Seven New Year’s Resolutions You Can Keep!
1. To gain weight—at least 15 pounds.
2. To stop exercising.
3. To read less.
4. To watch more TV.
5. To procrastinate more—starting tomorrow.
6. To get further in debt.
7. To spread out priorities beyond the ability to keep track of them.

On the other hand, you might want to read “No More New Year’s Resolutions—Part 2” before you make any more New Year Resolutions—even easy ones!

[ Website Version  |  Read Part 1 ]

In The Purpose Driven Life, Rick Warren says: “Spiritual growth is not automatic. It takes intentional commitment. You must want to grow, decide to grow, make an effort to grow, and persist in growing. The Bible compares spiritual growth to a seed, a building, and a child growing up. Each metaphor requires active participation: Seeds must be planted and cultivated, buildings must be built—they just don’t appear—and children must eat and exercise to grow…. At least eight times in the New Testament we are told to ‘make every effort” in our growth toward becoming like Jesus.”

I challenge YOU to “make every effort” to cooperate with God ‘s work in and through you by writing a personal growth plan for 2004.

In the article that follows, I have primarily addressed the human responsibility side of personal growth because my own spiritual journey has painfully instructed me that God is always faithful to stimulate personal growth in my life—but I am not always faithful to work with him in my personal growth journey! Since breakdowns in our personal growth happen because of our issues—not any fault of God’s—I challenge YOU to address those issues that YOU have control over! My heart’s desire is to help you “Utilize a Personal Growth Plan Effectively in 2004” by “Avoiding Five Common Personal Growth Plan Potholes” (all of which I have hit at one time or another with varying degrees of damage).

 

1. Keep It in Writing
( Avoid the PGP Pothole of Fantasyland )

When it comes to a personal growth plan—whatever you do—get something—anything—in writing! It doesn’t matter if you write your personal growth plan ideas on paper, a napkin, a computer, or the back of your hand! JUST WRITE SOMETHING DOWN!

A personal growth plan that is not in writing is not a personal growth plan at all—it is merely a personal growth fantasy!

Personal growth and achievement pundits confirm that about 97 percent of us are not serious enough about our personal growth to put some goals in writing. That is, 97 percent of us are living quite comfortably in personal growth fantasyland! I invite you to step out of the masses of spiritual mediocrity—into the top 3 percent of all people—and write your personal growth plan this year. Most of us really want to see God do great things in and through us—we want to make a difference! However, most of us have not consciously given our personal growth enough thought to actually put something on paper! Don’t tell me how you HOPE to become a man or woman of God this year—show me your written plan! The moment you begin to write your personal growth plan is the moment you leave personal growth fantasyland!

 

2. Keep It Simple
( Avoid the PGP Pothole of Excessive Complexity )

My very first personal growth plan was a series of about fifteen one-line goal statements. It was a little over a half of page long. No glitz. No grandiose pronouncements. No smoke and mirrors. The one-line goal statements were not even written particularly well! Just fifteen short, honest, personal challenges concerning the growth I knew God was initiating in my life for that year. I simply wrote them down—in no particular order. But they turned out to be more valuable than gold to me. From this very first attempt at a personal growth plan—as feeble as it was—I learned the power of writing personal growth goals on paper. And God used that basic first attempt at a written growth plan to change my life forever.

However, I have noticed that over the years of writing personal growth plans, I have increasingly become more sophisticated in my approach. I am almost embarrassed to tell you that my personal growth plan last year was six pages long (single spaced)—complete with vision statements, a listing of my personal core values, and well-written SMART goals. YIKES! Frankly, I enjoyed writing that document—and taking the time to write that information was extremely beneficial—but in hindsight it was too much. Why? I discovered that when my personal growth plan lost its simplicity—it began to lose some of its power!

When a personal growth plan loses its simplicity—it begins to lose some of its power!

So this year, 2004, I have simplified my personal growth plan—big time. I have gone back to a personal growth plan that is written on one side of a piece of paper.

For those of you who have written elaborate personal growth plans and have found them to be more of an encumbrance than a facilitator for your personal growth, I invite you to apply the advice of William of Ockham, that “Entities should not be multiplied unnecessarily,” (known as Ockham’s razor) and it’s more modern version, the KISS principle, “Keep It Simple Stupid.”

[If you are interested in seeing the difference between my personal growth plan from last year and this year—e-mail info@cadreministries.com and we will send you both plans—BUT ONLY AFTER YOU SEND A COPY OF YOUR PGP for 2004. Why? Please see point #3.]

 

3. Keep It Yours
( Avoid the PGP Pothole of Plagiarism )

“Bill, I just finished reading chapter one in Grow, Minister, and Lead—the chapter on how to develop and follow through on a personal growth plan. Would you please send me a copy of your growth plan so I have some idea how to write one?”

