Skip to main content

What To Do First to Make a Profit

The PF Women Team at our Annual Team Retreat  ~ 2018 Today on Seth Godin's blog, he said: It's tempting to decide to make a profit first, then invest in training, people, facilities, promotion, customer service and most of all, doing important work. In general, though, it goes the other way. Yes, it does. If you are waiting to make a profit before you do these things, in my experience you're  not going to make a profit. So many organizations, ministries and churches are struggling with financial issues. I know your pain. As anyone who follows our story knows, our ministry was in a ton of debt four years ago when I came on as director.  Since that time, we've gotten out of debt and turned a profit every year.  God has done amazing things through out team, for which we give Him the glory! I find that what Seth is saying here is absolutely true, with one disclaimer. For Christian leaders, spiritual disciplines must always be first. Before we started i...

2012 Goals...here's what I'm reaching for

Here you have it, my list of personal goals for 2012.  Just posting this for anyone who might be curious or need an idea to springboard off of to establish your own goals. If this ** is next to a goal, it means I'm already working toward it at the present time and have a head start.

Spiritual Goals
Participate in First Forty with Celebration Church

Organize my weekly personal prayer list  

Keep a prayer journal.

Make a miracles list for the year. 

Lead twice the amount of people to the Lord outside the church this year as I did last year. (People I do not meet at the church, or through the church but totally on my own.) **

Write down each thing the Lord gives me the moment it comes. (No waiting til’ later – I lose some of my best thoughts.) **

Physical Goals
Get blood pressure down to normal on a daily basis.

Bring my weight  10 pounds below where my doctor says it needs to be at minimum.  (The minimum she asked for is just a starting point -- she made it clear it’s just the minimum that needs to happen, that’s why I want to exceed her request.)

Exercise daily with the exception of Sunday. **

Actually use the free weights that have been sitting on my bedroom floor for the past 5 years. 

Drink two 16 oz. bottles of water a day.  

Get the food plan in place and groceries in the house by Sunday night every week.

Keep a very transparent daily blog of my wellness journey, to be password protected and read by approved subscribers only. **  

Home & Family Goals
Eat dinner together when everybody’s home.  

Have a conversation with my husband each and every day that doesn’t revolve around work.

Let “Good Morning” be the first thing I say to my husband each day. (This is a personal endeavor we’re both making. We’ve slidden into a bad habit of letting the first thing we say be about our schedule or something like that.) **

Go on a date once a week. **

Take my daughter on a trip by ourselves. (Girls only trip)

Take two short overnight trips with my husband, six months apart.  **

Record a song with all of my kids

Watch Schindler’s List with my kids

Clean one room a night at the house, so it’s not so overwhelming on my day off.

Keep up with doing one load of laundry a day.

Be even more intentional about my day off. Automatically schedule another sacred day if something mandatory comes up where I have to work AT ALL on a Friday. **

Plant a crepe myrtle tree in my yard, preferably more than one.

NextJob Work Goals 
Answer every email at the same time that I open it. **

Stop working by 7 pm.

Increase my pre-engagement and engagement rates significantly.  **

Have a near perfect record on quality surveys. ** (My boss tells me nobody's perfect.)

Think of one powerful question to ask my boss each week, beyond the general things we have to fit into our weekly meeting.

Get promoted from Senior Coach to Mentor Coach  **

Pastoral/Ministry Goals
Answer e-mail at the same time that I open it unless it’s something that requires prayer and consideration. Touch e-mail once unless it’s one of these “seek the Lord” type of things. **

Write 5 handwritten notes a week and send them through U.S. Mail.

Keep up with the birthdays on facebook and not miss anyone. **

Make a list of everything that has given minimal or no ROI and stop doing them. 

Identify 12 people who have shown the most potential to change, and pour into them.

Develop/train 25% more workers than we currently have in place.

Reach out to five other pastors or pastors’ wives each week who have not contacted me that week and see how they are doing.  **

Constantly identify what I have the personal power to change. Then, make the hard decisions and follow through. No procrastination.

