“Follow effective action with quiet reflection. From the quiet reflection will come even more effective action.”  Peter F. Drucker

How long would it take you to make a list of the significant things you did today?

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal … to tear down … to build … to weep …. to laugh …. to mourn …. to dance … to scatter … to gather … to embrace … to refrain … to search … to give up … to keep … to throw away … to tear … to mend … to be silent … to speak … to love … to hate [and] a time for war and a time for peace  (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8; NIV).

One of the disciplines we were taught when learning to become life coaches was the discipline of reflection.  As the pace of life approaches break-neck speed, the idea of reflection becomes a distant memory.  Have you ever raced through a book, and rather than reflect on what you just learned, you quickly grab the next book on the ever-increasing pile of things to be read?  Hmmmmm…makes you wonder what’s the use?

Our coaching mentor, Tony Stoltzfus wrote in our training manual, “Every significant event in life is a potential learning opportunity.  Unfortunately, these God-given opportunities are often overlooked.  The discipline of reflection helps us mine universal principles out of our past and present experiences.” 

Jeff Olson, author of The Slight Edge, makes an interesting suggestion–instead of spending so much time writing lists of things we need to do, we should devote some of that time and energy writing lists of things we have done.  You see, what we should be trying to do is differentiate between taking action and taking the “right” action.  Everybody is super-busy these days.  In fact, many wear their busyness as a badge of significance.  But how many of those actions we are taking are the right actions that will move us closer to our goals and destinies? 

Olson writes, “Instead of writing down what you’re going to do (chances are you’ve been doing that your entire life anyway, and it doesn’t make you any better at doing them!), write down at the end of the day what you did do that day.  What actions did you take today that made you successful?  Did you read ten pages of a good book?  Did you eat healthy food and get some good exercise?  Did you engage in positive associations?  Did you do the things you need to do to be successful in your business [or ministry]?  Did you tell somebody, ‘I love you?’”

The idea is simply to slow down and reflect on what you are doing.  If we all did that, it would be highly likely that, after a fairly short period of time, our actions would begin to change–simply because we would actually start looking for things to do that we could write at the end of the day that would demonstrate that we were taking actions that would move us toward success (however you define success).  Pretty good idea.  Pretty simple.  But it does require us to slow down and do a little reflecting.  That can be a pretty tall order for some of us who are literally addicted to the adrenalin rush that comes with our out-of-control lifestyles.

Prayer Power
Lord, place within us a desire to slow down and reflect a little on what we’re doing.  Help us to avoid the “tyranny of the urgent” and replace that with the blessing of accomplishing the important.  Teach us to find the lessons in life and be able to articulate them and pass them along to others.

Link of the Day
Tyranny of the Urgent

Blessings on you as you sit down tonight and make a list of what you did today.