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Rocket - Review (Day 9)
Rocket - Review (Day 9)
Rocket - Review (Day 9)
Review
Day 9
We're in the final stages of descent as ROCKET 2018 heads down to earth
once again, and we get back to our day-to-day lives. But we've covered a lot so
far. If you've been keeping up with the Action Steps each day, you've
accomplished quite a bit. Here's a quick recap:
That's quite a bit! Kudos on making it this far. You now have all these pieces
to get chasing after your goals for the coming year.
But one thing more is needed. You need tools to revise and update your
strategic plan as you go through the year. Life happens, and you need to be
able to adapt your goals to changing circumstances. The key to doing that is a
regular system of review.
Cycles of Time
The process I use is fairly simple. I describe it in more detail in our Life Focus
System class. But for those who haven't taken it, I'll give the nutshell version
here.
Basically, it is a time management strategy that revolves around the various
cycles of time God created.
After all, God did create time, didn't He?. And He designed this world so that
we could easily track the passing of time. Genesis recounts how God created
the sun and the moon "for seasons, and for days, and years" (Genesis 1:14).
The astronomical interplay of these bodies with the earth, gives us our daily,
monthly, and yearly cycles. And after finishing the work of creation, God
threw in an additional weekly cycle (Genesis 2:2-3) which has been adopted
by virtually every culture in every age.
In other words, God designed this world to track and mark the passage of
time. He created us to live within these days, weeks, months, and years. To
maximize our time, we merely need to learn how to maximize these cycles.
That's also how we will keep our strategic plan current.
Yearly:
Each year we can spend some extended communion alone with God revisiting
the whole 10-day process we've chosen. The goal is to clarify your direction--
by choosing a key word or phrase. Then you can review and possibly reset
your priorities, creatively come up with new targets, and update your
calendar. Just as we have done in this course. I like doing it at the start of
each year, but it can be done any time you feel the need to refocus, or even
more than once a year. When I was a college student, I used my breaks to
create a plan for each semester.
Monthly:
Next, I recommend trying to get one day away, or at least a half day, each
month for special prayer and communion with God. During that time,
evaluate each of your priority areas and assess your progress. Did you reach
all your goals for the preceding month? If not, why? Were any priorities
neglected? If so, how can you get more balanced? Do any new targets come to
mind? If so, jot them down. And then plot them out wherever they fit best in
the next 12 months--from that point in time. That means some targets may
cross over into 2019. That's fine. It will give you a head start on next year's
planning! Lastly, evaluate your list of goals for the coming month. Does it
seem doable? Move projects up or down based on your changing desires and
the time you anticipate being available. What other responsibilities must you
fulfill in the month ahead? Jot them down and factor them into your planning
as well.
Weekly:
At the start of each week, I encourage setting aside some time to plan your
week. First pull out your weekly planner. Make sure you have all your regular
duties recorded so you can see a realistic picture of your available time slots.
And make sure you have time scheduled for any habits you are trying to build.
Review the remaining projects you have scheduled for the month and figure
out which ones you can squeeze into whatever slots are available. As the week
progresses, you may realize you won't be able to get everything done, or that
you are getting things done more quickly than anticipated. Adjust your
monthly calendar to compensate. Now you have a plan for the week!
Daily:
Lastly, take a few moments each day to quickly review your planner, and
make any adjustments you need given the changing circumstances of your
week. Add new responsibilities that come up, and mark out stuff you get done
or no longer need to do. This should only take a few moments. Then write out
a list of your tasks/schedule for the day, and commit it to God in prayer. I like
to include this as part of my devotional time. Often when studying, God will
bring applications to mind I feel impressed to do that day. Or when praying,
ideas will come to mind about things I can do to help move some prayer
forward. Insert these into your to do list as needed, but always balance those
"impressions" with the direction God has been giving you all along. Once you
have a finished list, you are good to go! Get busy--you have your marching
orders.
So that's the process in a nutshell! Again, check out our time management
course for more details.
Just make sure you include God in every step of the the planning process. The
more you can do this, the better. You will have greater success, and the goals
you achieve will prove a blessing and not a curse. The reality is, we don't
always get our signals right, and God does not warn us about every curve in
the road. But it is important to have some kind of plan in place if we want to
see progress in our life. The key is being willing to shift and adjust our plan
appropriately, as warranted. That is, we don't want to be fickle and constantly
changing direction, but we also don't want to be rigid and inflexible either. To
quote an inspiring paragraph from a favorite author:
Consecrate yourself to God in the morning; make this your very first
work. Let your prayer be, "Take me, O Lord, as wholly Thine. I lay all my
plans at Thy feet. Use me today in Thy service. Abide with me, and let all
my work be wrought in Thee." This is a daily matter. Each morning
consecrate yourself to God for that day. Surrender all your plans to Him,
to be carried out or given up as His providence shall indicate. Thus day
by day you may be giving your life into the hands of God, and thus your
life will be molded more and more after the life of Christ. Steps to Christ,
p. 70.
It's a powerful statement, isn't it? Have plans, but consecrate, or dedicate,
those plans to God every morning...