At first glance this request seems reasonable. At least I thought so. And because my life’s mission is to have fun making those around me wildly successful, I would gladly send my current personal growth plan as a lifeline to people who asked for help in writing theirs!

However, I began to notice something disturbing to me. I noticed that those I sent MY personal growth plan to would develop a personal growth plan that not only looked like mine—but often contained the same content—and even the same wording! I actually know of one person who put his name at the top of my personal growth plan—and sent it out with his resume! (He got the job!) So these days I refuse to send my personal growth plan to anyone who does not first send me his or hers.

While there is value in viewing the growth plans of others (after you have a draft of your personal growth plan on paper), there is no value in adopting the personal growth plan of another person carte blanche! Why? Because if you did not create the plan—you will not own it—therefore, you will not be motivated to live it! Note well that your emotional ownership of your personal growth plan is positively related to your motivation to carry it out! Ownership is the slightly older twin sister of motivation. You need both ownership and motivation to successfully implement a personal growth plan. In Success By Design: Ten Biblical Secrets to Help You Achieve Your God-Given Potential, Dr. Peter Hirsch accentuates the motivational need for each person to determine and own his or her own personal growth goals when he writes, “The reason why most goal-setting programs fail is because they are not linked to a purpose you care about.” The reality of writing a personal growth plan is this:

Only you can write a personal growth plan that is motivating to you.

If you are not willing to take the pains of seeking God and writing a God-directed personal growth plan for your life this year—you will not be making much progress in your life no matter how wonderful your personal growth plan (or the one you plagiarize) looks on paper! So whatever you do, don’t simply adopt a personal growth plan carte blanche from someone else. Keep your personal growth plan personal and yours!

 

4. Keep It Specific
( Avoid the PGP Pothole of the Plague of Vague )

By far the most common pothole people fall into when they attempt to write a personal growth plan is the plague of vague generalities. Generally speaking, I know my first personal growth plan had plenty of generalities (hope you are smiling). It was very vague in a non-specific sort of way (hope you are smiling more). It was missing something (OK—I’ll quit being vague now).

I received so many vaguely written personal growth plans from sincere people who read chapter one of Grow, Minister, and Lead, I knew I needed to help people become more specific about their personal growth plans. This is precisely why I wrote “Getting SMART About Your Personal Growth” in chapter two of Grow, Minister, and Lead 2—The Next Level . (The acronym “SMART” stands for specific, motivating, attainable, relevant, and trackable—and is a goal setting grid that helps people move from writing vague goals to specific goals—thus conquering the plague of vague when they write a personal growth plan.)

The plague of vague often shows up in a personal growth plan when someone writes a sincere personal growth goal like this: “In 2004, by God’s grace and power, I will grow in my relationship with God.” Please note that this is a good—yea even biblical—desire. And if someone actually took the time to write this desire—he or she would be miles ahead of someone who does not bother to write personal growth goals (see point #1). However, this wonderful desire (to grow in a relationship with God) is a very poorly written personal growth goal! Why? How are you going to track progress in your relationship with God? How do you know if you achieved it? How will you know when to celebrate?

What follows is a mere suggestion on making the above wonderful desire a good personal growth plan goal: “In 2004, by God’s grace and power, I will strategically invest the first ten minutes of my morning five times a week in solitude, reflection, and meditation on my identity in Christ as explained in the books of Ephesians and Colossians.” This good personal growth goal is written in such a way that you will know at the end of every day—every week—and at the end of the year—whether or not you are making progress in your relationship with God—at least in regard to grasping your rich identity in Christ through solitude, reflection, and meditation on God’s Word.

If “generalities are the refuge of a lazy mind,” then “specific is terrific” when it comes to writing your personal growth plan.

As you write the specifics of your personal growth plan this year, I challenge you to keep it SMART—because specific is terrific!

 

5. Keep It God-Directed
( Avoid the PGP Pothole of Creating Your Own Plan )

It is quite possible to write a personal growth plan for your life this year that has nothing to do with the heart of God for you! Don’t make the mistake of writing a personal growth plan for your life this year and then asking God to bless it. Why? God does not want to be in YOUR plans for YOUR life this year. He already has a plan for you. He wants you to scrap YOUR plans and join HIM in HIS plan for your life this year. The kind of authentic life change and personal growth in discipleship we are seeking can only come from God. Therefore, we must be diligent to bring God into the entire personal growth plan process—before, during, and even after we write a personal growth plan this year.

Because of the God factor in our lives, our personal growth plans should be written in pencil—so to speak. That is, we should keep our personal growth plans humbly flexible before the leading of God. Why? You may labor over writing a personal growth plan for your life this year and God—precisely because he is God—may do something totally unexpected in your life in terms of your personal growth. As the Yiddish expression says,

“Man makes plans, and God laughs.”

