How to Make Changes: 3 Steps to Take
Good and upright is the Lord;
therefore he instructs sinners in the way.
He leads the humble in what is right,
and teaches the humble his way.—Psalm 25:8, 9
If you’ve been tracking along, you should have completed a time audit and evaluated it. Now, what do we do with it?
This is helpful insight that you may not have realized, but without the wisdom of a good and upright God, we can still go off track. Remember: we are here to live out His Story and His purposes, utilizing our resources and investing them into our spheres of influence. Asking Him for guidance is not only an act of faith but one of humility. Psalm 25:8, 9 promise that He will instruct us.
From this posture, we begin to plan. Over the next few posts, we will look at a process I use to plan steps towards change:
Plotting our course
Designing steps to take
Making time to change
Maintaining the course
Let’s start with plotting our course.
Whenever I want to get from point A to point B, I don’t just get in my car and drive or hop onto any flight and hope I get to my destination. At the very least, I pull out my GPS to help me chart my course.
Imagine you need to cross a rushing stream. You won’t be able to leap over it in one go, but you do see three solid rocks that can help you get across.
Putting these two pictures together, we want to take some time to pick out those stepping stones. Using what you have learned from your evaluation, here are some things you can do to start charting a course across to the other side, prayerfully trusting that the Lord will guide you to His ends, even in the midst of your busy life.
Just Pick Three
When it comes to planning and work, three is my favorite number. It allows for variety but also forces you to make choices. We tend to be greedy when it comes to change and want to do it all, but if you have the opposite problem and find three too overwhelming, just pick one area.
We cannot do everything all at once. It is neither practical nor sustainable. By limiting this number to three, we have a chance to make focused progress or have the bandwidth to establish strong habits before moving on.
One of the best ways to choose is to use the concept of identifying the “keystone” or “cornerstone” changes. The “keystone” is the piece at the top of an architectural arch, right in the center, that holds it all together while the “cornerstone” is the piece that sets the direction of the two walls that it joins.
As you look at your evaluation, can you identify some areas in your life that, if you made some improvements, would greatly help you towards God’s greater ends? Perhaps it is getting more rest at night so you have energy the next day or setting aside a small amount each month to create margin in your budget or carving out an hour every morning to spend with the Lord before corralling the kids to their various activities.
This will vary for each person. To tailor this to fit you, prayerfully ask the Lord to guide you.
For me, this quarter, I have recognized that I have not been moving enough. I feel lethargic and want to have energy to be available to engage with my family as we go through this holiday and wedding season, so incorporating more movement into my day was one of my keystone areas that I hope will carry over into the future as well.
Likewise, as you look at all the possible things you can do, can you identify those three possible changes that can help you to live out God’s story intentionally, exercise your gifts, and/or make disciples? Here are some questions you can ask yourself to help surface that which is most important:
What are the important things you want to make sure are in your life? What small changes can you make towards these bigger changes that can help jump start the process and give you momentum once you get going? Specifically,
What are you already doing that you’d like to grow in and improve?
What are things that you’re not doing that you’d like to start?
What is getting in the way of Gospel-driven productivity, of doing the things that most matter for eternity?
Define the Change to Make
After you have identified at most three areas to change, we need God’s help to define the particular change to make. Generally, there are two movements: 1) removing things that do not serve or help, so that we can 2) have the time and resources to add or enhance the good things we want to keep doing. Let’s look at each in turn.
Removing What is Lesser
When you look at your evaluation, can you identify what are good things that get in the way of the best? Circle these, then ask:
Can I completely delete this task?
This may seem harsh, but it can take care of things quickly. Sometimes we are doing things that serve absolutely no purpose or value. Getting rid of it will free up so much more bandwidth.
Can I move this to a different time?
Not everything needs to be done RIGHT NOW. One of the best ways to identify these is to put a time limit on it: is this something must be done in the next three months or else there will be consequences? Anything that doesn’t fit this criteria can be intentionally procrastinated.
