Tag Archive - success

How to End Well by Focusing on the Beginning

January 27, 2012 in Confessions of a Preacher's Wife, Leadership with 2 Comments

When things approach the end, a sort of excitement and even dread builds. I laughed at my friend’s reaction to the thought of her husband retiring. She felt anticipation, excitement and gloom. For her, it was like a sentence was given and the time was yet to be served. She started a countdown 20 months before R-Day. Over a year away and she’s still counting, excited, happy and filled with anticipation, as well as some anxious, dread of the inevitable.

The End is Coming

The End is Coming!

People like me feel the urgency to make the most of the last few days, squeezing in the results we desired. Time doesn’t stop for our work. The gong of the clock grades our life and our stewardship. Staying focused on the goals we set at the beginning will help us finish well.

Endings cause goal-oriented people to experience a weird rush of relief, worry and wonder if their efforts made a difference. We evaluate our work against the goals. We question: Did we accomplish what we set out to do? Did we manage resources well? Did we use time wisely? Could we have done things better?

Fresh Start

New Beginnings and Fresh Starts

The cool thing about endings is that they are the hope of new, fresh starts. The new year brings another block of time. A new contract or job comes with a treasure of resources and a multitude of opportunities. A new beginning gives us a second chance to do right and to live wisely.

I seem to regularly need a do-over or a re-start. In the past, I’ve fallen prey to multitasking: doing lots of things at one time and none of them very well (See previous post Why Multitasking Reduces Productivity). My trying to get things done simultaneously produced lots of ho hum results, if any at all. I started projects and finished none. Not at all how I planned to end.

My hope and prayer is to be more productive. I plan to slow down, focus on one thing at a time and do my best work on it. I’m going to stop multitasking. If I’m able to succeed at that goal, I might stop burning dinner, hear my kids, and actually know where I’m going when in the driver’s seat. Hopefully, I’ll finish the projects I started last year.

Now, may focus take over my multitasking ways!

How about you? Did you end your last project as you wanted? Met your goals? Declared failure and did a re-start? Declared bankruptcy and quit? Please share how you focus and finish well?

This post is part of the Insights into Ministry & Leadership Series.

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5 Steps to Reach Our Goals and Stop Making Excuses

January 21, 2012 in Confessions of a Preacher's Wife, Leadership with 9 Comments

Since I posted 3 Excuses for Failure to Meet Our Goals earlier and now the excuses are out of the way, I thought it a great time to plan steps to reach our goals. If you want to add excuses or view them in the post and comments, click the link above. There is some comfort in knowing others struggle with our same excuses. But for those who are ready to get on with it. Let’s go for it.

Go For It

Stop Studying and Talking, Start Doing

It’s time to stop studying it, reading about it and talking about it and just go do it! We can overcome our excuses and skip to our goal if we put into practice steps similar to these.

5 Steps to Reach Your Goals

1. Verbalize the goal in specifics.

Where are you going? How are you going to get there? What does it look like when you’ve finished? What has to be done before that can happen? Identify all the aspects of the goal. The paper is blank until we put down our ideas. Get as specific as you can. Just like the assigned paper is blank until the student identifies the ideas that will formulate. Then with hard work it is finished.

2. Visualize yourself taking small steps towards the goal.

What needs to be cut, streamlined and categorized in order to make a step-by-step plan from where you are today to completion? Break the plan down into even smaller steps and identify the first one. Following these baby steps makes the dream goal a reality. Without the discipline to work it, you’ll go nowhere.

“Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.” Thomas Edison

So I like the motivation I get from Thomas Edison. Maybe he’d be a good one to pall around with to learn to get things done. He sure did a lot.

3. Find a group of people attempting similar tasks.

Surrounding yourself with other motivated people gives you the regular motivation and accountability you need. A mentor can be awesome, and blessed is the one who finds one, but a regular band of fellows can be as effective. As iron sharpens iron, you become better as ideas and best practices of dedicated people rub off on you.

4. Practice the skills needed without fear of failure.

Perfection isn’t automatic. We have to guess. Do trial runs. Practice. Make decisions. Some will be bad ones. Failure comes with any challenge. It is a sure thing. Success is working through each setback, learning each step of the way.

“Many of life’s failures are men who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” Thomas Edison

Keep practicing and moving forward with the next step in the plan. Adjust the plan if needed, but keep going.

5. Consider each accomplishment your validation.

Every small step finished is a huge accomplishment. Most people are talkers and not doers. Celebrate. You’ve started doing the hard things that make you successful. Focus and allow your accomplishment to fuel you to do another step towards the goal.

As some have said, “You can’t eat an elephant in one bite.” Let’s start chewing on the bite we have.