The God factor implies that you could invest time in writing a plan that you believe represents God’s heart for you this year—only to find out that God is taking you in a completely unforeseen personal growth direction. But what about YOUR wonderful personal growth plan that YOU have written? Throw YOUR personal growth plan out the window. Go with what God is doing in your life. Then be diligent to re-write your new personal growth plan to reflect the reality of God’s new working in your life.

 

Knowledge That Is Organized and Applied Is Power!

Contrary to popular understanding (and the respected wisdom of Sir Francis Bacon), knowledge itself is not power. The twenty-first century reality is this: knowledge that is organized AND applied is power! In Leading from the Inside Out: The Art of Self-Leadership, Dr. Samuel D. Rima cogently argues that “Knowledge that is not applied is not power at all. In fact the exact opposite is true. The more information and knowledge a person possesses and yet refuses or fails to act on, for whatever reason, the more indicative it is of weakness and impotence than it is of power.”

So here you stand on the precipice of knowledge—looking over the promise land of action, application, and life change. You’ve read the article. Thanks. But the real nitty gritty question I MUST ask you is: Are you going to settle for having knowledge about a personal growth plan—or are you going to step onto the playing field of personal discipleship in 2004? The most important thing you can do RIGHT NOW is to bow your heart and ask God to take you to a new level of growth and discipleship this year—then take out a clean piece of paper and something with which to write—and just start writing. That very act alone—trying to put God’s heart for your personal growth this year on paper—will move you into the top 3 percent of all people! You need not worry that what you write is organized, SMART, or profound! Just start writing. Later, you can dig through all of what you write to organize, cut, edit, and add to what you have written. Whatever you do—pray and put the pen to the paper now. It will change your life forever!

If you would like to send the 2004 Personal Growth Plan Challenge to a friend so you can take the challenge together, click here to send this edition of Cadre Connection:

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Experience Cadre Training!

For Those DARING People Who Want More Personal Growth Plan Help….


Resources to Help You Write a Personal Growth Plan:

1. Grow, Minister, and Lead! Ten Training Sessions to Help You Grow, Minister, and Lead
These ten training sessions come with Bible study questions that are ideal for self study or small group training sessions. Topics covered: how to develop a personal growth plan, Joseph's secret for sexual purity, how to find an accountability partner, time management for busy people, how to deal with difficult people, how to conduct a meeting so people actually show up, and much more!
For more info, click:
http://www.cadreministries.com/store/books.html#grow  |  Printable Mail Order Form

2. Grow, Minister, and Lead #2--THE NEXT LEVEL! Ten MORE Training Sessions to Help You Grow, Minister, and Lead
These ten training sessions come with Bible study questions that are ideal for self study or small group training sessions. Topics covered: moving from ordinary to extraordinary, how to develop a SMART personal growth plan, time management, the importance of volunteer ministry, how to gain credibility, what does it mean to be successful in ministry, why non-Christians won't come to outreaches, self leadership, how to lead those who lead you, and motivating volunteers.
For more info, click:
http://www.cadreministries.com/store/books.html#next  |  Printable Mail Order Form

3. Grow, Minister, and Lead--AUDIO (tapes or CDs): The Best of GML 1 and GML 2 on Audio
These nine audio training sessions on six tapes or six CDs include: moving from ordinary to extraordinary, personal growth plans and how to create SMART goals, sexual purity, accountability, time management, becoming a credible communicator, self leadership, leading those who lead you, and becoming a high impact teacher.
For CDs, click: http://www.cadreministries.com/store/audio.html  |  Printable Mail Order Form
For tapes, click: http://www.cadreministries.com/store/tapes.html#pack

How to Avoid the Top Ten Time Eaters
(According to Alec MacKenzie)

1. Crisis management, shifting priorities—THE URGENT
2. Telephone interruptions
3. Lack of objectives, priorities, planning
4. Attempting too much
5. Drop-in visitors
6. Ineffective delegation
7. Personal disorganization
8. Lack of self-discipline
9. Inability to say no
10. Procrastination

If you are interested in intentionally learning to live your priorities in 2004—as opposed to letting the Top Ten Time Eaters slowly gnaw away at your life—check out Time Management for Painfully Pooped-Out People: Ten Biblical Principles for Taking Control of Your Life and Time. This Bible study workbook is ideal for self-study, small groups, and Sunday School!

Order online, click: http://www.cadreministries.com/store/books.html#time

For orders via regular mail, check the price on the website at, click:
1. Click: http://www.cadreministries.com/store/books.html#time
2. Download the mail order form: http://www.cadreministries.com/store/mail.html

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