Stop Talking, Start Doing

Happy New Year!

Before we return to our regular scheduled family plan content in the area of “the office called your home”, we felt it’s a perfect time to share with you our family’s focus for this new year.  

We’ve learned that focusing on too many things as a family can leave us incomplete on too many initiatives.  We’ve also discovered on the flipside that when you focus on one thing together, you can accomplish more than you ever thought possible.  With that said, each year we set a focus statement. Because we are people of faith, this focus statement is developed during prayer sessions.

It would be easier for us to share last year’s focus statement because we’ve added resources, scriptures, action items, projects, etc. to its content throughout the year.  In other words, we’ve spent a year with our focus statement and have gained a ton of insight and information to support it. However, we’re bringing you in with us as we plan our next focus statement and it’s fresh on our mind and in our heart.

“Stop Talking, Start Doing”
Our focus statement for this year is “stop talking, start doing.”  This phrase fell in our hearts around early November. As we were in our 1st meeting of the day, we came to the realization that we had too much.  There’s just too much paperwork that we have to process.  There’s too many repeatable tasks that need to be delegated.  There’s too many open projects that need to be closed. There’s too much talking and not enough doing.  

Talk leads to poverty; you gotta do something!
“Work brings profit, but mere talk leads to poverty!” – bible.com/116/pro.14.23.nlt
I’m a talker by nature, but I’m also a doer.  However, there’s been more talking than doing as I evaluate last year.  We desire to be known for getting the work, job, task, project, plans, goals, desires, mission, and assignment… done!  We’re not making plans just to have written plans. The plans are written so that we can execute it and get it done. This is our focus for the new year.

How will that look?
When we apply this to our lives, we start with our family plan.  So we ask and answer questions like these:

1. How can we stop talking and start acting on our executive administrative plans?
2. How can we put our financial plans in action and stop talking about the problems?
3. What can we do to move our facilities’ projects forward?
4. What can be done to make improvements in the way we handle our home office administration?
5. What are we doing to be more productive and develop ourselves?
6. What steps are we taking to market our gifts, talents and skills?
7. What changes can we implement to improve how we care for family?
8. What new actions can we add to our legal needs and political environment?

Taking action is the only way for us to drive change to existing behavior.  We don’t want this year to end in the same manner as last year. I don’t know about you but I want this year to be the best we’ve ever had.

How will this new focus look for our daughter?
Any time you have a plan for the family, you need to make sure it includes the family.  We always have to give some thought to how we include our daughter and how she can apply our focus statement.  Here are a few ideas we have:

1. What actions can she take to be a better friend to her friends?
2. What can she do to set an example and be a model student at her school?
3. What actions can she take to be more involved in extracurricular activities and ministry?

This focus statement gives us all one focus to concentrate all our efforts at work, home, and socially.  It’s something we’ll repeat together and discuss often.

Today is Friday!
Having a single focus for a year has proven to be very beneficial to our family.  I share this idea with you in hopes of you having a year like no other. It’s time you created your own focus statement.  Do me a favor and share yours with me on social media.

[su_note note_color="#FFFFFF" text_color="#000000"]The Family Plan Binder is available now!

Our team has worked very hard putting it together. We designed it to help you and your family move the needle forward in making your life your business. Find out more about the Family plan here.[/su_note]