Have you made any resolutions yet?
Have you kept them so far?

If you’ve already broken your resolutions, it’s not too late.  But I bet a little focus might go a long way to helping your achieve your goals.

For 2012 I have a one word plan. I’ll share that one word plan with you in a minute but first I want to spend a little time on what I did last year and why I think it didn’t work.

My Three Words Last Year

For the past year or two I’ve followed the example of Chris Brogan of choosing three words to define my focus for the upcoming year. I have a number of friends, such as Steve Grossman, who do the same and I know we’re not the only ones.

Last year my three words were Steadfast, Courageous, and Intentional and I failed miserably. Sure, I was sometimes steadfast, sometimes intentional, and occasionally courageous. But they certainly didn’t define my year. I didn’t have razor-like focus or execution.

Note: The problem might have been the words themselves; all those words need something to be steadfast, courageous, or intentional about. But that’s a different article.

So, as I was thinking and praying about 2012, I thought perhaps three words were too many. Perhaps I should just focus on one thing to define my year. Sure, I can have multiple goals but I need to have a single focus. At least for 2012.

Have you ever considered that?

Have you considered having a single focus for a time?
Perhaps a single focus for your life?

My One Word Plan for 2012

My focus for 2012 is Fitness – being fit. Now that often conjures up images of hours in the gym or crazy diet plans. And there is certainly room for these kinds of things in my life – I call them “breakthrough events.” But that’s not really my focus.

Turning Breakthrough Events into Habits

My real focus to take those “breakthrough events” and turn them into habits of fitness. To develop a lifestyle of fitness. And I don’t just mean physical fitness. I’m talking about life fitness.

You see, some areas of my life have been too fat, some too thin, some too lazy, and some too active. I’ve been out of balance, so my focus is to develop habits of fitness across the board.

• Spiritual
• Relational
• Physical
• Financial
• Professional
• Intellectual

How about you?

Are you too scattered? Do you need to think about a single focus for the year instead of scattered “breakthrough event” goals?

Why not share your focus or goals for 2012?

Photo credit: Jasper Johns

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Truly good ideas, world-changing ideas, need to have a couple more things going for them:

The world has to be ready for them:

Do you think the world is really ready for a leprechaun-powered car (if they even existed)?  I don’t.  I’m not sure that the market would support any true initiative towards alternative fuels or mythical creatures.  But the market was ready for the iPhone when Apple introduced it.  The market was ready for Android phones.  Is the world ready for your ideas?

You have to work hard:

A good idea simply can’t succeed without a lot of hard work.  It takes work to fail the way to success.  It takes investments -  time, resources, and passion to truly bring life to a great idea.  Nothing truly worth accomplishing is not also worth the battle to get there.

Let’s step away from the leprechaun-powered cars for a moment.  Do you want to see an end to starvation or destitute poverty?  Do you want to make people smile?  Do you want to make it easier for people to self-publish?

Well, get ready for some work.  Sometimes I would prefer that ideas simply sprout and grow without effort.  But that’s not how the world works.  That’s not how it was designed.  So, let’s get out there and do the work to make the world a better place.

What are your passions?
What are your ideas?
Will you get out there and do something about them? 

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Especially in a time when it seems that jobs are paying less and stuff costs more, what we can’t buy may be depressing. It seems we can never spend enough to let people know how much we really love them.

But you have something much more valuable to offer than stuff. You can offer yourself. You are more valuable than anything you can buy. So, instead of offering trinkets and trash (it all ends up in the trash eventually), find ways to offer your time and your attention and your love and your faith.

• Be present when you’re with people
• Turn off the TV and play games
• Take a vacation
• Share a meal
• Volunteer together
• Go for a walk
• Share stories about your childhood
• Just listen and enjoy being with people.
• Pray and worship together

Those are just a few of my suggestions. What ideas do you have?

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Most of the time when we think of giving thanks, we think of things. You know, iPods and running water and having nice houses. But what about people?

Many times the people we love bring more to our lives than the stuff that steals our attention. Why not take a minute to let the people who add value to your life know that they’re important to you?

Why not do it now?

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When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears
and delivers them out of all their troubles.
The Lord is near to the brokenhearted
and saves the crushed in spirit.
Psalm 34:17-18

If we know that God is near to the brokenhearted, doesn’t it make sense that we might find him there? That, perhaps, by serving them and being part of God’s deliverance – actually being the answer to their prayers – we might see God more clearly?

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Note: If your approach to Facebook and other social media is just lead generation and selling stuff, you probably won’t care about the rest of this post. But if you value relationships and care about your friends and acquaintances as people, keep reading and then leave your opinions in the comments.

I love Facebook.

I think Facebook (and social media in general) is great. It’s great that I have an easy way to keep up with my friends from high school and church and to meet new people. Sure, there are some things that just can’t be replaced – like being in the same place at the same time – but there are a lot of things that it does really well.

In many ways Facebook is like CRM for my friends and acquaintances. It’s how I can keep up with what’s going on in their lives (or at least what they share). It’s how I remember birthdays and anniversaries. It’s even how I often learn about prayer needs and social events.

And it requires so little effort. I love that.

And I hate Facebook.

Because it requires so little effort.

There’s a part of dumping my brain to electronic storage that’s strangely wonderful and it sure reduces my stress over forgetting important dates. I’m not usually very good at remembering birthdays and stuff (ask my brother about that), so I’ve been known to forget the not-so-occasional birthday. But because I value my friends and family, I want to remember and it’s a load off my mind to know that Facebook remembers them for me.

