This Daren Wride and welcome to Priority Pastor
Well how do you plan a year?
There are so many variables looking ahead; three hundred and sixty-five or sixty-six days, 52 weeks, twelve months. Planning can be a little bit presumptuous and we often try to plan in a way that makes us think we’re in control of what’s going to happen when that’s not the case.
Planning really needs to be done with open palms; really our planning is an offering. It’s a presentation to the Lord say here’s my plans but not what I want what you want ultimately. However, it is helpful to get clear in our head what we actually are hoping to accomplish and put that underneath the umbrella of “your will be done.”
One of the best exercises I’ve come across is a list of questions from Bob Beale. You can find out more about Bob at aylen.com and he’s got a list of questions called “A Single Year” and ideas that you ask yourself these questions once a year whether it’s New Year’s or your birthday or some other set time when you do this kind of reflecting.
And these questions get the wheels turning as you think of the year ahead and here are the questions. Perhaps I’ll do them as a separate blog post as well with with a download, where you can download these questions, but here are the questions.
And as I walk through them just take a second and see what comes to mind your gut reaction because that’s all you really look for is what’s the thing that surfaces quickly that gives you some sense of where you want to go this year. And this is a great exercise to do with a husband or wife or a family and just to get everybody to share what they’re thinking about for the year ahead.
Here’s the questions.:
- What is my single greatest strength or uniqueness as a person?
- What single need or situation do I feel most deeply burdened by and uniquely qualified to meet?
- What single person would I most like to build up develop or teach this year?
- What single person would I most like to learn from this year?
- What single thing would I do this year if it were all I could do?
- What single thing what I most like to buy this year?
- What single place would I most like to visit this year?
- What is the single greatest roadblock holding you back this year?
- What single thing would be most helpful in removing that roadblock?
- What single question or problem when I give 10 percent of my personal income to have answered or solved this year? That’s a great question. Like what is an issue that I had that I want to deal with so badly. I’m willing to give a chunk of my change to to fix it. That really gives a sense of your priorities.
- What single principle or truth would I most like to teach a group of people this year?
- What single habit what I most like to break this year?
- What single habit would I most like to establish this year?
- And finally what single area of my entire life would I most like to grow in personally this year?
Now if you start your planning for the year ahead with with those kind of questions again it gets the wheels turning. It surfaces something that gets you to look at different parts of your life and different angles. And from there then you can move on to the next step which is maybe setting some annual goals or re-evaluate your lifetime or ten year goals. But just asking these questions will give your year a great start.
And as Bob Beale says, the whole point of good questions is to get good answers. And if you ask the right questions you get right answers that lead you down the path you really ought to go.
Again these questions are from Bob Bill aylen.com. Ask some good questions as you start your year or any time you’re making a shift in your life.
