P.O.D. Strategy (Prioritize, Organize, Discipline)
Dear Members,
Welcome to the New Year! I am excited about 2010 and the potential that this year has for us as believers. I believe this year will be, for some, the best year they have ever had yet at the same time an unusually challenging time. I believe it will be necessary to be focused as believers on the priorities God sets before us. For some, discipline (focus) is easier than others. Many people can set yearly goals, decide which steps they need to take and simply walk it out. Others struggle with this method of accomplishing goals and find that by the third or fourth month of the year, they have totally given up. So I am presenting a different strategy which will actually tie your goals to your priorities with the hope of you finding your sweet spot; a rhythm in your life that involves your passion as well as meets the demands of your world. James Ryle taught me that vision produces passion. Passion produces discipline, and discipline allows me to take risks. Risk without discipline is recklessness; discipline with out passion is legalism; and passion without vision is quickly dissipated.
Another pattern that I use is that “Purpose should birth your mission. Your mission determines your values; your values determine your priorities; and, your priorities should dominate your schedule and your schedule should dominate you.” Now we know that at CLC, one of our values is that we submit structure to Spirit. In other words, the bottom line of all behavior should be the voice of God. However, attaching your schedule to your purpose sets you up for a life of obedience to your purpose.
A successful year is composed of successful days, weeks and months. Breaking the year down into days, weeks and months, makes it easier to accomplish goals because at the beginning of the day, I know and have scheduled the things that, once accomplished, would make my day successful.
The Bible instructs us not only to be good but also to be strategic (Matt. 7:24, 10:16, Luke 16:8). This strategy deals with managing five of the most important resources you have: time, attention, energy, talent and money. Your talents (natural gifts), do not determine your calling, but they give a strong hint as to what you are called to do. A talent is something that possesses the 4 “E’s”; excellence, easy, energizing and eternal. Excellence relates to your ability to do something really well all of the time. Also, you find tasks related to your strengths easy to accomplish. Another quality about strengths is that they tend to have an energizing effect on you. Lastly, when you are operating in your strengths, you tend to lose track of time, which is what we mean when we use the word eternal; it has a timeless aspect to it. By strategically spending time, attention and energy on your strengths, you increase the chances of eventually living in your sweet spot.
First, based on your vision and values, you determine your priorities, the things which, if given time, attention and energy, would produce the most positive effect in your life. This should be done for every area of your life: spiritual, mental, physical, social, vocational and financial. Once you have established your priorities, you then organize your life around your priorities. For example, we all know we should pray every day, but do we? Prayer is always important but seldom urgent. Therefore, it is easily ignored. If we know that we should pray everyday, then we should schedule a time and a place for it. This will do two things--help you attend to your commitment to pray and help you get back on track if you miss it. One of the problems with goal setting is that if or when we find ourselves off course, discouragement or resignation sets in. However, with this strategy, every day is a new start, and a bad month doesn’t have to result in a bad year. Once priorities have been established, discern whether these should be attended to on a daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, or yearly basis. We have provided a sample P.O.D. chart to illustrate this. There is also included a blank P.O.D. form that you can insert information into electronically or print out and fill in the information by hand. Once this is done, take the information listed and insert it into a yearly calendar (set the actual dates and activities that should occur each month). A yearly calendar was also included for your convenience. A sample monthly calendar is listed for your viewing if needed as well for additional direction. The last component is discipline. Now that you know your day’s priorities, you can discipline yourself to them and guarantee a successful day. In other words, now that you know what to do, just do it! At the beginning of your day, make sure to ask for and expect God’s help throughout the day in accomplishing your purpose. Remember, we are not called to do anything in our own power. God will help you with this, but you must first step out. At the end of the day, review your day to see if you were successful. If so, celebrate. If not, try to determine what happened to get you off course, make the necessary adjustments and start again the next day.
As you look at the samples, you will notice a couple of things. First, when we say daily, we are mainly referring to Monday-Friday. If your schedule is such that you can make your “dailies” seven days a week, then that’s fine. You will also see that we have left some sections in the chart blank. Don’t feel the need to fill in every blank if it is not applicable to you. Feel free to revise this chart if necessary to fit the needs of you and your family. If you have any questions or need to sit with someone to help you organize your personal or family priorities, please e-mail me at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or call the church office at (269) 344-7135, ext “0”.
Have a great year!
Pastor Joel A. Brooks Jr.
