Tag Archives: life plan

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A Life Plan Tool, Simplified?

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In business, whether you are a Christian or not, it is important to regularly analyze your assets and make sure you are allocating them in the most effective manner. To do otherwise is fiscally irresponsible and even punishable in certain situations. Should our lives be any different? This is where a life plan helps!

life plan

Life Planning

Life planning is not necessarily a common occurrence among Christian leaders today, but it is gaining recognition and momentum. Effectively, it is a process of creating an overall strategy for our lives. The idea is to focus all of your resources and various roles (disciple of Jesus, husband/wife, parent, owner/employee, friend, etc.) so that they are in alignment with God’s will for your individual life.

In this blog, I have completed a series of posts that take you step by step through the process I use for my life plan. I also included the tools I use in that process. I have told you that I am not even close to having this whole process figured out! To this day, after several years of working on my life plan, I still struggle with consistency and focus at times.

Looking For Improvements

For that reason, I am always on the lookout for another tool, or modification to my current tools, that could help me do a better job of executing this life plan. Wherever I see an article about life plans I clip it to Evernote. If I get a chance to download someone else’s diagram of a dashboard, I do it.

Though I still do not have it perfected by any means, I have made some modifications over the years that have helped. Most of these changes have come in the way of simplifying the process.

A New Idea!

Roughly a month ago, I read a book that gave me an idea I thought could be a big help to me. The book was called Seven Days in Utopia, by David Cook. If you have not read the book, then I strongly urge you to do so. The movie is also good, but the book is more helpful in teaching us about life due to the greater detail.

In that book, the main character (a professional golfer) was advised that he needed his own game plan every time he approached a tournament. He was told that his ability to stick to his game plan would determine his success. If he were easily thrown off his plan by opponents or circumstances, then he would suffer for it.

Daily Game Plan

As I read, I realized I could use a similar process in my daily life. If I could come up with a daily “game plan” based on my life plan, then I may be more consistent in my execution. The more I thought about it the more I liked the idea.

As I thought about what I wanted this daily game plan to look like, I first determined that I wanted to keep it as simple as possible. That meant it would not be able to include every aspect of my life plan or even the dashboard I use to simplify that. It would have to leave out some things if I planned to use it every day.

I also decided I wanted to be able to carry it with me throughout the day. I did not want something that would be too difficult to refer to often with a quick glance. Since I move around a lot during the day – from office to office and building to building – this was going to be an important factor to get right.

Finally, I wanted it to be something I could complete every morning in my quiet time. It needed to be customizable based on what any particular day could hold. I wanted it to only contain information I need for that one day.

Not Yet Perfected!

I will close by saying that I have not completely figured it out yet. I have spent the past month trying various layouts of this game plan. I have tried it on paper and electronically. I have skipped parts on some days and other parts on other days.

I am pleased to report that the results so far are good! I am seeing improvement in the effectiveness of my days. While I am not seeing an overnight tripling of my productivity, I am seeing some very clear benefits. I have seen enough improvement so far to keep me working on the idea.

Details To Come!

In my next post, I am going to show you my daily game plan as it stands today. I will take you through each part of it step-by-step and explain the reasoning behind each. I hope you will find some benefit to the process.

I will go ahead and ask you to take a look and give me feedback. I am interested in your ideas and critiques. If you see something I have missed, please call me out on it! I see this as an opportunity to vet this tool and improve it.

Feedback?

I would love to hear from you on what I have shared so far. Do you see this as a worthy process or do you think I am a nut case for even trying?!? Either way, please give me your comments below and lets see where everyone stands on this!

Do you have a life plan that is helping you to be intentional?

Do you see the need for a daily game plan to work from?

What do you use to accomplish this?

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Life Plan Process: Overview

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life plan

This is the final post in a series on LIFE planning. In this series, I am sharing with you the basics of a LIFE plan and why you need one by going through the details of my own LIFE planning process. Neither my plan nor my process are perfect. In fact, they are evolving from year to year. My hope is that you can take what I do (or even just parts of it) and use it to create your own plan.

Life Plan Variety

Life plans can take on all sorts of shapes and sizes. They can be fully contained on one page or they can consist of several documents. It really is not important how long or short, thick or thin these plans become.

The most important aspect of the life plan is whether it does its job. If it helps to guide you through life, assists you in maximizing your resources for the greatest impact, and keeps your focus on what you have decided is most important to you, then it has done its job.

I have described to you the components of my own LIFE Plan. You may not want to take this process and copy it for yourself. Some of you may think I go too far in planning. Others may think I do not do enough. Regardless, I hope you find the components of my process useful in helping you to create your own.

Now I want to go into more detail about how I actually develop, revise, and use this LIFE Plan in my life.

Off-Site Session

The first step in my process is the off-site session. I first started doing this session in mid December each year, but have since moved it back into November. Just like year-end budgeting or forecasting, you want to make sure you have plenty of time to fully develop the plans before the new year begins.

