I spend a lot of my time speaking with youth ministers, church leaders and volunteers. None of them ever have a shortage of ideas for how ministry could be different and how their ministries could be more fruitful. When we give enough space to imagine the future, there is huge potential. But what I also see is how few of these dreams ever become reality. One reason why is because they are often so big. This is where the power of the next step comes in.
I have lost count of the amount of ideas I’ve had which could have been amazing but just never came to fruition. Of course, this is part of being creative and a visionary. A previous vicar once told me that he thought I had more good ideas before breakfast than most people have in a lifetime! There is no way that all that we dream of or imagine can happen. But what about those more measured aspirations for the future? We long for our youth groups to be more open to new people, to be more prayerful, for young people to grow deeper in their reading of the Bible. Hardly a mentor session goes by without mention of such a hope, but what can we do to help grow these things?
The question is why don’t we reach these aspirations? I think it is often down to two things: the goal is so big that we don’t know where to start and secondly, we are kept unaccountable for them so only we know whether we’ve reached it or not.
The solutions to both of these are easy. First of all, make yourself accountable. Share your goal with a mentor, fellow leader or a church leader.
Not knowing where to start is often the hardest part. As the well-known proverb goes, ‘you eat an elephant one mouthful at a time’. Don’t look at the size of the complete task. Rather, ask yourself the question, ‘what is the one thing I could do now to move towards this goal?’
The benefits of asking this question is:
1. it prevents us from being overwhelmed
The goal may seem too big, too much for us to possibly achieve. By breaking it down into simple, small tasks, it takes away the sense of overwhelm.
2. it reduces procrastination
Task-avoidance is a speciality of mine! It is so easy to not do tasks which we know we have got to do simply because we don’t feel we have the energy, drive or will to do so. For example, planning next term’s youth group programme is a big deal. So much so that we can easily put it off. Instead of seeing the task as this whole, how about considering what our first step is? The first step might be to write down a list of dates when the group will meet next term. That’s achievable, won’t take too much time and will make us feel like we are moving with the project. In fact, whenever I find myself procrastinating, the first question I need to ask myself is, ‘is the task still too big?’ Break it down into whatever is the one next step you can do to move it forward.
3. it clarifies the way forward
Our goals can be so big, that we just don’t know how to reach them. By asking ourselves what is the next step towards seeing this goal become reality, it makes it easier to see what we can do, right now, to move forward. If you struggle to answer this question, you are still thinking too big. Break it down into as small a step as you need in order to move forward.
4. it is easy to review
The great thing about breaking a project down into smaller next steps, is that it is easy to see movement in the project and to review how it is going. The goal becomes less of a dream and more of something that we are working towards reaching.
A Challenge for you
So, here’s a challenge for you to take right now. Don’t move on to do anything else just yet but give yourself five minutes to carry out this challenge:
Think of one thing you would love to see happen in your youth leadership. It may be a personal growth goal (e.g. have a better understanding of the Bible), a goal for a specific group (e.g. enable youth group to double in size by Christmas) or a ministry goal (e.g. set up a mentoring scheme). Whatever it is write it down.
Now imagine that the goal is the top step on a staircase. You are standing at the bottom and there may be a good many steps between you and the goal! What is the one thing you could do now to move slightly towards that goal? Be specific. Is it something small enough that you could give it some time and attention now? If it isn’t, it’s probably still too big. Break it down some more. When you’ve got a task which you feel you have the energy to do now, this is your next step. Do it!
When you’ve done this task, think about what your next step will be and make a commitment to do this task tomorrow. It is amazing how quickly we see progress happening when we commit to moving forward one step at a time.
How did you find this challenge? Please leave a comment or question in the space below.
You may also find these previous blog posts useful:-
Vision – the secret to knowing where you’re going
1 thing you should do to end the year well and make next year even better
How to make this year a significant year