But making things easy also cheapens them. It’s so easy to wish my friends a happy birthday that I don’t even have to think about it. I can just click on the links, write “Happy birthday!” once, copy, and paste away. Slick as a whistle.

And almost entirely meaningless.

So meaningless, in fact, that I sometimes forget that I’ve wished someone a happy birthday. I’ve actually gone to a friend’s profile to wish him (or her) a happy birthday only to discover that I’d already done it. And I didn’t even remember.

Meaningless. It was so easy, so automatic that I didn’t remember doing it. It was like I’d turned into a mindless “happy birthday” machine. It dehumanized me and my friend.

Disengage your mind, your will, and your emotions. Click here. No effort required.

So, I’m thinking that sometimes the effort in remembering is what makes a relationship meaningful. That, perhaps, dedicating at least a couple of my brain cells shows that I actually care about my friends as people.

Do you think Facebook makes cheapens your relationships?

Photo credit: faster panda kill kill

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Practice them over and over in an iterative journey into more and more meaning.

Step 1: Figure out what devalues life and stop doing that.
Step 2: Figure out what adds value to life and do more of that.

Repeat. Repeat. Repeat…

That’s it. Simple small changes practiced and compounded over time.

Bonus: Some things seem somewhat neutral. They don’t necessarily add value but they don’t necessarily devalue life. Think long and hard about putting those things in your life, because if you invest your life in things that don’t add value, you still end up devaluing your life’s potential.

Life is valuable. Make the most of it.

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You’re my favorite.  I love you more now than I did the day we were married.  Thank you for loving me and making these past three years the best in my life.

Happy anniversary!

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I suspect that many people don’t consider this but it’s as difficult to stop a negative habit as it is to start a positive habit. And it can be as easy to forget what we don’t want to do as it is to forget what we do want to do when life gets busy and priorities start piling up. It’s good to define what’s most important but sometimes we need a system to remind us of what isn’t important as much as we need a system to remind us what is.

Enter the “not to do” list.

I don’t remember where I first heard about the “not to do” list but I know it wasn’t my idea. That said, I’ve been using one for the last year or so and it can help me regain or retain my focus on what’s most important. It can help me make decisions about how I should (or shouldn’t) spend my time.

Here’s the “not to do” list that I came up with last year. I’m sure it’s not perfect but it’s served me well so far.

How about you?

Do you use a “not to do” list?
Why or why not?

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So, how can you get it all done? How can you answer your email and fleece lemmings and chase gnomes and design leprechaun fashion and invest in your key relationships?

You can’t.

It’s simply impossible to do everything. However, it is possible to be more effective and do more of the things that are the most important.

Define your destination

Knowing where you’re going and what’s most important is the foundation below doing what’s most important. And I don’t just mean knowing which task to do first. I mean what’s most important overall.

• What’s the driving force in your life?
• What makes you tick?
• Why are you here on earth?
• What are you here to do, to accomplish, or to be?
• How do you want to be remembered?
• What would you like to be your legacy?

Taking this step back can be daunting to say the least (and I wouldn’t recommend that you try to do it in the 5 minutes it takes to boot your computer in the morning). But if you’ve never taken a step back to plan your life, I’d recommend that you download Michael Hyatt‘s free Life Plan ebook right now and schedule some time to set your life’s course.

Of course, being a follower of Christ, I would also say that it’s critical that you hear from God about what He has for you – about who he has made you to be and how he would like you to live.

Getting more done in less time doesn’t matter if you don’t know what you should be doing.

Check your ship

Look at what’s going on in your life – your tasks and your actions and your leisure and your attitudes.

• Is your approach to life making you the kind of person you want to be?
• Will what you’re doing lead towards your goals?
• Is what you’re doing important at all?
• Will you be happy if your children end up being the kind of person you are right now?
• Does your approach to leisure leave you recharged or empty?

Clean off the barnacles

Just like ships covered with barnacles move slowly and maneuver poorly, we don’t function well when our lives are full of things that draw us away from what’s important. So, when you find activities and attitudes that don’t line up with your goals (and you will find some), ask yourself whether you can drop them or change them.

Be ruthless (but intentional). Clean out activities that drain you without providing value. Pursue the character and responses that will make you the kind of person you want to be. Become the kind of person who does the kinds of things that lead to where you want to be.

Note: Don’t forget that that if something is important to another person (boss, spouse, child, friend) or to one of your roles (boss, employee, spouse) dismissing it might not be the right course of action. After all, if you’re a parent but you don’t like disciplining your children, that doesn’t mean it’s not important. Or just because running some particular report or analysis doesn’t seem to be leading towards your dream of changing the world doesn’t mean that it’s not important.

Sail your course

Take a look at your new task set and use a few key strategies to make the most of your new-found time:

• If it’s not important, don’t put it on your action list
• If it’s important, put it on your action list
• If it’s really important, schedule it on your calendar (I do this all the time and it really helps with three things: discipline, meeting requests, and interruptions)

Epilogue:

So much of our time and culture is focused on the mechanics of “sailing our courses” but there’s not much value in being better at things that don’t matter. Take the time and do the hard emotional work of defining the course of your life first. Then figure out how to get the most out of your time by filling it with the things that are the most important.

Otherwise, it’s really easy to get to the end of the day (or your life) and wonder if what you did really mattered at all.

Photo credit: katerha

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