Much like my brainstorming session, I like to get away from any and all distractions for this session. Whether it is a hotel room, a cabin in the woods, or a private room in the local college library, I have always been intentional about getting away. I schedule a full day and make sure people know where I am and that I will not be answering the phone.

Prayer

The first part of my LIFE planning process is prayer. This is key to putting my mind in the right perspective and getting God’s wisdom. I do not want to make all these plans and then ask God to bless them and make them His will. I want His will to establish my plans.

Review of Prior Year

I begin my session by reviewing the prior year. The first document I use is the Yearly Audit [CLICK HERE for copy] from the C12 Group. This is a thorough, but also concise, review of the key components in the life of a Christian business owner or leader. It refreshes my memory and helps me to assess my performance during the prior year. I strongly recommend you use this.

The next document I review is my master LIFE Plan Document from that prior year. In this document, I have expanded on all of my thoughts, goals, and plans for the year. I review this document to determine what items were accomplished and may need to be deleted as well as to choose those items to be carried over into the next year.

Finally, I review my LIFE Plan Dashboard from that prior year. Which of my goals did I hit, exceed, or miss completely? I look for patterns of positive habits established or those I struggled even to start.

Prayer & Brainstorm

Once I have a decent feel for how I performed against my plan for that year, I begin praying and brainstorming about what needs to change and what needs to stay the same for the upcoming year. I ask God to direct my thoughts to those areas where He wants change in me.

I take notes on anything and everything that comes to mind. I really enjoy this time because nothing is off limits. I do my best to allow the Holy Spirit to speak to my heart and guide me. I do not want to come into this time with any preconceived ideas.

Prioritize and Review

From here, I prioritize what came out of the brainstorm session along with the plan from the prior year. I make the necessary revisions to the master LIFE Plan Document and save this draft.

I will likely make minor revisions and tweaks to this document over the next few weeks as I set goals for each area. As I do this, I also add the applicable goals to my LIFE Plan Dashboard and calendars. My goal is to have a set of completed documents by the end of December so I can start January with a clean slate!

Weekly Review

I have mentioned David Allen’s Getting Things Done in past posts. One of the best things I learned from Allen was the weekly review. Without this part of the process, it is easy to find yourself two, three, or four months down the road without having accomplished the first item on your life plan.

Essentially, the weekly review is a time I close my office door and plan out the next week. I review the prior week’s accomplishments, my known To Do’s for the upcoming week, my calendar, and my LIFE Plan Dashboard. I prioritize what needs to get done and lay out a rough idea of when I can work on each item.

I take this time every Saturday and would be completely lost without it. I am by no means perfectly efficient with my time, but the weekly review has brought me to a point where I think I am a 7 or 8 on a 10 scale.

Not only am I more efficient, but I am accomplishing more in my LIFE plan than I would otherwise. I am reminded of the airline pilot who announced, “We are lost, but making good time!” My weekly review helps me to make good time and my LIFE Plan makes sure I am not lost!

Nothing More To See Here

life planFolks, that is basically all of the details of my own LIFE Plan. As I said before, it is not perfect, but it works for me. I hope you gained at least some small idea that will help you be more effective with the life that God has given you.

Even if your next step is to create a life plan as simple as the one shown here, then you are at least getting started! I cannot claim this one as my own, but I sure do love the drive and vision!

I will say again, if you have any questions, please feel free to comment or email me privately via the Contact Page.

How do you plan on a regular basis?

If you spent more time in planning (with God’s guidance), do you think you would be more effective?

What are the obstacles that keep you from doing a better job with planning?

Originally posted 1/31/12

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Life Plan Process: Technology

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This is the fourth post in a series on LIFE planning. In this series, I am sharing with you the basics of a LIFE plan and why you need one by going through the details of my own LIFE planning process. Neither my plan nor my process are perfect. In fact, they are evolving from year to year. My hope is that you can take what I do (or even just parts of it) and use it to create your own plan.

life plan

Life Plan Components

So far, I have told you why I think you need a life plan. I have shown you how to create a life plan master document and dashboard. In this post, I want to share with you the way I use technology as a part of my life planning process. Before you ask, I will walk you through my Weekly Review process in the next post!

Too Many Technology Choices!

Obviously, there are more technology choices out there than Baskin Robbins flavors of ice cream. I know this makes it tough to choose the right one. So, I did the best I could and ran with what I found. My point in telling you this is that my choices are just that…my choices. You may find something that works better for you.

If so, great! If you do not want to go through the search process, then I welcome you to try what I am using. You may even choose some and ignore others. You may even stick to pen and paper. Truly, it is not important. What is important is that you get started with something! Don’t let this subject keep you from beginning your life plan.

