Take a time-out: the power of the monthly goal-review

Imagine you're a basketball player and you're on a team where the coach is trying a new strategy:No time-outs and no half-time.You make a plan before the game but you don't gather again as a team until the end of the game. No adjusting, no reorganization of strategy, no rest.How successful would your team be?It seems like a hypothetical scenario, but it's the way that the majority of people live their lives. They make initial plans that seem really exciting, i.e. they set goals. Then they put those goals/plans in a file buried deep inside of their computers or in a notebook that they never open.Here is the result of this way of living:

1. Forgotten goals

2. Disorganization

3. Overwhelm

4. Unbelief

5. Overworked

Who wants to live like that?

Why you don't take timeouts

Life can ultimately be broken down into four basic categories:

1. Doing the work

2. Resting

3. Re-evaluating and learning about your work

Number one and two come easily. At the beginning of the work day, you want to immediately dive into activities that make you feel productive. At the end of the day, you want to relax and read a book or watch a movie.Number three (re-evaluating and learning about your work) for some reason is the easiest one to neglect.Here's why: you are driven more by the feeling of being productive than by actual productivity.You jump into your first task because of the satisfaction it gives you to check it off the list. Thinking about which activity you should do first isn't as satisfying, because when you finish doing it, you still don't feel like you've done anything. If you go back to our basketball analogy, there still aren't any points on the scoreboard after the time out.But the time out ensures that the players are the most effective when they are playing.This is why I am advocating for you to make room in your life for re-evaluating your work and to take a once per month break to review your goals.The power of this moment releases the following benefits into your life:

1. Recover forgotten goals - There are goals that you forgot about because you had a surprise project that was due or you were fatigued or you were traveling.

2. Reprioritize - Life has a way of setting its own priorities for you, and when you review your goals, you can realign your priorities.

3. Renew your faith - Maybe you have lost faith that your goals can happen. When you review God's promises over your goals, and you pray specifically over them, you renew your faith and are given fresh energy to continue on.

4. Choose key focus points for each month - The challenge of being a busy person is that you have 15 to 20 goals all active at the same time. But you can't do them all at once. The once per month review gives you an opportunity to create focus around each month, so that you can move things forward in phases.

I will be laying out a step-by-step process for what to do in a monthly goal review, and its power cannot be overstated.What are some things you do to keep your goals before you?