Today’s blog post is the beginning of a series of posts of me sharing with you what I learned in 2011. I did this same series of blog posts last year and I felt it was beneficial for me to think through and reflect on what I have learned from the year. The benefit for you as a reader is that you get to glean a few things I have learned that you might be able to apply in your own life.
As John Maxwell says, “We don’t learn from experience, we learn from evaluated experience.” I agree with Mr. Maxwell that in order to learn from what we have been through we need to take time to think through it and find out what we learned.
Today’s post is about how I learned in 2011 to “set your own agenda.”
Set your own agenda is something I was reminded of again in 2011 because of the many requests for my time that I have. You don’t have to be a fancy CEO or well known pastor to have lots of people requesting your time. A mom running a household has more requests for her time a day than most people do at work.
When it comes to your agenda and schedule, you need to set it. You need to take control of your time and what what you do with it because if you don’t, someone else will.
Before allowing anyone else to schedule time on your agenda, set your agenda yourself based on what you need to spend your time doing in order to be healthy. For me, this starts first with making sure I have an hour of alone time in the morning before having to get ready for work. That hour alone allows me to journal, read my Bible, and pray which helps me feel close to God and aligned with His will for me life. I also allow time for my girlfriend which is about an hour a day during the week, Saturday evenings, and all day Sundays (sometimes I alternate that Saturday and Sunday schedule). Then I make sure that I schedule time to study for school, time to meet with my mentor who I meet with every week, and a little time for friends. Those are the things I need to do that help me stay grounded and feel healthy.
To be a healthy and productive leader you must determine what your agenda is and only allow people to change it on rare occasions. Emergencies do happen, a family member might get sick and interrupt what you had planned, but those are okay. As long as you are able to set your agenda for yourself before others are allowed to dictate your time, you are on your way to being a proactive and healthy leader.
Question: How do you set your own agenda?
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