Hardware

First, I will tell you about my hardware. I use an iPhone, iPad, and an HP laptop. I am not an “Apple” guy (no Mac for me at this point!), but I do love the iPhone and iPad. Everything I do syncs automatically and wirelessly between all three of these products. (The one exception is that I have to sync my iPhone and laptop with iTunes to sync my Contacts.)

I could get by without the iPad, but it has been a treat to use (I am still getting used to it) the more I learn with it. So at least for today, I mainly use the other two.

Software / Apps

As for my software/apps, there are four main products that I use. In each case, there are several products on the market, some paid and some free, that are similar in most ways. Again, these are not necessarily the best, but certainly work well for me. Every app listed below works on all three of my hardware products and syncs automatically.

Google Docs

This is probably the guts of my LIFE plan process. This is where I have uploaded my LIFE Plan Dashboard. The Dashboard is in a spreadsheet file, along with several other sheets I have added over time. In this one file, I have sheets that track my progress toward my goals.

I have a separate sheet for each of the following Focus Areas and Goals:

Reading List – books I’ve read, how I rated them, and progress toward goal
Listening List – audio books and messages I’ve listened to, rating, and goal progress
Exercise – exercise time and activities, progress toward goals
Scripture – all memory verses (1 per week) I am memorizing
Teaching – each teaching session I’ve led (topic and time) and goal progress
Blog Stats – tracks traffic metrics and goal progress

I use Google Docs for this because I can access it from any computer with internet access. This way I can do my review whether I am at my own computer or not. I can also access it on my iPhone and iPad.

Toodledo

Toodledo is my To Do list on steroids! In this app, I keep all of my tasks and projects. Using the general philosophy from David Allen’s Getting Things Done, I try to keep everything listed in here and not on my mind.

This app is very flexible in the way it allows me to schedule tasks, group them in folders according to Focus Area or by projects (with subtasks), and tag them any way I want. It sends reminders by SMS text or email (or both!). Whether I am in the car with only my phone or in the bed reading on the iPad, these reminders keep me straight and on task!

Google Calendar

Since I am already using Gmail and Google Docs, it makes sense for me to use Google Calendar as well. One of the things I like about Google Calendar is the ability to create multiple calendars and overlay them with each other, any way I want.

My wife keeps a calendar for the family and kid events. Anytime I want to plan family time or a date night out, I can simply click on her calendar and it overlays mine to show me the free times! This really works well for us.

In addition to my main calendar, I keep a simple reading and listening calendar along with one for my teaching/training schedule. These allow me to leave these calendars hidden except during my weekly review time. This way, my main calendar is not too cluttered.

Evernote

Evernote is an amazing app that will do much more than I currently use for my LIFE plan process. Essentially, it is an electronic storage cabinet for any kind of document or file you want to put there.

For starters, I have my main LIFE Plan Document stored there. I also have a Weekly Review Template, which is just a checklist for my Weekly Review process. I also clip articles and ideas for future training sessions here.

All of my blog posts are written in Evernote and my prayer “notebook” is there. I also have a template there for my non-fiction book “net-outs.” I keep the net-outs from every book there as well.

All of this is available to review and edit on any computer with internet connection, but you can also download any or all files for offline use. When recently on vacation in Jamaica, this came in handy!

Summary

I assume this may seem like too much to some of you. I don’t disagree. At the same time, until I build habits in some of these areas, this process really helps keep me on track.

While I do not expect anyone to copy my process, I do hope my sharing has helped generate some ideas for many of you. If you have any questions about any of it, please feel free to ask. I will help where I can!

Are you using any of these tools or something similar?

How are you using technology to strengthen your performance?

What tools are you using that others may find useful?

Originally posted 1/29/12

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How To Create A Life Plan Dashboard

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This is the third post in a series on life planning. In this series, I am sharing with you the basics of a life plan and why you need one by going through the details of my own LIFE planning process. Neither my plan nor my process are perfect. In fact, they are evolving from year to year. My hope is that you can take what I do (or even just parts of it) and use it to create your own plan.

life plan

LIFE Plan Document

In my last post, I gave you a detailed description and break-down of my main LIFE Plan document. I described my Roles, Focus Areas, and Goals. I gave you a couple of samples from these areas. I also gave you access to download my [Title Page Summary] and [Godly Father Role].

As you can probably guess, combining all of these pieces into a complete document makes for a long document. The length of the document made it difficult to quickly review it on a regular basis. While I considered cutting it down, I just could not figure out which parts to eliminate.

Dashboard as Summary

So, as a result, I decided I needed a “dashboard” of sorts. With a one-page summary, I felt I could use this document in a weekly review process. I used a compilation of several resources I had found (and created a spreadsheet that would represent the month to month living out of my LIFE Plan. This Dashboard is made up of many sections, or “Gauges”, that help me keep my overall LIFE plan at the forefront of my mind.