Can I modify or minimize this task?
Sometimes a task is important enough but people like me who tend to be rather (ahem) perfectionistic, we can go overboard. What might you do to scale back your expectations of yourself and others? This can free up mental and emotional bandwidth.
Can I delegate this task?
Sometimes delegation is a dirty word for us. It suggests being a slacker or a weakness.
However, thoughtful delegation can actually be a blessing—not only for you, but for others as well. Though it takes time to train someone, if you are willing to do so without insisting it be done just like you and give them the freedom to be imperfect as they learn, it can be a good thing.
Adding What is Good
I remember the first time I did this, I did not account for this second half. I freed up a lot of time, but then with an empty vacuum that did not have a direction, it was easy for me to refill it with other things that were no better than before.
So take a look again at your evaluation and consider these questions:
What are things that I am doing that I’d like to do more of?
Are there things I am not doing but would like to start doing?
Are there modifications I can make to something that works moderately well but could be improved?
Again, defining what change looks like will help you for the next step:
Sequence the Change
After you have figured out the area of change plus what needs to happen, we need to close the gap between where you are now and where you’d like to be.
For some things, this may require one quick step. If you are in charge of a particular deadline, you can simply change it by moving it from one date to another on your planner.
However, there are things that may require a little bit more time. This often happens because they involve other people.
For example, you may decide that you need to step off a committee or cut down your work hours but can’t just drop your responsibilities without handing them off to another. Or perhaps you are convinced that you should delegate particular tasks to others, but this may require time to train and for them to learn to do things properly. Or sometimes it just takes time for you to get used to new standards for yourself or ways of doing things.
Sometimes the change is not a task but a new attitude. Sometimes it is the rewiring of a new habit, the formation of a new routine.
If you cannot break down the smaller steps, one trick you can try is to reverse engineer the change. Working backwards can then provide you with the way forward.
Let me explain, using my earlier example. As I mentioned, I have not been very good at exercising or eating well, and it was having negative effects.
I realized that there was a block—namely the one in my own mind. I had no desire to change, so I did not have the motivation to do the hard work.
To gain motivation, I needed a reason. So I had to change how I think about exercise. And for me, that often involves learning about it.
That meant going backwards to finding a good book. I looked up books and cookbooks to help me get started and settled on Tom Rath’s book Eat, Move, Sleep and began to read it.
As it turned out, this was what I needed to jump start my motivation. My first step then was to carve out 15 minutes a day to read the book. That turned to 30 minutes, then I began to replace my reading time with applying what I learned—actually moving!
Now, I am at about one hour of exercise and walking. And I feel much better for it. This is helping a lot in this season of busyness!
A Word About Change
Change often takes time. It requires endurance to keep going when you feel like giving up. It requires perseverance when you feel like giving in to the doubts and discouragements when you think you’ve not made any progress at all.
Perhaps it is at this point that it may be important to define what real change is. We often think that change means going from zero to 180. We believe that we can only be satisfied when we are going in a completely different—often opposite—direction.
But that is not the way of change in God’s economy. That is an expectation we place on ourselves.
Rather, God looks at change as a process, a transformation, a metamorphosis. Though change can be the end result, change is also the millions of little steps in between as well.
Change is each time you hold your tongue instead of letting a sarcastic comment slip out. It is checking your social media accounts less. It is every time you choose to stop what you are doing to listen instead of trying to multitask.
Even 1% change is change, right? But a 1% change carried on persistently over time is going to result in change. Every time you make a choice in the present moment to do something you wouldn’t otherwise do or stop doing something you habitually do can make a difference.
So how about you? It’s time for you to try this in your own life:
Identify 1-3 areas of change.
Define the changes that need to be made.
Sequence the smaller changes that will lead to your bigger changes.
Yes this takes time. But doing so provides you with a rudimentary map so you have some direction towards the changes you want to see. Bon voyage!
