Now, look at your list and begin to make new cards with actions that will make a difference in each of these catagories. If it went well, then what action do you need to plan to keep doing what you did well? If it needs changing, then what action will you implement to make a difference. If you need to do something new, then what action will lead you there. Hint: begin these cards with the word "To" and complete the action. For example: "To plan my daily calendar a week in advance beginning on Friday of each week."
Now, group your action items by category (administrative, personal skills, recruiting, etc.). Put them in priority order. Now, consruct an overarching goal that defines each area. These action items are now objectives under your goals. You most likely will end up with three goals with several objectives under each goal. I recommed three goals because this is a managable number. You might consider two work goals and one personal goal.
Here's a gift for you to assist your planning this year. Click on the link below and download my article on composing powerful goals. It is protected by copyright, however, you have my permission to copy to form for your personal use and for using with your teams and committees. Click HERE to download the artilce.
This January edition of "Leadership Tools" is intended to be inspiration for a new year. Some of my best inspiration comes from quotes. I have grouped some quotes that resonate with me under my usual leadership headers.
Enjoy!
Hugh Ballou
FOUNDATIONS
The musical conductor knows every nuance of the score before the first rehearsal and guides the process to empower great performances. All leaders can learn from this model to equip leaders and empower teams in orchestrating success. Hugh Ballou, The Transformational Leadership Strategist.
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“Dwell in possibility.” Emily Dickinson
"People who make decisions go to the top. Those who fail to make decisions go nowhere." Bob Proctor
"Cherish your visions and your dreams as they are the children of your soul; the blueprints of your ultimate achievements." Napoleon Hill
"Once you make a decision, the Universe conspires to make it happen." Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Your big opportunity may be right where you are now." Napoleon Hill
If we all worked on the assumption that what is accepted as true were really true, there would be little hope of advance. Orville Wright
“Creative power, is that receptive attitude of expectancy which makes a mold into which the plastic and as yet undifferentiated substance can flow and take the desired form.” Thomas Troward
"You owe it to us all to get on with what you're good at." W.H. Auden
"You must have control of the authorship of your own destiny. The pen that writes your life story must be held in your own hand." Irene C. Kassorla
"If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost. That is where they should be. Now put foundations under them." Henry David Thoreau
"Don't ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive." Howard Thurman
- Tired of conflict on your church committee?
- Tired of committees not functioning?
- Tired of doing it all?
- Check out this program:
- "Transform Your Church Committees Into High Performance Teams in Just 21 Days!
RELATIONSHIPS
Learn from everyone you encounter. You will learn from good as well as bad leaders. Only work with those you respect and value as the best. You shape your life with the influence of the people you hang out with. Hugh Ballou, The Transformational Leadership Strategist.
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"Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work." Thomas Edison
"Experience is not what happens to you. It is what you do with what happens to you." Aldous Huxley
“If I have seen further than others, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants.” Isaac Newton
"You do not have to be "ordained" to be a minister in the world. The Universe has ordained you by virtue of your being alive. You can be ˜ and are ˜ a minister right now. Every day, if you look for it, you will find a chance to bring your ministry of healing and of love to someone new." Neale Donald Walsch
"There are high spots in all of our lives and most of them come through encouragement from someone else. Encouragement is oxygen to the Soul." George Matthew Adams
"People are like stained glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within." Elisabeth Kubler-Ross
"Behold the darkness, yet curse it not. Rather, be a light unto the darkness, and so transform it. Let your light so shine before men, that those who stand in the darkness will be illumined by the light of your being, and all of you will see, at last, Who You Really Are." Conversations With God, Book 2, Neale Donald Walsch
“There are no extra pieces in the universe. Everyone is here because he or she has a place to fill, and every piece must fit itself into the big jigsaw puzzle.” Deepak Chopra
"The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be kindled." Plutarch
“If you aren't in over your head, how do you know how tall you are?” T.S. Eliot
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Check out these on The Singer Link:
St. Olaf Choir in Concert HERE
Hugh Ballou on Sing4All Radio Show HERE
Presentation Mini Master Class with Doug Lawrence HERE
SYSTEMS
An agenda is the killer of productivity in meetings. Focus on specific outcomes expressed as deliverables instead. Drive for excellence on outcomes in all activities and you will create the DNA for excellence for your organization and yourself. Hugh Ballou, The Transformational Leadership Strategist.
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"The secret of joy in work is contained in one word - excellence. To know how to do something well is to enjoy it." Pearl S. Buck
"The secret of happiness lies in taking a genuine interest in all the details of daily life, and in elevating them to art." William Morris
"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." Bruce Lee
"We either make ourselves miserable, or we make ourselves strong. The amount of work is the same." Carlos Casteneda
“The will to win is important, but the will to prepare is vital.” Joe Paterno
"Patience serves as a protection against wrongs as clothes do against cold. For if you put on more clothes as the cold increases, it will have no power to hurt you. So in like manner you must grow in patience when you meet with great wrongs, and they will then be powerless to vex your mind." Leonardo da Vinci
"I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it." Pablo Picasso
"Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish." John Quincy Adams
"Success is going from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm." Abraham Lincoln
“The way to develop self-confidence is to do the thing you fear and get a record of successful experiences behind you.” William Jennings Bryan
“We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men; and among those fibers, as sympathetic threads, our actions run as causes, and they come back to us as effects.” Herman Melville
BALANCE
To fully appreciate what you create, take time to breathe. The punctuations in literature, the rests in music, and the respite in life give perspective. These are not absence of activity. These are intentional times to gather, regroup, rest, and focus on what matters most. Hugh Ballou, The Transformational Leadership Strategist.
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"Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away." George Carlin
“Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans” John Lennon
"The sum of the whole matter is this, that our civilization cannot survive materially unless it be redeemed spiritually." Woodrow Wilson
"Humor is the great thing, the saving thing. The minute it crops up, all our irritations and resentments slip away, and a sunny spirit takes their place." Mark Twain
"Life is a mirror and will reflect back to the thinker what he thinks into it." Ernest Holmes
“I also spend a great deal of time thinking about the things I love. I am keenly aware of how much there is in life to appreciate and enjoy. I dwell on that every day. I do not take anything good in my life for granted. I am always aware of our mortality. I know that if I love someone, the time to express it is today. If I value something, the time to honor it is today.” Nathaniel Branden
“You were born an original. Don't die a copy.” John Mason
“I don't sing because I'm happy; I'm happy because I sing.” William James
"Ordinary riches can be stolen, real riches cannot. In your Soul are infinitely precious things that cannot be taken from you." Oscar Wilde
"To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment." Ralph Waldo Emerson