They had every right to feel this way. For the young couple in Kenya they had never served on a pastoral staff prior to this trip and neither has done any kind of leadership development work. The families in Guatemala have never started an orphanage and only one of them has experience working in an orphanage for 9 months. (For the record, I am a firm believer that lack of experience DOES NOT disqualify a person from an opportunity. If that was the case I would not be where I am today.)
Changes in life, while exciting, will bring anxiety, tension, and stress. Furthermore, a lack of knowledge within the field we are entering will place a sense of fear in us that causes doubts and removes confidence in ourselves. So what advice did I give? It is critical that they breakdown the projects and goals, don't get caught up in the big picture, and to focus on a few pieces rather than the whole.
The first step is to have a clear understanding of realistic expectations from those in authority. We will typically place higher expectations on ourselves than what our bosses will place on us. Likewise, we tend to look at the big picture and try to imagine how we are going to fit or fix everything at once.
Secondly, we must identify a time frame to accomplish our tasks. Do we have a few months? A year? Once we have established a time frame then we can start working backwards and we can identify how many projects/goals can we realistically accomplish within the designated period of time?
Third, keep your focus on two or three projects, depending on the nature of your work, in which you will have a great sense of accomplishment when you are done. The trick here, especially if you have been on the job for a while, is to keep these goals in line with what you are already doing. Don't try and go outside your job responsibilities. Doing this will only slow you down.
Lastly, perform a weekly review to stay on top of the progress you are making towards your goals and, if necessary, adjust. Typically, we set an unrealistic timeframe to complete our projects. The more you do this the better you will get at it. This is especially true when we involve others. Many times a third party will slow your project down. It's ok. Adjust for current project and realize this fact when planning for the following year.
The end of each August marks the end of the ministry season for our staff. We will spend the last Monday of that month in a full day staff retreat. During this retreat we will review our goals from the previous year and share our goals for the next 12 months. Following the steps above has helped me to identify 3 goals to accomplish in the next 12 months. Give them and try and tweak them to fit you!