 What have you got to chew on? What other steps do you used to get things done? How do you celebrate when you complete a small step?

Our “someday” will arrive before we know it!

This post is part of the Insights into Ministry & Leadership Series. If you enjoyed it you may also like the Living and Working on Mission Blog Series, the Spiritual Journey’s Gentle Nudges Series or the other Blog Series.

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3 Excuses for Failure to Meet the Goal

January 20, 2012 in Confessions of a Preacher's Wife, Leadership with 2 Comments

The New Year began and already our resolutions have waned. When should we actually start doing what we said we wanted to do? When will we stop reading about it, or stop talking about it and just go do it? I faced those questions head on and decided they were partially a scheduling problem, partially a priority problem and partially fear-factor problem.

Stop Making ExcusesWe’re simply making excuses.

Excuse 1: I’m too busy.

We are too busy to add one more activity to our schedule, but if our goal is important enough to be resolved on, spoken of or dreamed about, then we need to be disciplined enough to make the time for the steps to accomplish it. We don’t have to do it all in one day, but spending a little time towards the goal each day will get us there eventually much faster than dreaming, reading or talking about it.

Excuse 2: I don’t know what to focus on.

Some of us get our priorities mixed up and don’t accomplish what we set out to do. I can waste so much time studying what to do and how to do it that I can become an inexperienced expert on the subject and never get any closer to getting it done. Amongst us are both doers and talkers. Who wants to be the one who always talks like a know-it-all and never does anything? I want to be a doer.

Excuse 3: I’ve never done this before. I’m scared.

A huge block to accomplishing goals is fear. What will others think if I try? What if I fail? I can be seen successful if I never try. If I try, I’ll fail for sure. But what’s so bad about failing? Thomas Edison said, “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” Failure is the means for us to learn better methods, a step towards sharpening our skills. Success is getting back up after a setback and working at it again. Mr. Edison also said, “I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is another step forward.” When on the brink of quitting, we should laugh at fear. Fear is what keeps us from success.

What’s on your bucket list? Something you’ve said, “Someday, I’ll…” How much time do you spend studying it, talking about it or dreaming of it? If it’s that important, why not take some steps to lose that weight, start that company, read the Bible through in a year, learn a craft, read a book, run a ½ marathon, or cook your way through a Julia Child’s cookbook?

What do you want to do and what keeps you from doing it?

Tomorrow, I’ll post 5 Steps to Reach Your Goals. Click to get new posts in your email or RSS reader. Be sure to check out the steps and add insights into how to do what we say we want to do.

This post is part of the Insights into Ministry & Leadership Series. If you enjoyed it you may also like the Living and Working on Mission Blog Series, the Spiritual Journey’s Gentle Nudges Series or the other Blog Series.

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One Hope for the New Year

January 1, 2012 in Confessions of a Preacher's Wife with 1 Comment

Fireworks for new beginnings

Out goes the old year and in comes the new with all it’s challenges, struggles and opportunities. Looking back, I know without God things would have been much more difficult. With God’s help our future looks bright.

“Thus far has the LORD helped us” (1 Samuel 7:12)

I am working on my goals and plans for the next year. My life plan will include health, organization, minimization, focus and some high hopes.

May God give you hope and focus to finish the work he’s called you to with success in the challenges to come. God bless!!

What are you glad to see go this past year? What are you looking forward to the most this next year? Do you have any Big Hairy Goals for this next year?

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10 Life and Leadership Principles from Steve Jobs

September 26, 2011 in Confessions of a Preacher's Wife, Leadership, Ministry to Women with 2 Comments

Steve Jobs knew how to keep reaching new heights, how to make the difficult simple, and how to create awesome products as well as a movement, a following. He’s a creative leader. Check out 10 leadership principles in this great slideshow by @coachbay. Good stuff! Pick and choose what would be good to implement in your ministry, work and life.

 

What creative systems or plans do you have in your leadership style? How can you incorporate or mimic some of Steve Jobs leadership points into your life/work/ministry? Please share your insights and tips in the comments that we may glean from you too!

This post is part of the Insights into Ministry & Leadership Series. If you enjoyed it you may also like the Living and Working on Mission Blog Series, the Spiritual Journey’s Gentle Nudges Series or the other Blog Series.

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Blog Series

July 13, 2011 in Confessions of a Preacher's Wife, Leadership, Ministry to Women, series with 0 Comments

Blog Series

These blog post and blog post series are considered the “Best Of” here on Confessions of a Preacher’s Wife Blog. These are the ones that moved me the most and naturally they are the best I have to offer.

I hope you enjoy the time journeying through them at your own leisure. Also, I trust you find them helpful, become inspired by them, and then maybe change or do something because of them. That your life will be different by taking my hard-learned lessons to heart and applying them as well as sharing them with others!

