Who Will You Be One Year From Now?
In an episode of The West Wing last fall, Leo writes the number 365 on a flip chart and circles it. "This is how many days this administration has left. How do you want to use them?" In the silence that follows, he looks at the clock – 11pm – crosses out the number 365 and writes 364.
What do you want to accomplish with the next 365 days? What is your intent for how your church will be different a year from now? What is your intent for how you will different a year from now?
In our coaching with clergy, that's often the place we begin. Once you know what you want to achieve or the difference you are looking for – either in groups you lead or in your own life – you can begin to chart a course in that direction. It provides you with a goal to work towards, a star to steer by, and a way of assessing whether or not your efforts are effective. In coaching language, that's called the Big Agenda, and it's our job as coaches to help our clients stay focused on the Big A Agenda so that items that fill their small (or daily) agendas serve their Big Agenda, rather than crowd it out.
Gandhi once said, "We must be the change we seek to create." We invite you, during the last days of August, to focus on yourself. As you become the change you seek "out there" much begins magically to fall into place.
We offer you a process described by Benjamin Zander in his book The Art of Possibility , written with his wife Rosamund Stone Zander. A professor at the New England Conservatory Zander informed his class on the first day of class in the fall that each student already had an A for the year. The one requirement was that each was to write him a letter during the next two weeks. This letter would bear the date of the final week of class in the spring and would be written from the perspective of the student looking back across the year. In the letter, the student was to tell Zander what had happened to him or her during the year that resulted in their extraordinary grade. The letter was to describe all that he or she had become during the year.
We invite you to do the same for yourself. Give yourself an "A" for the year and write a letter dated August 2006 detailing what made the year so spectacular. This is an exercise best done when you have the time and space for it. Don't do in your head as you're driving or try to write it on a busy day at the office where you will be constantly interrupted. Set aside at least an hour and find a space that is conducive to reflection. Then:
Now fall madly and passionately in love with that person described in the letter. Keep the letter available. Pull it out at least twice a month and read it to keep fresh your relationship with your future self. Design the steps and call on the resources you need to continue to grow into that person during the year.