Roles, Focuses, and Goals Gauges

For the first section, I started with the eight roles and laid out the sheet in a way that would allow me to see all eight Roles and the corresponding Focus Areas. Then, I left three blanks under each Role for monthly Goals. Each month, I update my monthly Goals, leaving the Roles and Focus Areas the same throughout the year.

Take a look at the picture below to get an idea of what I mean. (Note the Roles and Focus Areas have changed…this is part of my dashboard from December 2010)

life plan

Remaining Sections

As I have said several times, this whole process has evolved over time for me. You may want to stop right there and let your dashboard include only your Roles, Focuses, and Goals Guages. I started here, but have since added to mine. I will share the rest of my Dashboard with you and let you decide if any of it is interesting to you.

Strengths Gauges

In his book Now, Discover Your Strengths, Marcus Buckingham describes how working on your strengths is the best strategy. At the end of the book, you take a test and are told your top strengths. I really found the material to be enlightening and began determining how I could apply it to my life.

In a sequel to Buckingham’s book, StrengthsFinder 2.0, author Tom Rath details out a list of 10 strategies for developing each strength described. I picked the top two or three of those actions for each of my top four strengths and put them on my dashboard.

Take a look at this picture to see how this looks.

life plan

Final Gauges

Across the bottom of the LIFE plan Dashboard, I added four more sections based on what I felt was most important to review regularly. You may substitute your own categories here, but I included the following:

1. Prayer Focus – a listing of various ongoing areas in which I focused my prayer
2. Reading/Listening Plan – a list of the books and audio for that month
3. 360 Assessment – my top ten concern areas from a 360 degree assessment of me
4. Scripture – a list of references to the 15-20 verses I am trying to memorize

Here is a visual of these gauges.

life plan

Closing Quote

To close out the bottom of my LIFE Plan Dashboard, I wanted something to keep me focused on the big picture. I learned in my C12 group that I should always be ready with a conversation-starting response to the question, “What do you do for a living?” I used this answer to close out my dashboard.

I work for an unusual company. It is an car dealership group that is a Christian company. We are trying to learn, and to show, how Jesus would run a company if He were the boss.

That’s It!

So, there it is! That is my LIFE Plan Dashboard, in all its glory! If you want to see the entire document together, just [Click Here].

Some of you are thinking I am crazy and others are thinking I am weak. That is fine! I can handle it!

Regardless of what you are thinking, I encourage you to do something similar. I will go into more detail about how I use this Dashboard in my final post in this series, but for now, I urge you to think about what you could create that would be easy to review on a weekly basis. Keeping your life plan in front of you in some shape or form will keep you closer to the path God has revealed to you.

What is your reaction to this dashboard?

Do you see how you could benefit from a weekly review of your life plan?

What do you see to be your next step in the life planning process?

Originally posted 1/26/12

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How To Create A Life Plan Document

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This is the second post in a series on life planning. In this series, I am sharing with you the basics of a life plan and why you need one by going through the details of my own LIFE planning process. Neither my plan nor my process are perfect. In fact, they are evolving from year to year. My hope is that you can take what I do (or even just parts of it) and use it to create your own plan.

life plan

The Components

As I said in my previous post, there are many components that you can use as parts of your life plan. I can break my process into three main components – the Plan, the Dashboard, and the Technology. In this and the next two posts, I am going to describe each of these components in detail. In the final post, I will describe the process I use each year to review and update my plan for the new year.

Side Note: In case you did not notice, I use all CAPS when referring to my personal LIFE plan – it stands for Living Intentionally For Eternity.

LIFE Plan – Main Document

Let’s talk about the LIFE Plan first – the main document for me. This document consists of three parts:

    -Role Descriptions
    -Focus Areas
    -Goals

To create this document, I drew heavily from Stephen Covey’s book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. In this book, Covey talks about the various roles each of us plays in our lives. For me, I am a husband, father, steward of God’s business, etc.. In each of these roles, my responsibilities and goals vary.

Role Descriptions

As a result of the material in this book, I based the structure of my LIFE plan on what I defined as my roles. Here they are, in order of priority for me:

    1. Sold-out Disciple of Jesus
    2. Intentional Individual
    3. Loving Husband
    4. Godly Father
    5. Faithful Steward of God’s Business
    6. Servant Leader at Church
    7. Compassionate Neighbor
    8. Loyal Friend

For each of these roles, I have written a brief summary description of what I believe that role looks like. Essentially, I used Covey’s Habit #2, Begin With The End In Mind.

I have cited the Scripture upon which these descriptions are based. I have written these descriptions in the form of positive affirmations to help me visualize my living out each role with maximum effectiveness. These role descriptions go beyond just the one year and represent what I want to look like at the end of my life.

Here is an example of one of these descriptions:

Example Role Description

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    Sold-Out Disciple of Jesus

    As a disciple of Jesus Christ, I love the Lord my God with all of my heart, soul, mind, and strength(1). It is my first and most urgent priority to seek to know God in a way that is real and that serves as my primary motivation in life. I believe in a true eternal life and therefore I live this life with an eternal perspective(2) at all times.