181/365
Creative Commons License photo credit: Xelcise
Best of Blog Series

Here are the series that I’ve put together for you:

A Spiritual Journey’s Gentle Nudges

This is a series of confessions on how God gently nudged me along on my spiritual journey. Sometimes it felt more like a kick in the pants, nevertheless, I got the message and back on track. Laced throughout are key truths I’ve learned along the way that changed me and I’m sure will help you, if only to laugh at this preacher’s wife and her zaniness.

Living and Working on Mission

This series is more of a log of various ministry efforts and opportunities as well as sharing insights I’ve gained. Any special effort like the Ugandan Orphan Mission or the Capture Me! Conference for women will share about another culture or a mission opportunity. These posts will deliver inspiration to get involved with God and share his love even in your own hometown. Click over to begin your journey of sharing God’s love and be ready to laugh and learn along with me.

  • Engage us here as we live on mission, changing the world one heart at a time.
  • Remember, it isn’t about guilt, it’s about finding something to live for, something that gives your life purpose!

Insights into Ministry & Leadership

This series includes insights and encouragement to improve leadership, ministry and personal/team development. Often we get into ruts doing things as usual. I want to broaden our thinking with some “what if” questions as well as some helpful tips. As a pastor’s wife and leader, I made a fair share of mistakes which caused me to study leadership and effectiveness. In these posts you will learn from my mistakes and gain insights on many aspects of leadership development, teaching and ministry, including ministering to women.

Minister Wives Fellowship and Support

This series both challenges and honors the leadership of ministry wives. If you’re a minister’s wife, you’ve felt the essential need to connect with someone who understands the ministry and gets you. I’m a preacher’s wife and I have a desire to help minister’s wives find a safe place to to be heard and receive ministry. In this blog series, you’ll find helps, a few opinions and lots of confessions in the struggle to be a pastor’s wife. The plan is to build a support system for these special servants that often feel isolated and overlooked. Click on over to take a look at some of the topics.

Other series may be developed as need is expressed. If you have any ideas, please share in the comments below. Please comment and share your insight and solutions. What issues do you deal with that you would like discussed?

As always, if you have a topic or suggestion you would like to discuss please contact me here or make a comment on this post!

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How to Keep Your Work in Focus: Celebrate with a Party

April 5, 2011 in Confessions of a Preacher's Wife with 6 Comments

I don’t celebrate like I should. Maybe I should put partying on my to do list.

Party cake

“For seven days you must celebrate this festival to honor the Lord your God at the place he chooses, for it is he who blesses you with bountiful harvests and gives you success in all your work. This festival will be a time of great joy for all” (Dt 16:15).

The Israelis are supposed to celebrate the harvest with a feast for seven days. The celebration recognizes God’s part in providing success in their work. God provided the food: vegetables, vines and herds, but they had to plant, groom and tend. The celebration honored God, because without God their work would not have been fruitful.

My work also produces a harvest, a product. I’m no gardener or rancher. My work produces grown children, stacks of clean laundry and a few scribblings I call writing. I may influence spiritual growth through speaking and ministering. But the real produce from my life is what God makes of my feeble attempts to work with what I’ve got.

Any work of mine that is of real worth comes from God working through me. Not me alone. Therefore, I should celebrate. Celebrate the work of God in helping me to complete my tasks, to bring in the harvest.

But in my busy lifestyle, with all the tasks I have, I don’t stop and celebrate finishing one before I turn to the next. I work on too many tasks at once and the completion of one is given a quick wink as I look to the next. I run to the next job and make no space for celebration.

How would my life be different if I stopped after finishing a task long enough to thank God for helping me get things done? How much less stressed would life be if we had an afterglow party for a few days to celebrate God’s work through us?

In what ways do you celebrate and thank God after your harvests? How do you recognize God’s part of your work?


Mismanaging Self Is Wicked

February 15, 2011 in Confessions of a Preacher's Wife with 5 Comments

Those of us who manage have a grave responsibility. Whether it’s managing the kids while they clean their room, or the money in the family banking account or associates while at work, it’s a privilege of great responsibility to do the work of a manager.

The manager’s effectiveness is reflected in that which they manage. A problem exists when the managers can’t manage themselves. Mis-managers can be terrible organizers, communicators or just plain lazy. When managers mismanage, they create issues for who or what they manage. As an example, check out this biblical story.

“A faithful, sensible servant is one to whom the master can give the responsibility of managing his other household servants and feeding them. If the master returns and finds that the servant has done a good job, there will be a reward. I tell you the truth, the master will put that servant in charge of all he owns. But what if the servant is evil and thinks, ‘My master won’t be back for a while,’ and he begins beating the other servants, partying, and getting drunk? The master will return unannounced and unexpected, and he will cut the servant to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 24:45-51).

