How to Dream and Do! 8 targets to focus on to accomplish both

I love getting to work with leaders and creative people like you! One thing I have found as I have worked with these great leaders is that great leaders are always living in the balanced of what we do today and our vision for tomorrow. It is a tension to be managed not resolved. We have to do both! I bet there are a lot of days you wonder how you can continue to clarify the next of tomorrow without compromising your impact on ministry and “get it done” today? My experience tells me that these eight targets can help you keep a clear view of tomorrow without losing momentum today!

1. Avoid the temptation of dreaming/creating and evaluating at the same time

It just doesn’t’ work. You have to be intentional with dream time and do time. It’s impossible to drive a car forward and backward at the same time so don’t try to dream and do simultaneously. Schedule time on your calendar for both. Time to do and time to dream. And when you imagine tomorrow, do it in a different place with a different vibe.

Your best work gets done when you make space to succeed. Further, execution and vision building live in opposite end of the spectrum. Don’t crush one with the other.

2. Remember we are all learning.

The best leaders will be quick to tell you they don’t have it all figured out. (And I do recognize the irony that I am writing a post from this angle, but trust me this is based in failure, not expertise). Always listen to best practices and new methods but remember that no one is you and no team is your team. Your church has a unique calling, and God has a plan for that.

Stay in a posture of learning so you can always be ready to adjust before you get adjusted! There is no singular path to success!

3. Use failure as a catalyst to succeed!

It blows my mind how many leaders fear failure. Failure is not a bad thing; it is a necessary thing. If you are not trying, you won’t fail. So, as a leader, if you don’t create the permission to fail and embrace failure, you are teaching your team to settle for good enough not strive for greatness! No good leader desires to make mistakes or fail.

Take a chance. Risk a failure. Learn from it, get better, take over the world – simple formula.

4. Forget the next step

If you want to lose tomorrow, forget to lead people to the comfortable, simple, natural next step. Everything we do needs a next step, and once we move people to it, we should measure it and evaluate it. Dream about where you want people to go, then design a clear path with mile markers (that are measurable) and a finish line. Do that, give them a guide and watch them scale to where we need them to go (like into a group, serving our city, joining a team, being part of a program, engaging in a worship service, showing up to prayer, creating revival)

5. Stop doubting yourself and lacking confidence

God called you.

Some of us are supposed to dream, and others do. A few of us are called to both. Stop doubting yourself and lacking confidence. If God called you that is all the confidence you need! And today if you find yourself lacking confidence congratulations, you are positioned to engage faith and trust in Jesus. Those two ingredients create the recipe for amazing things to happen. God designed and wired you for this moment. He saw it before you were born, so show up, be present, and get to work dreaming and doing!

6. Don’t allow those without vision to cloud your purpose.

Most people can’t see the vision, that is why there are so few visionaries in the world. Impossible is an easier answer than “what if.” Visionaries have to have the courage to forge into the unknown to create the possible. The road to tomorrow is littered with haters and obscure words, keep walking. Accumulate the wins, big and small, and watch what God does through you!

7. Don’t let the information become the distraction!

It’s called “analysis paralysis,” the idea of allowing too much of your time to be consumed with a problem and cramming your brain with so much information that you lose the ability to act. Dream – get a plan – put it in motion and keep acting. Adjust on the fly. Any action is more valuable than inaction.

8. Avoid the trap of the limit!

Ideas are hard. Use the tools God has given you, your unique experiences, and allow yourself to see past the limits. We serve a limitless God who smiles everytime we dream BIG dreams. Dream big and cast vision with passion. Even if we come up short, we still will be further than we could have thought. Oh, and never forget the ceiling of our dreams is the floor of Gods plan!

It is time! Let’s go!