    (1) Matthew 22:37
    (2) Matthew 6:19-21; 1 Timothy 6:17-19; 2 Corinthians 4:16-18

[/box]

Focus Areas, Goals

In addition to the role descriptions, I have decided on 3-5 main focuses for the upcoming year under each role. These focus areas could be areas where I need improvement. Or they could be areas where I need to start exploring something new. They may even be something I am going to stop doing!

For each focus area, when applicable, I have listed one or two clarifying goals. Here is an example of a focus area and goal:

Example Focus Area and Goal

[box]

    Faithful Steward of God’s Business (role)

    Focus Area: Mentor & Teach
    This is something I believe God has gifted me to do. I will be more intentional about scheduling this time in 2012. I will focus mainly on the management staff and the Leadership Team.

    Goal: 25 Hours of actual teaching (not including prep time)

[/box]

Summary

In essence, these three parts (Role Descriptions, Focus Areas, and Goals) make up my entire LIFE plan main document.

So that you get an idea of what one full role portion of the plan looks like in its entirety, you can [Click Here] for a copy of my Godly Father role plan for 2012. You can also [Click Here] for the Title Page Summary I wrote for the beginning of the document. While it is not detailed above, it may help you get a clearer picture of my approach.

I have said it before and I will say it again. I am sharing my plan in an effort to get you started. Your plan may look very different. It may be more involved or less so. Either way is fine.

Seek God First

The important part is that you seek God and ask Him to impress on you what your plans and direction should be. You can certainly do this on your own, but I do not believe that is His desire for us. If we start with His plan (and stick with it!), we will experience the fulfillment for which we were designed.

If you have any further questions, please feel free to comment here or email me privately from the Contact Page. I am not an expert, but I will do my best to answer any questions you may have.

In my next post, I will describe my LIFE Plan Dashboard.

Is this what you were expecting?

Do you see the benefit of this kind of plan?

What one obstacle is keeping you from getting started?

Originally posted 1/24/12

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4 Questions About A Life Plan

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This is the first post in a series on life planning. In this series, I will share with you the basics of a life plan and why you need one. I will also go through the details of my own life planning process. Neither my plan nor my process are perfect. In fact, they are evolving from year to year. My hope is that you can take what I do and use it to create your own plan.

life plan

Why A Life Plan?

Why in the world do I need a life plan? Who actually does that anyway? I mean, isn’t it too stressful or time-consuming to go to all the trouble? I just take one day at a time and make the most of life. I don’t want to lock myself into anything.

For these and various other reasons, few people actually go as far as creating a life plan for themselves. We are certainly familiar with, and see the need for, planning when it comes to building houses or buildings, managing huge projects, and even weddings or careers. But when it comes to our lives, the only one we will ever get, most people simply “wing it.”

Does this make sense to you? We have more invested in our lives than we do in anything else. We have greater expectations from our lives than we do most any project we will work on, right? So if this is true, would it not make sense to spend some time planning for it? Would it not stand to reason that we should attempt to maximize the life and resources God has given us?

Okay, so you are beginning to see a potential need for a plan. You are not quite convinced yet, but you are willing to read a little further. Good! Let’s continue!

What Is It?

What exactly is a life plan? Effectively, a life plan is a map of how you want to live your life. It takes into consideration your resources, current position, your intended destination, and the impact you want to make along the way. It gives you a general path to use as you navigate the twists and turns life throws at you.

A life plan cannot guarantee you that life will or will not go a certain way, but it can give you a much more active role in determining where you go and how you end up. A life plan cannot assure you of specific results, but it can help you get the most out of your resources as you reach for your goals. Much like a GPS system in your car, it will not prevent unexpected course changes due to forces beyond your control, but it can help you get back on track as quickly as possible.

So, I hope that you are a little closer to making a decision to create your own LIFE plan. If you are, there are two more questions to answer.

When Should I Start?

The next question you should ask is “When” to start. Well, I have heard it described in this way:

The best time to plant an oak tree was ten years ago. The next best time is right now!

In light of that, I would recommend you start as soon as possible. Your first efforts at this process do not have to be perfect. You would literally laugh if you saw my first plan (if you could call it that)! Perfection is not the point. Progress is the point.

I encourage you to determine right now that you are going to do this. Do not worry about how it is going to look or what anyone else might say if they saw it. You are not doing this plan for anyone but you and Jesus.

Assuming you are ready to take the leap and get started, you only have one more question.

How Do I Do It??

How exactly does one go about creating a life plan? What are the steps? What are the components? In the next several posts, I will guide you through the answers to each of these questions. I will break down the components of my own plan, as well as the steps I take each year.

