Make Your Minutes Count- Accomplishments

So reflect to gain insight on its successes and learn from its mistakes, but its time to move on because a new door opened Tuesday. We began a trek through the 525949 minutes of 2013. That’s a lot of minutes. So small and insignificant that we are tempted to waste them like we leave a single penny lying on the sidewalk. But that’s dangerous, because minutes are the little building blocks of life. Spend them well and life is richer–fuller. Waste too many unrecoverable minutes and dreams are unrealized and goals are missed. Spend them all in one place and your life is out of balance. Invest them wisely and purposefully and you reap the benefits and joys of a day, a year, a life well lived with valued accomplishments.

But there’s more…invite God into each moment, allow Him to orchestrate them, empower them with His presence and you have a blessed life. He really does have a plan for your life and it’s a good plan. Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the plans I have for you,” says the LORD. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.” Listen to His voice, follow His plan and plug into to His strength and ability.

This moment is a precious gift, so squeeze everything you can out of every moment. Squeezing the most out of a minute is more than filling it with activity or busyness. It means using it strategically and purposefully with specifically accomplishments in mind. Squeeze the most out of every moment by making them count!

1.    Ask God for wisdom and help?

2.    Prayerfully think about the question, “What does God want me to do this year, the next six months, three months.”

3.    Break that question down into categories that influence every area of your life: Financial, Spiritual, Emotional, Relational and Physical.

4.    Then set a goal. Ugh! That’s a nasty four-lettered word. (Here are some more four letter words I’ve discussed in my blogs. Another Four Lettered Word I Hate;  Four Lettered Word that Will Change Your Kids Don’t overwhelm yourself. Start with just one or two.

5.    Write it down. This is important. Write it down. Put it in a place that you will look at it regularly. You may need to schedule a reminder for a certain time every day, once a week or once a month if it’s a big goal to look at your goal.

6.    Reverse engineer the goal. You’ve started with the end in mind, now back up, what are the steps that you need to take to travel to your goal.

7.    What tools, help or resources do you need to accomplish that goal?

8.    Change your attitude by changing how you think. Think about how you will feel after accomplishment of this goal. Set little mile markers in between where you are now and your ultimate goal. Build your faith with promises from Gods Word. Declare those promises out loud. Pray over your goal.

9.    Get busy doing it. Don’t procrastinate. Don’t complain. Keep chiseling away, no matter how tiny the step or how insignificant your progress may seem.

10.  Finish it. Don’t be afraid to tweak, re-evaluate or hone your goal, but don’t quit because it’s hard, the steps are mundane or you fail along the way. My friend Tamara Kraft wrote an excellent blog on how to do more than make a resolution, how to accomplish your goal. Here’s the link: Finish It!