So, in conclusion, you not only have a strategic plan for the year, and some
tools to help you implement it, but also a strategy to review and revise it all
through the year. Follow these suggestions systematically, and you will be
well on your way to achieving great successes in the coming year. You'll be
blasting off to new heights in 2018. And it may just be your best year yet...
ACTION STEP
Continue fine-tuning your strategic plan for the year and try to get it
finalized over the next few days if you haven't already. I'd love for you to
finish this course with a document in hand that's ready to go.
Then write out a plan for your review strategy. If you can't do it right now,
add it as a target for the current month. Establish times for your various
reviews. Buy a weekly planner, or if you are a computer junky, settle on
some time management app that will accommodate this system.
We have one in our FAST Dashboard, but it needs some revision and may
not accommodate all your needs. I do have plans to revamp that tool in the
next few weeks (hopefully) so that it integrates tightly with the concepts in
this class, and will let you know when that integration is complete.
But regardless of the tool you use, get your review strategy outlined, and
throw the page in your "success notebook" with all the other work you've
done so far. One more reading, tomorrow...
Comments
How important is it to review and revise a strategic plan through the year?
Does using the cycles of time God established make sense? Where is the
balance between being intentional and being rigid? Is everything coming
together for you? Lots of stuff to talk about in the comments...
I also appreciate the advice to use the cycles of time for review. I loved the
Life Focus System - but need to be much more consistent in implementing
it. I think it is a major key to keeping the whole "strategic plan" from
derailing part way through the year.
The advice to always keep God in the center of it, to always consult him
about our plans and have open ears to any adjustments he would have us
make is critical to prevent rigidity and to keep a right attitude. It also helps
to keep us from going off his course for our life. He sees his long-range life
goal for us (we cannot fully see it) and if we listen he can keep us steered
in the right direction while if we neglect to consult him we are liable to get
way off course chasing the wrong goals or chasing them for the wrong
reason.
Thanks for the great course Dan ! Its just what I needed.
I really appreciate the lessons learned here. I hope this becomes a regular
class at each new year. For goal-setting newbies, like myself, it will help to
go through the process with a mentor/instructor more than once just to
help ground all the principles and needed steps. I feel like I need a support
group for newbies! Lol.
This has been incredibly helpful for me. Thanks again, Dan. I'm asking for
prayer to be able to stick with these principles, to keep up with my
strategic plan and not let it go by the wayside.
Posted by Carole Bliss on 01/09/18
I am grateful for the couches and you, Dan. This has been very helpful.
Purposeful Godly living is what its all about. Thank-you all.
I love the quote, from Steps to Christ, my favorite author.
God bless the Fast Family,
Blessings,
Carole
Tasha, glad this was a blessing. Thank you for participating and for all the
effort you put into it. Be sure to say hi to Les and the kids!
Thank you for your points Pam! I agree that the LFS concepts are
important for year long implementation of the ROCKET concepts. I am
still hoping to have a 30 day time management challenge where I can try
and put it all together plus a bit more. We'll see...
And your linkage between keeping God at the center and not becoming
rigid, having a right attitude, being guidable, etc is a great one. Something
else to work into this class for next time!
And last Linda, so appreciate your feedback also. Glad this was helpful,
even if it was a bit of a challenge! :) Take your time, you have the rest of
your life to continue fine tuning and tweaking your plan. It will just get
better with time. And after you get through the first few busy months,
things may just slow down. :)
Can’t wait for the 30 day class Dan and I look forward to hearing about the
follow up idea you have. A year end celebration sounds good too. Having
ongoing follow up or some way we can support each other will make it
easier to stick with it so we are ready for the celebration!
Great Carlota ! Glad you liked it. Remember you don't have to have
everything finished today, just have the main ideas in place. Take as long
as needed to pull it together and then continue tweaking as per the review
process described today. All the best!
And kudos on the monthly time with God Floride! I think incorporating
life planning into every aspect of communion with God, makes it richer.
Because it connects the physical and spiritual worlds. It's separating them
that is the problem. Don't you think? So glad you enjoyed this course!
Love reading everyone's comments as well. They are also a big help for me.
I was one of the LFS students who failed to implement what I learnt. I
tried..but didn't quite develop a regular routine. It was always my
intention to revisit the course and double my efforts... The Rocket has
really set me up well to get into the review cycles taught in LFS. Thanks
Dan. It also helps that I now have more friends on this Strategic Plan
journey with me - so i'm having more catch up conversations with them
about our progress and this keeps me focussed on the good habits taught
in Rocket, which includes regular review cycles. this is what makes
accountability work, right? (the frequent conversations and checking in on
progress)
I just found my list of goals for Oct/Nov of 2017. Can you believe I had 48
project goals listed? No wonder I ended each month in disappointment! I
had only vague ideas of what each goal involved and nothing written down
to guide me toward accomplishing anything.
I look forward to future courses and to any support group activities in the
future and a year-end sharing of goals completed.
Thank you again Dan, coaches and other posters! Blessings to you all!