I'd like to spend the next few weeks sharing some things I've learned over the past year and encouraging you to consider engaging with me as we prepare for a New Year! Each of these things has implications for both our personal lives as well as our professional lives. Here are the 4 conversations:

December 10th: RHYTHM: The Pace of Life

December 17th: IMPACT: Measuring the Results

December 24th: HEALTH: The Power of Your Body

December 31st: PRIORITIES: Learning to Say No

Let's begin...

#1) RHYTHM: The Pace of Life

This past May I shared with you an experience I had in the mountains of Colorado with The Rogue Journey. This was the first part of a 2-session retreat that centered on creating space and rhythm in my life to connect to God in new ways. It was an incredible experience, and I was challenged during these days to really evaluate the RHYTHM of my life.

One of the ongoing conversations I've had with Gina (my wife) over the past 32 years has gone something like this.... "Gina, when I get through this season, things will calm down!".

I don't know if you've ever said this, but we learned early in our marriage and work that when one season ends, another begins. It never calms down. There's always something important to do, a project to complete or an ever-growing to-do list to manage.

It's Tuesday at 2:00pm! (PST Time: I live and work from Southern California)

This past week I talked about the 4 Needs of Leaders and shared a little of my story in identifying these things. You can read it HERE.

Today I want to share some things that are important to remember when you build a Coaching Community.

In the year 2000, I had the opportunity to invite a group of leaders from Latin America to gather together in Ecuador. We were all working at the time in different aspects of Youth Ministry, but we weren't connected together in any way. We invited this group of leaders to come to Quito, and we spent 3 days together. The goal was to find ways to work together and build collaborative partnership.

This happened, but we also built significant friendships with this group, we shared our lives, we shared our struggles, we learned from each other, and we supported each other.

When this group left, I remember feeling blown away by the intimacy, the vulnerability, the support, the laughter and the new friendship. It just happened. We all needed that kind of community, and we all worked to create it.

It's Tuesday at 2:00pm! (PST Time: I live and work from Southern California)

All of our past posts have been placed HERE if you want to go back and read one.

Many years ago, while doing a research project for Graduate School, I spent some time researching the needs of leaders in a number of different countries. I traveled to England, Czech Republic, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Philippines, Ecuador, Cuba, Canada and the United States. In each country, I was able to talk with leaders and assess needs that were shared with leaders in other countries.

After some travel, some time checking my findings, and time putting together the project, I wrote a simple paper that served as my thesis, and it began me on a journey of trying to address these needs in the leaders I was privileged enough to get to work with.

The needs I identified years ago continue to be at the forefront of my mind and heart every time I connect with leaders.

Here's what I found:

#1) Leaders Need TRAINING

A good leader needs to be constantly growing and developing. This makes them a better leader. We need to provide quality, challenging and applicable training to leaders.

It's Tuesday at 2:00pm! (PST Time: I live and work from Southern California)

All of our past posts have been placed HERE if you want to go back and read one.

I want to talk about PARTNERSHIP today.

This past week, someone asked my wife and I what the secret was to our 32+ years of marriage. We both had some things to share, but then we talked about it later, and identified a couple of other things that we wished we had shared. Some of the things that bubbled up were:

- We had a relationship built on trust

- We communicated with each other A LOT

- We enjoyed the adventure of life and sharing it together

This got me thinking....

Last week I talked about the power of Coaching and Mentoring, and how investing in the right people was a formula for success and impact.

Today I want to share a couple of thoughts about PARTNERSHIP that were triggered from both the Coaching conversation and the conversation with Gina.

The three things we shared about "secrets to our marriage" are some of the same things that apply to partnerships. A partnership is defined as "an association of two or more people as partners"

We underestimate the value of partnerships, and we often don't invest in partnerships to ensure success.

I just spent a few days in Quito, Ecuador this weekend, participating in a project we're running called "The Lean Start Enterpreneur Project". We (Extreme Response) brought together some strategic partners (Hope Ventures & Pan de Vida) along with our Quito Program Staff to sponsor the first half of this Entrepreneur Project. The goal of the project is to help to break the generational cycle of poverty for a group of about 35 women by providing them training and support to launch their own businesses, creating ongoing income and helping them to change their lives. It's a great project!

I was walking through town the other day on my normal route to my favorite coffee shop, and the street was completely torn up, and I literally moaned when I saw that the work would continue until March!

It's so easy to focus on the inconvenient side of construction:

* It's noisy

* It stirs up lots of dust and dirt

* It affects the normal flow of traffic

* It makes a mess

* Normal businesses are affected

On the upside, when the construction is complete:

* The street will be nice

* It will revive the area

* Businesses will thrive

* It will feel new

Last week I talked about doing a RISK. Read it HERE

*What did you define as areas of RISK to your life?

*Were you able to evaluate and address them?

This month I'm showing you parts of 4 tools that come from the Paterson LifePlan Process. We started with THE FOUR HELPFUL LISTS. Then the TIME AUDIT. Last week we talked about RISK.

Today we'll finish this 4-week LifePlan Preview with Action Steps.

A LifePlan is a waste of time if you don't do anything with it. One of the most important parts of this plan is the Action Steps: What's Important Now? Your W.I.N.S.

To begin with, I want to reminder about SMART GOALS.

Today I want to share a simple exercise that's part of a larger DASHBOARD. You create a dashboard so you can easily measure how you're doing in some areas of life. If there's a problem or a crisis, you immediately pay attention to it, much like the dashboard on your car.

If there's a warning light that comes on in your vehicle, most of us wouldn't ignore it. We would immediately pull over and try to figure it out, or we'd get it to a mechanic to help fix it. If you ignore the warning, it usually doesn't end well for your car, or for you!

Pay Attention to your Dashboard!

Here's a simple tool for you to use to identify some areas of your dashboard. If you're interested in doing the full LifePlan with the complete toolbox, contact Russ.

It's a simple RISK ASSESSMENT.

4 STEPS:

First, IDENTIFY WHERE YOU'RE GOING

- What are you working towards in life? What's important to you? Why do you get out of bed in the morning? This is your life purpose! Define that.

Second, IDENTIFY SOME RISKS TO YOU ACCOMPLISHING THAT

- What are some things that might keep you from fulfilling your life purpose? What are things that can get in the way or distract you from that?

Here are a couple of samples from my dashboard a number of years ago:

* Poor Physical Health

I was in a place where I couldn't keep up with the demand of work physically. I was tired all the time, I didn't have energy, I was overweight, and I wasn't eating well. This was a real risk to my life, my calling and my purpose.

* Unstable Finances

We were in some transition financially and it was difficult to plan, it was difficult to even survive. We needed to do something to bring some stability to our financial situation, or it could affect everything.

* Fear of Isolation

I was working away from my organizations office. I was spending a lot of time alone, and that was unhealthy for me. I needed to create a local network of people to engage with instead of leaning into being on my own.

3 practical and real illustrations from my first LifePlan. The Plan helped me create a roadmap to address each of these areas, and I'm happy to say that today all 3 of these are off of my Risk List. Now there are other things on that list, but I was able to identify these and develop an action plan around letting these risk impact my life in a negative way.