how do you find balance in your blogging? How much is enough?
The answer to these questions depends on your context. Specifically, I would ask two questions of myself:
What are the values and characteristics that I want to be true of my life?
What is the purpose or the goal of my writing/blogging?
“A person who undertakes to grow a garden at home, by practices that will preserve rather than exploit the economy of the soil, has set his mind decisively against what is wrong with us. He is helping himself in a way that dignifies him and that is rich in meaning and pleasure. But he is doing something else that is more important; He is making vital contact with the soil and the weather on which his life depends. He will no longer look upon rain as a traffic impediment, or upon the sun as a holiday decoration.”
Wendell Berry, A Continuous Harmony: Essays Cultural and Agricultural
I recently read this Harvard Business Review article by Anthony K. Tjan, CEO of Cue Ball. In it he makes the case for having live conversations rather than electronically-mediated communication (such as email and social media).
This is especially the case where important decision need to be made or conflict needs to be addressed. He writes,
There is a rising and unproductive trend towards people trying to do digital conflict resolution. The de facto path for issue resolution seems to be increasingly via email. More accurately, email has become a convenient mechanism for issue-avoidance. It is easier, quicker, less stressful, and less confrontational to have critical or challenging issues sent over email versus a live one-on-one with a counterpart.
The immediacy of email, as the fact that it appears less confrontational, all mask the hidden cost of email:
In light of this, my resolution is to pick the phone up more rather than send off an email. What do you think?
Many of you know that I enjoy reading Mike Hyatt’s blog. I read it because he provides consistently excellent material around the topics of leadership, productivity, and writing. I’m not a naturally-strong leader or a naturally-productive person. I’m a stronger communicator and teacher than I am a leader. To the extent that I lead, it is often by my words (spoken or in print).
For that reason, Mike is a mentor or a coach–for free–on topics like leading well and working effectively. Over the last couple of years Mike has helped me to live and lead more intentionally–I’m a work in process and always will be prone to be more professor than CEO, but I’m moving toward growing in my strengths (writing and speaking) and managing my weaknesses (leading and managing).
Here’s a recent post I found helpful on the importance of slaying your dragons before sunrise. I found this post especially helpful because there are, at least for me, two critical points in the week.
Here’s Mike’s post, what are your thoughts? How do you get a jump on the week/day?
The almighty index card
Bill Hybels has a great chapter in his book Axiom: Powerful Leadership Proverbs called “Six-by-Six Execution.” In it he describes a transformative practice he implemented at Willow Creek.
Every six weeks he would take an index card and write the question: “What is the greatest contribution I can make a Willow Creek Community Church in the next six weeks?” He then answered it and used the answer to focus his energies for the next six weeks.
As we move further into 2012, many of us have made resolutions. If your goal is actually to achieve your resolutions its important that you follow Hybels’ advice and focus your energies.
Enter Michael Hyatt who has posted some tips on making resolutions stick.
In the spirit of “going public” here are my personal resolutions for 2012 (our fiscal year run July to June so I do my professional planning at or before July each year).
So, what are your resolutions for 2012?
I'm a minister, thinker, writer, and practitioner. Since 2004 I have worked to plant and build worshipping communities of young adults on college campuses through InterVarsity. I'm a teaching elder in the Presbyterian Church. I think and write about the Gospel's encounter with postmodern culture, about reformed spirituality, and missional theology.
