Theology of Business episode 34. Five Ways God accomplishes goals and how you can do likewise. Welcome back to the Theology of Business Podcast, the show that helps marketplace Christians to partner with God in business, to transform the marketplace, and make an impact in eternity. I'm your host, Darren Shearer, author of the book The Marketplace Christian, a practical guide to using your spiritual gifts in business. And the book Marketing Like Jesus, 25 Strategies to Change the World. Trust your new year is off to a great start, and I'm sure you've got some goals lined out for things you want to accomplish this year. And if one of your goals is to publish a book this year, I encourage you to attend a free webinar for authors that'll be teaching on January the 12th at 11 a.m. Central Time. This webinar is titled Seven Productivity Tips and Tools to Finish and Publish Your Book. And if you'd like to attend this live event, you can register at hybridbooks.com forward slash webinar. And at this webinar, you're gonna discover seven practical strategies to help you achieve your goal of publishing your book in 2016. And you'll learn about specific, easy-to-implement tools that can help you to become more productive as an author immediately. So you're not you can stop just telling people you're gonna write that book and actually get down to the business of doing it and publishing that book and getting it out to the world that needs to hear that message. And again, you can register for this free webinar at hybridgebooks.com forward slash webinar. And now on to today's episode. Do you ever find yourself submitting to the tyranny of the urgent, unscheduled, and unimportant tasks in your business? For example, do you sometimes allow your email inbox to be the primary dictator of your schedule for the day? I know that's certainly a temptation that I fall into from time to time. And not only did God create time, he's also shown us the best ways to manage it and to get the right things done. And as observed, through the method in which God created the universe, which of course you can go back and look at Genesis chapters one and two, let's explore five strategies to set and accomplish goals God's way. The first strategies that I want to talk about that I've seen, and you'll see as you look at Genesis uh chapters one and two in the creation story, that is to define a clear vision for each new day or season of your life and in the life of your business. God knew exactly what he wanted every part of his creation to look like. He planned it, he saw it, and then he created it. Before the start of each new day, a new season in the life of your business, make sure that you define a vision for what you want your business to look like at the end of that day or season. I mean, if if you got nothing else done, what would winning look like? What would you be able to look back on that day or that week or that quarter and say, that I accomplished what I set out to do? So, for example, what are your revenue goals, or how many people do you want to serve? As Zig Ziggler said, if you aim at nothing, you'll hit it every time. The second strategy that we can see from the creation story that that God used when he created the heavens and the earth is that he pursued his vision by assigning the necessary tasks to batches. When God decided to create the universe, he didn't rush to create everything all at once, and nor did he procrastinate concerning the things that needed to get done, like we often do. Instead, he assigned specific objectives to batches that would be accomplished on specific days. So here's what I mean. On day one, God created night and day. Day two, God created the sky and sea. Day three, God created land and vegetation. Day four, God created the stars, sun and moon. Day five, God created sea creatures and birds. Day six, God created animals and mankind. And of course, on day seven, he rested. And your schedule, consider assigning specific task themes or batches to specific time frames each week. So before each day begins or each week begins, know what you're gonna be working on, know what batch you'll be working on the following day or the following week or the following season. Or when you return from your lunch break on that day, make sure that you know what you're gonna be working on in the afternoon. And when you leave in the afternoon, know what you're gonna be working on the next morning. Don't let your email inbox determine what you need to do next. The amount of time that most of us spend in our email boxes during the workday is just staggering. And a lot of that is just from not assigning our tasks and and and having themes to the work that needs to get done in a particular window of time. So we just kind of live in a reactive mode where we we're just kind of waiting for somebody to give us something to do through Gmail or through Y Mail or whatever your email provider is. Make sure that you're not just waiting for that pop-up uh in the lower right-hand corner of your computer screen to say, hey, you got an email. Now here's something you can go and do. Because I can assure you that if you'll get proactive like God did when He created the heavens and the earth, and He said, I'm gonna do this on this day, I'm gonna do this on this day, and I'm not gonna mix and match. So, for example, I batch 95% of my social media related tasks on Wednesdays. So if you're ever wondering what I'm doing on Wednesdays, I should be working on social media. That should be my priority. So that would involve uh email marketing, that would involve the different social media platforms, uh creating uh social media content, uh scheduling new posts, and interacting with my community. Don't allow a lack of batching and scheduling to prevent you from seeing your vision materialize. The third strategy that we can see God using in creation is to build a team. What? God built a team, yes. Most of the time, people who create things often proudly assume the task of naming their creations. I mean, if you if you built a new computer system, I mean, who's not gonna be the one to give it its name? I mean, if you're the one that created it, I mean, that would be that's your pride and joy. Of course you're gonna be the one to to name it. But when God created the animals, he delegated the task of naming the animals to Adam in Genesis 