When we are done with this series, you will definitely have a better idea of what a life plan looks like and how to create one. You should also see the benefits to starting your own. You will even have resources you can use in your own process. As we go, please make sure to ask questions and get clarification on anything that is unclear.

What are your thoughts?

Do you see the need for a life plan?

If you already have one, have you seen the benefits?

This post was originally published 1/22/12

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Is A Yearly Audit On Your To Do List?

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I have been a C12 Group member now for over 6 years. For the past 6 years, our December meeting material has included one segment that has been the same every year. While you would think that might get boring after a couple of years, it doesn’t. This one segment is called the “Yearly Audit” and it is a very effective tool for a year-end review.

yearly audit

LIFE Planning

If you read my series of posts on my LIFE planning process, you will likely remember that I spend time at the end of every year reviewing that year and creating a game plan for the next year. I feel this process is a critical part of my job as a CEO, husband, and father, as well as all of the other roles I play throughout the year. One valuable part of this annual process is C12’s “Yearly Audit” segment.

I encourage you not only to read this segment, but also to incorporate it into your own year-end review process. If you do not have a year-end review process, then this is the perfect tool with which to start!

Below is the introduction to the segment by C12 founder Buck Jacobs.

Yearly Audit

[box]It has become a year-end tradition in each of our C12 groups to take a uniquely Christ-centered retrospective look at the results of our past year’s activities, focusing on the eternal perspective.

Taking such an inventory is, of course, a very normal thing to do in the economic dimensions of our businesses. We’re all familiar with such metrics as net income, profit margin, ROI, market share, and sales growth. We’ve devised numerous ways to measure our financial effectiveness and it’s important that we use them well.

This segment, however, is entitled Working ‘On’ my MINISTRY in God’s Business and in it we focus on an entirely different set of criteria. In many ways it’s much more difficult to measure our results in the ministry or spiritual dimension of our business lives. The whole idea of using our business as a platform for ministry can sometimes seem bewildering as it’s not nearly as well ‘codified’ as such routine business processes like filling orders and tracking financial profit or loss.

In terms of what’s eternally important to our lives, the spiritual dimension is much more — even infinitely more — important to us. So, with apologies to none, we are now going to offer some thoughts on how we might take a year-end audit from a uniquely Kingdom-oriented perspective.

What is it that we should be looking for as we examine ourselves and our spiritual lives in relation to the ministry in our business? Is it only souls won to the Lord, or dollars given to support His work, the number of Christ-honoring events we’ve hosted, or the number of tracts distributed? Is it only those things that we can quantify?

No, of course not. While we know that all these things are an important part of the fruit of our ministry which need to be quantified and recorded to help us measure progress in these areas, we also know that there’s another set of criteria.

It is these personal criteria that we’ll examine today. These criteria pertain to growth, the kind of growth that will lead to fruit…much fruit! We offer these criteria as indicators of growth which we can all use to measure what kind of a year we really had in our Master’s eyes.

For those who were members a year ago, we recommend putting the prior year’s ratings alongside for comparison purposes, as each of these areas deserve long-term focus. For each of the following 10 dimensions, rate your year from 1 to 10, with 1 being Low, 5 Average and 10 High as measured against your potential or opportunity.

– Buck Jacobs[/box]

Yearly Audit Download

Now that you know what to do, CLICK HERE to download the “Yearly Audit” in .pdf format. I encourage you to begin in prayer, asking God to prick your heart in any area that He wants to get your attention.

I hope you find the process of going through these questions to be as fruitful as I have. If you approach it with the right heart, I am sure you will see the benefit.

Are you currently doing a self-evaluation at year end?

If not, what other ways are you planning for effectiveness?

Do you see how this “Yearly Audit” can help you focus?

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More Lessons From David Green Of Hobby Lobby

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In a recent post, I shared an article from The High Calling (a Christian blog community). The article was an in-depth interview of David Green, founder and CEO of Hobby Lobby. Because the article was so long itself, I did not expound on it in that post. Instead, I am taking a more detailed look in a short series of posts.

David Green

David Green

While I have never met David Green, based on the articles I have read, there is plenty there is plenty we can learn from him! In fact, the more I read about the Hobby Lobby story and David Green’s leadership, the more I want to model our business after his. Hopefully you will learn something from this short series of posts as we dig a little deeper into Green’s story.

In reviewing the interview article, I found what I believe to be 15 clear lessons for anyone attempting to integrate faith and business. Though each of us has different situations and challenges, I think you will quickly see that these lessons span across industries and business sizes. In my last post, I took a look at the first five lessons I saw in the interview article. Today, we will review the next five lessons.

Let’s dig right in!

#6 – Learn from mistakes

I bet you have never heard this one before, have you? I know this is supposed to be common sense, but I have not found it to be that common. Too often, we are guilty of repeating our mistakes. At least I am.

