Habits and Batteries

This "new" year is almost 1/12 over. Three days left.

My step-up goals have not been met and I'm setting here this morning pondering what has gotten in my way.

I heard Donna Fox, CEO of GutsVisionIntensity, speak this week at PriorityAssociates. Donna's talk was on "goal setting."

She emphasized "habits." Or at least my big Ah Ha!, my take-away, the thing I'm remember most about her talk, was HABITS,

Evaluating my Top 10 Goals for 2012's 1st 100 Days (thanks again Scott Carley), where I'm on and not on track to accomplish, and I realize it's all due to habits.

I must develop better habits. Good habits.

This has been a great time of "evaluation and correction."

Thanks Donna, thanks Scott.

And to that end.....I'll now go back to the battery problem in my car, mower and jetski. Maybe I'll develop a habit of..never mind.

Life Isn't a Straight Line, But a Series of Circles

We've just completed 4 months of the new year and I'd bet good money that few people you ask have thought much, if anything, about their goals. I've tweeted the following statement and the responses have been mostly sighs and gulps.

What are you doing in May, 2011, to accomplish your October, 2011 goals?

Setting goals is one part of achieving good results. Achieving good results is about aligning values, setting good goals, establishing plan and strategies, determining measure points, putting forth the work and having a robust evaluation and correction process.

The #1 reason goals are rarely achieved is the lack of alignment to a person's T.A.S.K.S. (time, attitude, skill, knowledge, style). #2 is an understanding of what it takes to properly setting goals to begin with.

Working through and clarifying your values is the first stage of a solid foundation for goal setting. To properly set a goal, the goal must be reasonable and must be set in accordance with a person’s time, attitude, skill, knowledge and style (TASKS); a goal can be set to increase or strengthen any of these T.A.S.K.S. points.

Goals can and should build upon each other and you have to have the necessary T.A.S.K.S to achieve those goals/results. If you don't have the time, attitude, skill, knowledge and/or style, then you need to getter better. Sometimes you'll set goals with an action plan that includes the necessary training, other times it will be through your evaluation and correction process that you'll realize you, and/or your team, do not have what is needed. That is time reset the goals and/or timeline.

Another key component to a solid foundation for achieving goals is recognizing your Core Ideology; comprised of your vision, mission and your values. During life’s triumphs, struggles and day-to-day living your Core Ideology is what helps ground your behaviors and thoughts so that no matter what path you find yourself engaged on, you stand true. It’s vitally important to not only define your mission and values but to put them both in writing, commit to these statements, and recognize when you find yourself detouring.

Put this written document in front of you, share with someone that cares, develop and write the big and small actions steps and take it one-day-at-a-time. Don't take big bites.

The more you evaluate and correct, the more you keep go around these circles, the more you'll succeed. The faster you go around the circle, the faster you'll achieve the goals.


To that end.....be purposeful and keep circling back to your goals and actions steps.


Blessings,


Danny

Pingings - Evaluation and Correction

Do not quench the Spirit. Test everything; hold
fast to what is good. Flee from what is evil.

1 Thessalonians 5: 19-21

Do not quench the Spirit...test everything....hold fast what is good...flee from what is evil. These are words to seriously read, ponder, and pray on. Peter is talking about the same Spirit Jesus referred to when He said He had to leave so the Spirit could come. I ponder and pray on that and I'm drawn to how the Spirit must groan in me..us; He groans is because He sees and feels us going against God's will and He is trying to correct us.

As I ponder and pray about this verse, I have to assume that anyone who believes in Christ wants to follow Him well. To do anything well takes practice and practicing well takes a good discipline of evaluation and correction. Practicing Christianity well is different only in the aspect that it is the most important aspect of an evaluation and correction process, or discipline.

Many authors have touched on this discipline including Jim Collins with the Hedgehog (Good to Great) and Dennis Bakke's "robust evaluation and correction" (Joy at Work). Years ago I heard Max Anders, senior pastor at Grace Covenant Church, give a sermon where he talked extensively about looking back over your shoulder periodically to review how well your walk with Christ had been.

I like the "robust evaluation and correction" thing, but with some twists.In the Navy, I was on a submarine and though a radioman (dit dah dit dit), I was a bit intrigued with sonar. Sonar is primarily passive and active. Active is the type you hear about in movies when the captain orders for a "ping;" the sonarman sends the single pulse (ping) out and then listens for the return. He can then evaluates the distance from the target. Passive sonar is simply listening for threats. In either case, once a sound is recognized, the captain would evaluate and take the necessary action. We would be out at sea for weeks at a time and someone would be in the sonar room at all times....listening and paying attention.

Practicing Christianity well requires a good discipline of listening, paying attention, evaluation and correction when those pings come back at us, whether invited (active), or passive (uninvited). Some behaviors to practice -

- Pay attention to what is going on around you at all times.

- Ask questions about how you are doing - listen to the answers

- Be purposeful about your life; have a mission and a plan to carry it out.

- Be aware that everyone has blind spots, including you and you can't see them from where you are at that is why they are called blind spots.

- Pray for the Holy Spirit to talk to you and be involved in your valuation and correction - this is where the real ROBUSTness kicks in. The bible tells us He is groaning inside us , wanting to help. We just need to listen and pay attention.


- Don't ignore pingings you hear coming through your hull.

Lord God, I pray that I listen to you today. I pray that I pay attention to where I am and what you want me to do - right here. Give me the wisdom and discernment to recognize the corrections that need to be made in my life. Help me to accept those evaluations and move towards the corrections. Help me to uncover and correct the blind spots. You are good and gracious and your mercy is boundless. You never said our lives would be easy and I pray that I am listening and paying attention to my surroundings, that I allow the Holy Spirit to work in my life. Blessed by your name, that I honor your name. Amen

To that end.....

Make it a great Sunday

Danny

(note...in the practice of "spaced repetition," this is an edited re-post from http://godandworkmatters.blogspot.com/2010/03/evaluation-active-and-passive.html)