Primary Importance
As we come to the end of one year and begin to think about the coming year, we often make plans as ‘New Year’s Resolutions.’
What changes should I make in my lifestyle? What goals should I set for the coming year? What business plans or financial objectives should I make?
The community gym will be full of well-intentioned resolve with ambitious people and their movements – but only for a time. Soreness and fatigue can melt the resolve in favor of an extra hour’s sleep or another jelly doughnut.
When was the last time you asked yourself this question – “What’s the most important thing right now? What is of Primary Importance?” In every season of life, something new should be rising to the top as the primary focus to accomplish your life mission. The same can be said for the local church. How do we discern what is of Primary Importance in accomplishing the mission of the church.
The answer to that question is NOT like making a New Year’s resolution that is to be broken within days of the start of the New Year. Why? Because you – or your church or business – should be growing and changing. When this happens, there are new objectives to accomplish your mission – new opportunities to reconsider – new unexpected transitions. Any one of them will alter what is primary!
We all have tasks – daily responsibilities – regular duties – that we must do to fulfill our living requirements. Nevertheless, on certain days or at certain times, the priorities shift as the objectives and opportunities fluctuate. Deadlines and timelines can require you to maneuver schedules and manipulate priorities. You can aim to do everything this next season or even just try to improve everything. However, when everything is important, nothing is of PRIMARY IMPORTANCE!
In his book, The Advantage, Patrick Lencioni calls the answer to this question your ‘thematic goal’. Sometimes it is known as your ‘rallying cry’. The purpose for the thematic goal is “to give clear direction for you or the entire organization for a fixed period of time.” He defines it as “a simple, qualifying, shared focus.” You cannot focus on the same thing visually for an unlimited period of time. You have to blink – and the same is true with priorities! The thematic goals that are priorities will transition, change or morph as new opportunities arise and life hands you its rotation of changes.
So, I have been struggling with our Thematic Goal in setting strategy for what is immediately ahead of us:
Clarify the purpose. Simplify the process.
What is the most important thing right now for you? Or for your business? Or for your church? How will you determine what is of primary importance for this next season?
When every task is important, nothing is! Priorities simply become tasks.
Think about it!