2.20. God brought the animals to Adam and Adam named them. Certainly God could have done a far better job of naming the animals, but he chose to empower someone else with this important responsibility. God did his part and he provided an opportunity for someone else to contribute instead of just taking on all of the responsibility. So if God chose to share important responsibilities, certainly we should also. So maybe this year it's finally time to hire that assistant or that virtual assistant or somebody that can come into your business and begin to take on other responsibilities. That's certainly something that I'm focusing on uh this this coming year. The fourth strategy that God uses in creation for uh for creating the heavens and the earth is that he automates tasks. When God created the universe, he also created and implemented processes to sustain his creation. He didn't have to reinvent rain after every rainfall, he didn't have to reinvent seeds each time a new one sprouted. His creation is sustainable because there's automation that he is embedded in his creation. What processes and tools do you need to implement in your business to make it more sustainable? And make sure that what you might be calling thriftiness isn't just an excuse for refusing to invest in the tools and processes that can help your business to become more sustainable and effective. You know, for example, your email marketing, maybe you need a system like MailChimp or Constant Contact or something like that to help automate some of the communications, the ongoing communications with your audience or with your customers or or even with your coworkers, your employees. There's so much that you can do in your business to make it more sustainable through automation. The fifth strategy that God seems to be using in creation is that He's working with excellence. God doesn't make junk or defects because we all know that when you create something that's junk or it's defective, your customers are gonna come back and tell you about it. And it's just you're just gonna have to duplicate that effort. Whereas if you would have done it right the first time, done it with excellence the first time, you would have your customers would have been more happy and you would have been more effective and more efficient. So God doesn't make junk or defects, and he certainly doesn't provide sloppy service. After God finished his work in the Garden of Eden, the Bible says in Genesis 131, God saw all that he had made and it was very good. I encourage you to evaluate the quality of the products andor services you provided over the past year. Were there any areas that you couldn't label as very good as God labeled his creation? If we'll invite their feedback, our customers, our coworkers, and our other constituents will let us know. More importantly, ask God to provide the feedback you need concerning the quality of your products and services. Allow God to set your quality standards. Don't let your competitors set your quality standards. What is excellence in the eyes of God and make that your standard of excellence? So accomplish more of the right things this year by applying the ways of God in your business. And over the next 30 to 90 days, or even the next 24 hours, which of the strategies that we've talked about do you need to work on the most? Is it defining a clear vision for what today looks like or what tomorrow needs to look like? Number two, is it pursuing the vision that you have by assigning the necessary tasks to batches? So when you're going into work tomorrow, are you going to be in reactive mode? Or are you going to deliberately say that this is the project that needs to get done tomorrow? If nothing else gets done, that's fine. If those emails don't get answered, that's fine. But this is the objective that is going to be accomplished. Is it building a team? Maybe you need to bring on somebody to help this week, or or start to move uh toward hiring an assistant, somebody that can come in and provide some expertise for your business. Is it automating tasks to make what you're doing more sustainable? Maybe it's not another person you d need to bring in necessarily. Maybe it's just some automation. There's so many tools that are out there right now that will allow you to leverage your time and also the time of others that have put all the work into developing these amazing tools in order to make your business more sustainable. And of course, I'm that I'm sure that this is something that we all need to be working on more and more, and that is working with excellence, because God doesn't create junk, He doesn't make, He doesn't, He doesn't perform sloppy service, and neither should we. So we need to work with excellence to make sure that when we look back on the work that we've we've done today, the things that we've created today, we can say, like God said about his creation, that it is very good. So which of those strategies do you need to work on the most? And also leave a comment at theologyofbusiness.com. Again, you can go to the search box, just type in goals. This episode will come up, and you can go and comment and let us know what you're working on this year. What are the goals that you're working on? You never know, somebody, uh maybe it's a team member that you need, and somebody may be able to collaborate with you from within the Theology of Business community. We'd love to hear from you. As a reminder, if one of your goals this year is to publish a book, be sure to register for the free webinar that I'll be teaching on January the 12th at 11 a.m. Central Time. This webinar is titled Seven Productivity Tips and Tools to Finish and Publish Your Book. And you can register at highbridgebooks.com forward slash webinar. Hope you've enjoyed this episode and I would love to hear your feedback at theologyofbusiness.com. Again, go to the search box, type in goals, you'll find this episode. And also there you can find more information about marketplace ministry, spiritual gifts in the marketplace, marketing like Jesus, and Christ centered leadership and entrepreneurship. Feel free to email me at Darren at hybridgebooks if you have any questions or comments for me. I'd love to hear from you. Especially love to know what you're going to be working on this year. Thanks for listening and keep partnering with God in your business.