Everyone has great ideas. I bet you have some pretty inspiring goals and dreams you hope to accomplish one day.
The difficult part is not having a great goal or idea, it’s taking actual steps toward making it happen.
One of the greatest challenges in working towards our dreams, while still maintaining reality, is having an accurate view of time. We tend to think less time has passed than what really has.
I know I haven’t worked out in a couple of weeks. When in reality it has been several months. I’m taking some time off (years) from school. I know I haven’t been on a date with my spouse in a while (years), but (and there is always one) I’ve been really busy.
How much time has really passed since you delayed working on your goal or dream?
Employers have created a system with objective metrics to measure our results against the time we were paid for. They want to ensure time doesn’t slip away without progress. You might have one quarterly, but I’m sure you have one at least annually…the dreaded performance review.
If you are consistently meeting your numbers or objectives it’s not dreaded because it will probably trigger a pay increase. Regardless, the review lets you and your supervisor know what progress has been made or what changes might need to be made.
What if we applied the same level of accountability to our personal lives that we have in our professional ones?
I’m not talking about inviting your boss to supervise your personal life. I’m saying what if you created a monthly or quarterly evaluation time for your own personal goals.
Once you had it set up it would only take you 10 minutes once a month to see how you are really doing in the things that are most important to you.
Did you really work out 3 times a week?
Did you really read a chapter a day?
Did you really have a night out with your spouse?
How often did you really attend church?
How many nights were you really home for dinner?
How many of your kids’ games did you really attend?
The key word of this whole exercise is “really”. It’s key because we have the tendency to give ourselves the benefit of the doubt. Well I intended to go on a date. I intended to work out… as if intentions are as good as actions.
I have a painful question to ask you…get ready…it’s brutal…
How many years have you been saying you will _________?
Get out of debt?
Lose weight?
Start saving for retirement?
Spend more time with your kids?
But nothing has really changed.
That’s a painful question to read…I only write it because I care about you and want to see you win at whatever arena God has called you to. I also write it because I know it to be true in my own life.
Two specific questions which have been painful for me to answer are the ones about staying in shape and dating my wife. I’ve been taking it more seriously this year than ever before.
This monthly personal evaluation will force you to be honest with yourself and face the facts. The goal is not to induce guilt, the goal is to keep you from wasting years with good intentions.
Decades can pass by with little significant progress when we let intentions give us a pass on reality.
Ordinary people only get serious about making changes when their circumstances force them to. Their body breaks down…their kids are withdrawn and distant…their spouse wants a divorce…and then they realize the true cost of “tomorrow.”
But you aren’t ordinary.
Here are a few quick steps to get started with your monthly evaluation.
1. Write down what you want to accomplish.
If you are struggling getting home from work for dinner write down how many nights you plan on being home each week. If working out 3 times a week is your goal write it down. If you have a goal or a dream that will take longer than a month to complete, what steps are you taking this month to work towards its?
2. Keep track.
This is the lynchpin to the whole evaluation. You must actually record how many times you worked out, made it home for dinner, or anything else you are trying to change. The power in the monthly review is it forces you to review the facts not your feelings in black and white. You can only do that if you kept track. Could you use your phone to keep track? Print off a calendar? Get your assistant’s help?
3. Review what really happened on the last day of every month.
Put it on your calendar as a sacred appointment because it is. One day we will give an account not for our intentions or our dreams, but for what we did with everything entrusted to us.
You have big God inspired dreams within you. We need you to make sure they happen! Don’t let them die within you! Work towards them every month. You can win professionally AND you can win personally. Imagine if you took just 10 minutes on the last day of every month and reviewed how you did. Next month could look a lot different! Next month could be your best month ever!