Note what David Green said when asked about learning opportunities. He talked about how his company almost lost it all when they stretched too far for growth. He did not dwell on this point, but I will.

They survived that time period, but made the decision that they would be debt free in the future. That is a huge decision that impacts virtually every other financial decision in a business. Sacrifices are made and “deals” are passed up that would require debt. This is no easy lesson.

By the way, what do you think David Green is saying about this decision after what we have been through the past several years. Regret? I don’t think so!

#7 – Simplify your priorities

Again, this is not rocket science here. We hear this a lot, but do we act on it? In many cases, we get so elaborate with our plans, for Christian ministry or business, that we tie ourselves in knots. We start out feeling great about our strategic plans, but before long we are confused and paralyzed.

Instead, David Green tells us that he and his company had three simple priorities for using their cash: pay tithes, grow, and pay debt. Folks, that is as simple as you get. No confusion here, just simple priorities (based on Scripture as well!).

#8 – Plan for the future

In addition to preparing for their future by paying down debt, David Green and company also made sure to set goals and budgets for their future.

I have heard many managers and leaders claim that forecasting and budgeting is too difficult given today’s uncertain business climate. I simply disagree. Sure, it is more difficult! But that does not mean we should not even try!

Even with the uncertainty, there is huge value in laying out the budgets and forecasts and the game plan to back them up. Make adjustments along the way as conditions change, but do not give up the planning altogether!

#9 – Take care of the people

If you will notice, Green spent twice as much time talking about how he is determined to take care of his people as he did in discussing his three uses of cash! That is significant. Without the people, there is no cash!

I am taking special note of this lesson myself. Based on the feedback I received in our recent employee focus groups, there are some areas related to this subject that we need to address.

Our goal here (for all of us) should be to base our decisions here on Scripture. There are many ways to view this subject, but I think it is important we start by looking at what the Bible says. More on this later.

#10 – Have stated personal life goals

David Green had three stated personal life goals: have a strong marriage, be successful at what he did, and for his children to serve God.

He later added two more: for his grandkids to serve God and to tell as many people as he could about Jesus Christ.

I have talked at length about LIFE planning on this blog. If you have followed my posts on this subject, you know that I am a huge proponent of taking the time to state these personal life goals. Some people may be more detailed or complex in their goals while others keep it simple.

Either way, this is not a lesson to skip over. I encourage you to take the time and start this process. I think you will be amazed at what God will do in your heart as you do.

What comments would you add to any of the lessons so far?

Have you learned similar lessons on your own? How?

Which lesson is one you need to act on now?

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Are You Too Busy To Fulfill Your Job Description?

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As I posted last week, I recently hired a COO for our organization after a lengthy hiring process. It was a huge win for our company, but also for me personally and spiritually. The reason I say this is that this hire effectively ends a long period of time where I was entirely too “busy” to do fulfill my God-given job description. I did not feel I was able to impact others for eternity like I wanted to.

job description

Before I explain what I mean by being too “busy” to do my job, let me first tell you about my job as I see it. As President and co-owner of my family business, I have certain duties and responsibilities that are required of me. These are certainly PART of my job. But when I really look at the job that I have been given, there is so much more to it than that!

God-given Job Description

You see, I believe my job has been given to me by God for a season. As a temporary steward of God’s business, I believe that I am in this role for a specific purpose – to impact other people for eternity by pointing them to God. If I had to boil my job description down to one line, that would be it. In fact, I believe that is your job description as well.

Whether you are a President, a Manager, or in an entry-level position, I believe you have this same job description. It comes from Scripture (Matthew 22:37-40, 28:19-20; 2 Corinthians 5:20). If you are a believer in Jesus Christ, then you have this purpose in life and in work – there is no difference, except location.

Busy vs. Job Description

Having said that, there are times that our job “activities” begin to take our focus off of our eternal purpose, our real job description. In some cases, these times are only temporary and have a clear beginning and end (like my recent experience). Other times, it can be the nature of the job itself. There are even times when we take on too much and create our own prison of busyness.

Regardless of the duration or cause, these times of being too busy can dramatically impact our ability to fulfill our God-given job description. If you have been a disciple of Jesus for any period of time, you have likely experienced this problem. If not, congratulations on keeping your focus on your true purpose in life!

What Do You Do?

For the rest of us that either bump into this problem occasionally or actually feel like we have set up camp here, lets’s discuss what we should do when this happens. For this discussion, there are two possible paths.

Self-Created Busyness

The first path is for those times when we have created the busyness for ourselves. The busyness could be the result of an over-zealous appetite for responsibilities or maybe a lack of intentional scheduling. Either way, we have brought this on ourselves and we need to correct the problem. In the cases I am referring to here, shedding these additional responsibilities would not have an effect on your employment.

To do this, I am not necessarily recommending breaking any commitments, but I am saying that you need to recognize that you are putting the temporary ahead of the eternal. As a result, you need to correct the imbalance as quickly as you can. This will likely take time and energy, but it is worth it.

