered his online tool with great expectations of what my mission statement would look like.  It was very easy to use, just answer a few questions and click the end button and whammo, your mission statement was generated.  Simply amazing!  There is was...MY personal mission statement generated for me.  Easy to generate, but not so easy to swallow.

As I began to read the output from the questions I had answered I got quite the queazy feeling in my stomach.  You see, whenever I would write a goal in the past, I would be "cool, good goal, now I should try to do something about it".  But...it's a totally different picture, ladies and gentlemen, when you see your mission statement in black and white, cold, hard print on paper.  It's REALLY hard to deny what's actually written down.  So I had my mission statement, would things actually be any different now?

I have absolutely looked at my mission differently ever since personally writing one down on paper.  I even asked that one of my Christmas gifts would be one that would help me attain one of the goals listed on my mission statement.  Has that Christmas gift worked for me so far?  You betcha!  Will attaining my goals always be that easy...probably not, but having something written in black and white sure does put a different weight of importance on that process.  That's why I'm no longer looking backward at all the failed attempts to reach my goals but instead, I look forward with great anticipation as to what God has in store for me through this process.  Consider this...

Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.  - Philippians 3:13-14

So here I go, pressing on in 2011 towards my goals, ones which I have set purposefully based upon my relationship with Christ.  I challenge you to press on as well.  How do you do that purposefully?  Visit Stephen Covey's link and begin today crafting your personal mission statement at Stephen Covey's Personal Mission Stmt Builder.  Don't wait, your life will be all the better for knowing which direction you are heading.  May God bless you as you press on with purpose!

 

Twenty-Eleven

Ahhhh…the new year. It always begins with fresh hopes of great things to come. I always look forward to a new year, you know…time to get my act together and get it right this time. Maybe it’s the fresh new calendar we buy at the beginning of a new year that gives us that idea of starting with a blank slate. It reminds me of the first day of school when I was in elementary. You know, you dawn the doors of the school with a brand new pencil and a fresh new box of crayons. Love using brand new crayons!

Now the new year begins, as it does each year, with each day entrusted to us to make it count. What will I do with this day?  What will I accomplish? Under what direction will I travel forth? It seems so easy to get entangled with the day to day commitments that we often forget our direction. Bumper cars…that’s what we are! Many days begin and end and I have no idea what I have accomplished. Yes, I suppose I could sit down and make a list, but this year I want to finish each day (or most of them anyway) confident that I have purposefully fulfilled the agenda at hand. Purposefully…not easily entangled!

So…welcome to “Entangled”, my new blog about throwing off the everyday things that hinder us and getting things done. Prayerfully, as we make this journey together, both you and I will purposefully live out each day. Until next time, consider this quote by Robert F. Kennedy, ”Efforts and courage are not enough without purpose and direction.” What direction will you take in twenty eleven?