Every year I go through a process of answering 10 questions from a book called Your best year yet by Jinny Ditzler. This not only helps me finish the year off strong, because I do a bit of a “stock take” but it prepares my heart and mind for the next year. Each of the questions and the process around it helps me to Selah (Pause and calmly think on that) and as I answer them I am inviting God in to the equation, asking Him for His leading around what it is I want and what it is He wants or requires from me.
As business people, we can often come to the end of a year, sliding into “home-base” like a baseball player or diving the goal over the try line, hoping like crazy we will hit the mark and desperate for a win and some much needed rest. We then checkout, get the rest and wait for the whistle to blow us back into action the following year, we get into our huddle make some goals or plays for the year and press repeat.
If you have some of the same goals in life and business that are being forwarded because they are just not getting done, this will be a sign that you are making goals that are not necessary value driven goals. What they do is make you feel like you aren’t achieving but they are deceptive because these goals are often in the “ought to” or “should do” bracket. These kinds of goals can often be a distraction and make us weary rather than help us to be forward moving people, going from glory to glory.
A value driven goal is linked to purpose, it aligns to who we really are and why we are here. It is dripping with destiny and purpose and the best part – you are designed for it, so it will actually come easier. (Note I said easier not easy) The trouble is in our fast pace worlds, where being busy is seen as been productive, we rarely take time out to firstly, take stock of where we are and where we have come from and secondly, check in to see what is most important and of value to me and to God.
As we grow, things might change and if we are not being intentional, we might be doing the same things in a time and season where they are not as effective as they used to be. A classic story to illustrate this: A family sit down to dinner one evening and the little daughter asks her mum why the ends of the roasts have been cut off, the mum thinks about it and says “Well, granny always did it that way.” It makes her think and when she next speaks to her mum, she asks her why she always cuts the ends of the beef roast off. She answers that her mum always did it that way and she had never really thought why. Great Granny just happen to be visiting and so she asks her why she always cut the ends the roast off, to which she replies. “My oven dish wasn’t big enough to fit the whole roast.“
Are there some things that you have been doing for a while in your business that you suspect might not be the most effective way of doing things now that technology or the business world has developed or changed? Are there some areas of your personal life that could do with some re-looking and re-alignment? Perhaps there are some associations or partnerships that need to be either refreshed or pruned? As this is the time of year where everyone slows down, why not take the time to get the edge on your competition?
If lack of vision causes people to cast off restraint or perish, clarity and vision invigorates and causes people to move with strength and passion. I have already done the Best year yet process for myself, I am super clear of what next year looks like to me, I know what I need to set up for 2017 already, so that when we come back from our break over Christmas I can start the year running, with clarity and purpose. Can you say the same?
I am going to be running a few workshops in November and at the end of January for this very purpose. It is an investment of 4 hours, and $150 that I promise will have far reaching results.( we may even do webinars if you are interested!)
Contact me on tracey@businessedge.org.nz to get the details or watch our Build Leadership facebook page.