As you are doing this, you need to begin putting intentional habits in place to prevent returning to this position. I suggest starting with a LIFE plan. By creating a LIFE plan, you will establish the priorities by which you will make future decisions on responsibilities you will and will not choose.

Externally Imposed Busyness

The second path is a little more difficult to correct. This is mainly because the cause of this path is usually beyond our control. It could be the loss of a key employee (as it was with me) or it could be change in management above you. It could even be related to the overall economy as it has been since 2008 for many businesses.

Whatever the cause, the solution is not as simple as it is for the first path. In these cases, there may not even be an immediate solution at all. If that is true, then what are we to do? How are we to continue fulfilling our God-given job description when we are overwhelmed with busy?

For that answer, tune in to my next post!

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4 Simple Questions For Your Life Plan

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It is coming up on that time of the year when I begin thinking about my LIFE plan for next year (Read the series here). I know…it is only September, but once Halloween hits, the end of the year flies by. Before you know it, it is mid-January! As I begin to think about this, I become more aware of articles and tools that I think might help me in that process. I want to share a good one with you today.

life plan

Eric Liddell – Missionary

Many of you probably know the name Eric Liddell. It was his story that was featured in the movie Chariots of Fire. What many people do not know is that after his gold medal in the 1924 Olympics, Liddell became a missionary to China. While there during World War II, he was sent to a prison camp with roughly 200 others determined to be “enemy nationals.”

Liddell spent the last two years of his life in that camp. Many years after his death in 1945, a manuscript of The Disciplines of the Christian Life was published. It is in this book that you will find the material I want to share with you today.

Life Plan Questions

The following material from Liddell’s book only consists of four simple questions. However, a lot of self-examination can happen when answering these four questions. I plan to use these very questions in the preparation of my LIFE plan for next year. I encourage you to do the same.

Let’s get started. Before you read through these simple questions, I encourage you to pray that God will open your mind and heart to hear what He has to say to you. Try to completely clear your mind of all distractions so you can focus on the depth of these questions.

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1. Am I truthful?

    Are there any conditions under which I will tell a lie? Can I be depended on to tell the truth no matter what the cost?

2. Am I honest?

    Can I be trusted in money matters? in my work, even when no one is looking? with other people’s reputations? with myself—or do I rationalize and become defensive?

3. Am I pure?

    Am I pure in my habit? in my thought life? in my motives? in my relations with the opposite sex?

4. Am I selfish?

    Am I selfish in the demands I make on my family, spouse, or associates? Am I badly balanced, full of moods—cold today and warm tomorrow? Do I indulge in nerves that spoil my happiness and that of those around me? Am I unrestrained in my pleasures, the kind I enjoy without considering the effect…to take reasonable rest and exercise? Am I unrestrained in small self-indulgences, letting myself become the slave of habits, however harmless they may appear to me? Let us put ourselves before ourselves and look at ourselves.

(Liddell, Christian Life, 29-30).

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Write Your Answers

As you go through each of these questions, write down your answers. As you have cleared your mind beforehand, write down anything that comes to mind. Maybe it does not seem particularly profound at the moment. At the same time it may strike you differently when you go back to review your answers later.

Assume for a moment that God speaks to your heart about something in particular as you answer these questions. What should you do next?

“Start Doing” List

My thought at this point is that you create two lists for your LIFE plan. The first is a “Start Doing” list. On this list, you add things that God prompts you to add – actions or habits that you need to start.

Maybe, when asking, “Am I selfish?” you answered that you have been selfish about your health and you know you need to take action to improve it. You recognize that your family and those with whom you work are getting short-changed because your health is sub-par. In this case, put “exercise plan” or “improved diet” on your “Start Doing” list.

“Stop Doing” List

The other list for your LIFE plan is your “Stop Doing” list. While it sounds simple, very few people create one of these lists. Obviously, this list consists of actions or habits you need to stop doing.

Take the “Am I honest? question. Let’s say you answered that you have been holding back at work. You realize that your effort has not been your best because you have lost your passion for the job. You know you could give more, but you just don’t have the fire anymore.

This issue may require that you add something to both lists. On your “Start Doing” list, you would add “begin praying for passion at work” or “learn new skill at work.” On your “Stop Doing” list, you might want to add “stop staying up late watching TV” or even “give up distractions like social media” while at work.

Multiple Options

There are so many ways you could take action in response to these four questions. The creation of these two lists is simply one idea. This one works for me as I will be using the results in my LIFE plan for next year.

You can likely come up with your own ideas. The main point of this exercise is to do a self-examination (with prayer) and to identify areas of improvement. You may not like the idea of using this for LIFE planning, but may instead incorporate the questions into your quiet times. You could even use them as accountability questions in your small group.

The options are endless. I think you get the idea! It is now up to you as to what you do with them…