Every Day Choices: How to Skyrocket Them Into Your Best Choices

You’ve heard it before, “we all have the same 24 hours every day.  It’s what you do with those 24 hours that matter.”  How true this statement rings.  But how do we truly go about putting this wisdom to work?

“Life is a sum of all your choices.”

Albert Camus

We can contribute where we are today, at this very moment, to the cumulative choices we have made in our lives up until now. Some of those past choices we might wish could be reversed, but nevertheless; we are here because of those choices.  And, the good news is that we can affect the tomorrows, the next years, and the next decades by making the best choices today – right now.

But how do we go about making the best choices for ourselves consistently?  I am so glad you asked!  Here are my favorite guidelines to manage choice points:

• Choose Routine.  If you are looking to adopt a new habit or break an old habit, do it consistently with lots of effort and determination in the beginning until it becomes an effortless habit.  For example, if you decide you want to start exercising, set your alarm 30 minutes earlier than normal and commit (here is the effort & determination phase) to walking until you notice you feel so much better. Once you start feeling better,  you will then want (here is the effortless phase) to get up to walk.

• Ask the “Big” Question.  If you are trying to make a decision on whether something matters or not or whether it is worth getting upset about, ask yourself one question.  In the big picture, does this really matter?  Will I even care about this in 30 days? If you can’t answer yes to either of these questions, then don’t invest your time or energy.

• Schedule It.  Sometimes our days get away from us before we even get started on our dreaded “To Do List.”  We continually respond to those things that stare us in the face such as the phone ringing, people walking into our office, or the e-mail and text chimes.  Instead of living in a pure reaction mode (lack of choice mindset), choose instead to schedule your top priorities and move into a response mode (choices become abundant).  It truly is okay to schedule time to work on your priorities and projects in your office or the local library.  Record these work times in your calendar and honor those just as much as you would an appointment with another person.  

• Invest in Balcony Time.   Most of us spend time working “in” our ministry daily.  These include meetings, email responses, writing, connecting with other people, etc. But too often we spend little to no time working “on” our ministry. Prioritized time once or twice a month is imperative to work “on” your ministry.  This is a time to analyze the overall health, vitality, and alignment of your organization. These are the times when you would consider if your staff and ministry team leaders are well equipped, supported, and leading vital ministries. This is a time to analyze the financial reports to ensure individual ministry budgets vs actuals are aligned, review giving vs expenses trends, and a giving unit analysis. This is also a time to take a deep review of the organization’s annual goals and the activities of the church are propelling the accomplishment of the goals. It is a time to compare the demographics of the community and the congregation and note any gaps.  By taking a step back and viewing your organization from a bird’s eye view from 10,000 feet instead of the view from the every-day operation trenches; you will gain much insight and perspective and make better overall daily choices.

• Program Your GPS.   When choices come our way, sometimes we choose the road of least resistance. In some instances, that choice proves to be the best. Sometimes, the path of least resistance is not always the best choice.  But how do we have better odds of making the best choices?  By taking the time to develop  our annual organization’s goals (determining the address to program our GPS to), we are more assured of reaching our goals (making it to the desired destination/outcome).   

In this upcoming year, decide where you want your accumulated choices to take you and your church.. Each individual choice you make builds on the variety of choices that will come before you to make in the future. By creating an environment that fosters choices coming from a place of response versus reaction, we are much more likely to make better choices that will propel our lives and organizations to greater heights of missional alignment and personal impact.