Read time about 4 minutes … including a powerful tool to get your year off to a great start.
A couple of issues ago, I talked about taking a “look under the hood,” as you wrapped up 2021 and set your mind toward 2022. If you missed it, you can read that post here.
But today let’s talk about 2022. In this season, given in the marketplace the title of “new year, new you,” what will be your focus?
For many this is the season of new year’s resolutions. In fact, forty-five percent of Americans make them and according to one online poll these are the top 10 most common:
Exercise more.
Lose weight.
Get organized.
Learn a new skill or hobby.
Live life to the fullest.
Save more money / spend less money.
Quit smoking.
Spend more time with family and friends.
Travel more
Read more
The list for 2021 was very similar with the exception of the following, both likely a result of the 9 months of 2020 COVID challenges:
Look after your mental health.
Disconnect from your phone.
So what about you? Your 2022 resolve?
One of the best resources I have discovered was introduced to me by my colleague, Dave Travis. Dave discovered it on Chris Brogan’s blog here. It’s called the Three Words Exercise. Not only have we done it personally, we have implemented it in the work that we do with senior pastors and executive pastors. And it works. Resolutions are often failures by January 15 (three days from now)!
Here’s how it works:
Each year give yourself Three Focus Words that will help guide your year. Keep coming back to remind yourself about where you need to focus. They are anchors and guideposts for the year.
They sum up where you need to focus your time, energy and efforts.
They need to have enough meaning so that you know where they will snap your head and heart back to help in all parts of your life – your personal, family and church.
They are for you and not for the whole organization. They keep you focused. Sort of like a mantra for the year. And they are for one year, not forever. Each year builds and changes.
If the three words were written on your time list or you used them each day on a walk, where would they lead you? What impact would they have?
Here are a few tips as you develop:
Words NOT phrases.
NOT fancy – plain enough for you to understand.
Action oriented mostly, but also capture the heart of the what for your life this year.
Guide the whole year or at least half the year. Don’t change them.
Growth opportunities for your life.
Broad enough to apply to multiple life areas, but focused enough for you to apply.
A week ago, the executive pastors I meet with each week shared some of the following:
Refine, rest, obey, nimble, dependent, be, narrow, finish, hope, culture, intentional, rebuild, invest, package, fish, structuresequence.
That last one illustrates the combination of words you can use to customize something that fits you!
Brogan shares his from the last decade here.
And mine are focus, simplify, develop.
What are yours?
Once you’ve selected your words, create a mechanism for using them. Brogan suggests a daily review. I incorporate them into my weekly planning. And don’t keep them to yourself. You’ll be surprised how sharing with your family, a trusted friend or members of your team will help.
One more thought after the following updates:
LeadWell Accelerators - Focus Forward for Accelerated Results
In the coming year you’ll have the opportunity to participate in some highly relevant and solution oriented short virtual events - LeadWell Accelerators. Our first one is scheduled for February 22, 2022 (that’s right - 2/22/22!) and you’ll want to be sure to register to attend. The topic is one we are all feeling right now - When Normal Isn’t Normal Anymore. Register here.
LeadWell Cohorts - Gather and Learn for Accelerated Results
I am also continuing my group consulting model with LeadWell Cohorts. Through LeadWell Cohorts, leaders gain unique insights from peer learning environments. LeadWell Cohorts leverage the group setting for leaders in similar roles. The wisdom of well seasoned mentors and expert resources from multiple disciplines empower participants to tackle some of the most pressing issues and opportunities of our time. This collaborative community helps leaders bust through their leadership lids and create plans for accelerated results. We will launch three new cohorts this year - Senior Pastors under 40, Executive Pastors and Senior Pastors - Finishing Well. The details are here.
One final thought as you launch into this new year.
Perhaps we should speak more in terms of a new way more than a new you. As I was writing this post, I received an email from Carol Childress, a long time friend and former colleague at Leadership Network. She shared with me a a blog post written by herefriend, Jeff Hampton, a gifted writer and communicator who is a member at Wilshire Baptist Church in Dallas. The words from that post follow:
New Year, New Way
I’m not a big fan of New Year’s resolutions because, first, I’m easily distracted, and second, life can get in the way and throw even the most focused person off track. But something I heard in the early days of Advent has pushed me into the new year with a new perspective.
Monsignor Don Fischer, longtime Sunday radio voice of the Catholic Diocese of Dallas and founder of the Pastoral Reflections Institute, posted an early Advent video homily titled “Autonomy.” He talked about how people are blessed with amazing talents and gifts and they believe that their purpose in life is to achieve things and to be self-sufficient with those God-given talents and gifts. We were created, instead, primarily to be in relationship with God and to work with God.
Fischer said he believes that God is saying, through the scriptures and the model of Jesus, “I want us to become so intimate that one can’t tell whether it’s you or me operating in each moment.” And then Fischer shared this lovely thought about what might happen at the end of life: “Wouldn’t it be amazing if you sit down with this God, and you’d see him and he’d see you, and you start reminiscing about all the things you did together.”
Oh my. That perspective just turns everything on its head. If lived out fully, it gives everything we do purpose: every big thing, every little thing, and everything in between. In the language we like to use at Wilshire, it gives “every body” purpose. In the language of writing, it makes me no longer the subject or object of my sentences. It makes me want to be the verb — the compound verb with God, actually. It transforms the overused WWJD (What Would Jesus Do?) into WWWDT — What Would We Do Together?
So instead of having a “to do” list of resolutions for this new year, I want to have more of a “how to do” list, with the “how” answered simply: together with God.
As you enter into this new year, I pray that you will do so in faith and fully dependent on the one that comes alongside you … what will you do together?
Email me your three words at greg.ligon@generis.com.