Managers must learn to manage themselves. In the Bible story, the good manager is the one who manages himself with sensibility and commitment. The other couldn’t manage his passions and therefore had no ability to manage his tasks. He was given to chasing after his own whims and all sense was lost to him. He’d loose his temper, play instead of do his work and ignore moderation in his eating and drinking (See Titus 1:6-9). He had no control over any aspect of ruling his own life and therefore he couldn’t manage anything else.

Hearing this story causes me to question my abilities. Do I mismanage my own life? Am I managing well my passions, my tasks, my time and the people in my life? What kind of manager, wife, mother and witness am I? Am I doing what I should be: sharing God’s love, making disciples, feeding the hungry, visiting the sick and imprisoned, clothing the poor, etc.?

Maybe we all need to work on some areas. I know I do. The master will come at any moment and even though we can’t see Jesus, he sees everything we do. We must set our hearts on being sensible and faithful to task. Don’t we want to hear, “Well done, my good and faithful servant” (Matthew 25:21)?

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Nothing on Purpose: Learning To Be God’s

January 27, 2011 in Confessions of a Preacher's Wife with 14 Comments

I had lunch with Sharen, and heard her story. “I’m not doing anything specific. God asked me to put aside my ministry.”

As a ministry friend I was intrigued and concerned. I wondered how does one go from an active ministry to doing nothing?

Flower in Nothing but Blue Sky

She went on to say that God gave her a peace about turning the ministry loose and that she wasn’t to replace it with other activity. Instead God impressed upon her to just be his. “I’m enjoying focusing on him, just being his and not doing anything.”

My soul longed for that kind of refreshing. The new year brought lots of fresh starts, resolutions and back to school routines that busied my schedule. Why do we feel that we have to be doing something to have value? Sharen’s relaxed and satisfied fashion proved our value isn’t in doing but being. Her face glowed with the peace and contentedness of just being.

No matter how busy our hands or how many irons we have on the fire, we can be content in simply being God’s and following his lead.

“Others may do a greater work,
But you have your part to do;
And no one in all God’s family
Can do it as well as you.” Streams in the Desert p.2

For I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. (Phil 4:11. ESV)

Lord, I want to do my part: to dream, to work and to minister for you in the manner you plan for me. Make me 100% yours and useable to further your kingdom as you see fit. Help me to be content being who you want me to be and fulfilled in knowing you are my reward.
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12 Leadership Checks for Making a Kingdom Difference

January 14, 2011 in Confessions of a Preacher's Wife, Leadership with 4 Comments

While praying about multiplying our small group and the possibility of planting a church, I began reading and studying every related resource I could find. Many cite leadership as a key element to starting and/or maintaining a ministry.

Leaders teach Bible studies, organize and administrate offices and households, train children, balance budgets and bills then decide what’s for dinner. Leaders are everywhere, and I’m sure you’re one of them.

Leader.DucksinaRow
Leaders can lead large groups, but they must lead one: themselves. Leadership is pioneer work: heading out where no one goes but God. There are many challenges and it is easy to slip into NOT leading. In Exponential: How You and Your Friends Can Start a Missional Church Movement by Dave and Jon Ferguson, I found a cool check list for leaders to monitor themselves and make sure they lead well.

Twelve indicators that leadership is lacking
1. I wait for someone to tell me what to do rather than taking the initiative myself.
2. I spend too much time talking about how things should be different.
3. I blame the context, surroundings, or other people for my current situation.
4. I am more concerned about being cool or accepted than doing the right thing.
5. I seek consensus rather than casting vision for a preferable future.
6. I am not taking any significant risks.
7. I accept the status quo as the way it’s always been and always will be.
8. I start protecting my reputation instead of opening myself up to opposition.
9. I procrastinate to avoid making a tough call.
10. I talk to others about the problem rather than taking it to the person responsible.
11. I don’t feel like my butt is on the line for anything significant.
12. I ask for way too many opinions before taking action.

The list made me uncomfortable. Yet I’m not called to be comfortable. I am to serve even when it hurts. Fear immobilizes me and I’m guilty of allowing it to keep me from leading. This list inspired me to take a risk, to step up and really lead as God directs.

How about you? Where has God been leading that makes you uncomfortable, or like your neck is stuck out? How do you put fear aside and adventure forward with God? Please answer in the comment section.

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This post is part of the Insights into Ministry & Leadership Series. If you enjoyed it you may also like the Living and Working on Mission Blog Series, the Spiritual Journey’s Gentle Nudges Series or the other Blog Series.
(Images courtesy of sxc.hu)

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