3 Unusual But Highly Effective Moves to Make in 2014

3 Unusual But Highly Effective Moves to Make in 2014

Around this time of year, you hear a lot of talk about priorities and goal setting for the new year.

You hear the same thing, just packaged in different ways from different people.

Most of the advice isn’t effective, which is why most people start off the year with good intentions, only to get derailed a few months into the new year.

To experience amazing outcomes in your life requires you to take unusual actions. Do the opposite of what most people do and see amazing stuff happen in your life.

If you want to make a huge impact in your ministry in 2014…make these three unusual but highly effective moves.

1. Put Yourself First

We’re taught to put others first, but we’ve got it all wrong. Many of us put others first and neglect ourselves, which diminishes our potential impact to the world around us.

You have to put yourself first.

Putting yourself first means your #1 priority is taking care of your soul, mind and body.

Putting yourself first means you:

• Connect with God on a regular basis…take care of your soul.
• Eat healthy. Replace unhealthy foods for healthier options that are just as yummy.
• Exercise regularly. Start really small, then slowly increase as time goes on. My wife just ran a half-marathon recently. After 15+ years of no exercise, she started to run a little at a time and she hasn’t looked back. The same can happen to you.
• Do what excites, inspires and motivates you (unrelated to your ministry, job, family or other responsibilities). Just because you are an adult doesn’t mean you have to give up on doing the things you love. What rejuvenates your soul? Do more of it.

When you put yourself first, you are way more effective serving others.

• Your life oozes with God’s presence.
• Because you eat right and exercise, you have WAY more energy to serve others.
• What you do has a greater impact because you have more love to give.

Putting yourself first actually mobilizes you to serve others with love and compassion.

2. Don’t set goals

What! How could I suggest such an absurd idea? That goes against all you know about being a good leader or being successful at anything.

Focus on your actions rather than the outcome you desire.

You can’t control the outcome, but you can control your actions. The outcome is up to God. Your actions are up to you.

So, focus on taking action everyday towards whatever path God has you on. When it doesn’t turn out the way you hoped for, that’s okay. The outcome might be better than expected. If so, that is great. Or the outcome might be much worse than you thought. That’s okay too, because maybe there is something you can learn in the process. What you learn might be even better than the outcome you desired.

Instead of setting goals, focus on the actions you take every day. Those actions should be moving you in the direction of ONE THING.

Which brings me to the last “move” to make.

3. Focus on ONE THING

Instead of focusing on ONE THING in our ministries, we often focus on TEN things all at once. Or maybe it’s five things…or maybe fifteen.

I laugh when seeing advice for writing down 10 goals for the new year. If you follow that advice, expect to fail.

You and I are more effective focusing on ONE THING at a time.

What ONE THING would have the most impact in your ministry in 2014?

Focus on putting massive amounts of action towards that ONE THING everyday. It’s the first thing you do each morning. You ignore the rest of the things on your to-do list until that ONE THING is done. Turn off your smartphone, don’t look at Facebook and ignore your inbox until that ONE THING is given attention. Put most of your energy, time, attention, and resources into that ONE THING every day…all year long.

For example, my ONE THING today that was work related was to write this blog post. I did a lot of other things during the day not related to work. Personal stuff that needed to get done. But my ONE THING was this blog post, which took me about two or so hours to write. Today was a great day because I got my ONE THING done…the ONE THING that will have the most impact in the lives of others.

This ONE THING idea isn’t mine. I got it all from a book I recently read, called The One Thing. I highly recommend it. The ideas in the book have the power to change your life!

If you focus on the ONE THING all year long, something amazing will happen in your ministry! It might be what you expected or it could be something completely different.

But either way, get ready for something amazing to happen!

What Now?

I just gave you a ton of information. Now, instead of moving on to your next task and forgetting all about this blog post, do this one thing.

Decide to put into action ONE THING I wrote in this blog post. 

What ONE THING resonated with you?

Share your one thing in the comment section below, and then make it a priority for 2014.

One more thing before you go.

If you’re looking for a New Year’s series for your preteen ministry, be sure to check out our new Your Move series. It is a four week series that helps preteens make the right “moves” in their lives. It’s perfect to use at the beginning of 2014 (also good for any time of the year). The series empowers preteens to “move” towards loving God and loving others.

Learn More About “Your Move” Series

My prayer is that 2014 will be your best year ever 🙂

Make it a great year!