Get together with my closest pastor/pw friends at least every other month and stop making excuses and settling for emails and phone calls.  

Move beyond the mandatory things on my initiative list each week to at least one extra goal a week.

Writing/Influence Goals
Give my book proposal one hour of each day until I get a contract on it.

Work on my Twitter – post at least 3 posts a day that are not automatic postings from my blog.

Update my Linked In at least once a week.

Comment on 5 of my favorite blogs a day instead of just read and move on. Be the kind of reader I want for my own blog, on the blogs I frequent.

 Send at least one query a week for something unrelated to my proposal. 

Do an overhaul on my weekly e-zine

Attend a writer’s conference.

Reading Goals
Read 3 Fiction books this year. **

Read 40 non-fiction books **

Read 3 blogs specifically focused on the subject of writing each day.

Fun Goals
Plan and do a flash mob in Tampa

Go to the beach at once on my day off

Go to the opening night of the Hunger Games

Go Kayaking with my friend that I’ve been planning to do that with for two years now.

Finally go to Webster's Flea Market with my friend like I've promised her I'd do for almost the past...um...decade.

Go camping

Sleep at least one more hour a night than I do now. (Yes, sleep IS fun.)

Comments

Melissa said…
I love how you have broken them down into categories! :) Happy New Year! May it be an overly and abundantly blessed year in every aspect of your life and ministry! Love you!
DaNella Auten said…
I expected 5 not 50 wow... I should have known... I will be praying that you will achieve those God has truly laid on your heart, and be able to set aside the others without feeling unaccomplished. DaNella

Popular posts from this blog

Some people will never understand this...

And that's okay. Just let us be as we lavish love upon the fur-kids of the world. It doesn't mean we don't care about people. We do care. In fact most of the people I know who are great pet lovers are also the greatest philanthropists. If you're not a dog lover, you might not understand the overwhelming intensity that many of us felt about Tank's reunion this past week. You might think we've lost our marbles. That's okay, we think you've lost your heart. ;)  Before I go on with this post, let me say that we were delighted that CBS 10 posted the video and article about Tank and his Celebration Church reunion yesterday. Click here to watch it. (But then come back!) If you haven't realized it, there is a revolution in America about dogs. Dogs have always been loved and known as the most loyal companions ~ "man's best friend". But things have gone way beyond this. Dogs aren't just dogs or friends anymore. They are family me...

What To Do First to Make a Profit

The PF Women Team at our Annual Team Retreat  ~ 2018 Today on Seth Godin's blog, he said: It's tempting to decide to make a profit first, then invest in training, people, facilities, promotion, customer service and most of all, doing important work. In general, though, it goes the other way. Yes, it does. If you are waiting to make a profit before you do these things, in my experience you're  not going to make a profit. So many organizations, ministries and churches are struggling with financial issues. I know your pain. As anyone who follows our story knows, our ministry was in a ton of debt four years ago when I came on as director.  Since that time, we've gotten out of debt and turned a profit every year.  God has done amazing things through out team, for which we give Him the glory! I find that what Seth is saying here is absolutely true, with one disclaimer. For Christian leaders, spiritual disciplines must always be first. Before we started i...

Sisterhood Rises Up To Change Lives Forever

God is in the business of preserving families. It is His heart. It's my heart too. And, I'll unabashedly say here that I believe it should be everyone's heart. Everyone likes good news and I've got some for you today. If you are in doubt that God still speaks today and that He uses people to accomplish His work, I pray this will speak to you. Last night I was sitting in service at Celebration Church where we are pastors, and my husband was preaching. His message was about what we want to be remembered for in life, and he made the statement that we can't change our past but we can change the future.  In that moment, God spoke to me. He began to give me my next post for Lost Daughters, where I'm also a blogger. To be honest it's more than just another place where I blog. It's a sisterhood. A lifeline. A place that has come to mean a great deal to me, because of the amazing women who are there. During the service I basically had this entire post...