Year 2016 appearing behind torn brown paper.
TIP 1: Family Success: Getting Ready For 2016
New Year is often viewed with mixed emotions. Some people look forward to it with excitement and anticipation, while others don’t. This was my experience many years ago. Every end of the year was a time to moan and groan about the state of my life. Hence for me, celebration was often out of the question, until I learnt about goal-setting and planning. Before then, success was a matter of chance, it was almost like I was waiting for someone to do something nice for me, for happenstance, an occurrence that would change my whole life. I didn’t know you have to take control by giving your life direction.
I would like to talk about two concepts for family success as regards timing.
The first one is Chronos, this speaks about time in terms of seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, etc. It emphasises priority management through different tools, such as To-do list, delegation, planning, etc. Hence, for your marriage and family to be effective, you must take control of your daily routine and activities.
The other concept is Kairos, this is similar to the concept of providence, ‘the appointed time’ concept, when God steps into your family to turn things around. This is often beyond our control, it’s God’s prerogative as the ruler of the universe. However, it is our responsibility to utilise our Chronos to prepare ourselves for God’s Kairos. Many people have lost wonderful opportunities because they missed their times and seasons; the hour of their visitation.
Are you sitting around waiting for the new year, without specific goals and plans? Are you abandoning the responsibility of your family success on God?
ACTION POINT: Don’t watch life drag your family on, give it direction. Work with your spouse to set goals for your family. Leave nothing to chance.
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TIP 2: Family Success: Taking Strategic Action!
Yesterday, we talked about the importance of setting goals and planning as a major way for getting your family ready for 2016. Today, we shall be looking at appraisal. According to the Oxford dictionaries, to appraise means to “Assess the value or quality of”. Without appraisal, organisations, families and individuals waste resources because they continue with ‘business as usual’, no feedback as regards what is working, what is failing or what can be done better.
New year resolutions are rarely adequate to transform any life when they are not propelled with strong reasons, what I call BIG WHYs. These reasons must come from our appraisal of our actions and activities this year. They are strong motivations for consistent actions, particularly when we are discouraged and tempted to quit. The only way to have a better next year is to make better decisions and take better actions, “decision determines destiny”| Sam Adeyemi. Take out time to appraise your relationships, who supported you, who did not, who do you give more time to, who do you give less time to, what investment yielded, what investment did not. Don’t leave anything to chance, take action!
Are you too busy to learn from your own mistakes? Are you leaving things to chance?
ACTION POINT: One of the requirement for growth is change. Take time to appraise your actions this year; be a better father, mother, spouse…be a better you. Check out our Vblog here: https://www.youtube.com/
TIP 3: Family Success: Where did all my money go?
Yesterday, we talked about new year resolutions and the importance of building strong ‘whys’ for them as a propelling and sustaining force. Today, we shall take it further by looking at financial irresponsibility.
How do people retire after working for many decades, only to end up in poverty, depending on the society or their children for basic daily sustenance? As a young man, this was one of my questions because I was determined not to end there. Of course, there are many reasons, some of which are beyond people’s control, such as health issues or injuries that sometimes wipe away savings and investments. Some people would argue that even these can be mitigated.
However, the issue we want to discuss today is financial irresponsibility. The end of the year seems to come with strong emotions of excitement and willingness to spend and squander the savings of the present year. Advertisers and manufacturers know and take advantage of this truth. As a matter of fact, the ‘best deals’ seem to be positioned toward the end of the year, motivating people to borrow in order to buy “what they don’t need to impress people who don’t notice”, like someone would humorously say.
Do you empty your bank accounts at the end of every year, only to start all over again? Are your financial decisions jeopardising your family’s future?
ACTION POINT: Evaluate your financial behaviour and make plans to change habits which would jeopardise your future.
TIP 4: Family Success: Seizing Your Opportunities
The new year is fluid. In other words, we can shape it whichever way we desire. It is in a potential form and the opportunities are latent and unused. However, without adequate preparation, some opportunities would definitely be missed. It is Good to pray and plan, but we must add preparation to the mix if we are to make tangible progress. How do you position yourself for a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity? How do you take advantage of opportunities that will transform your spouse’s life for good?
Every opportunity places a demand on us, we are often expected to fill in a new role, deliver an output, perform at a new level, etc. This implies that we must build capacity for our opportunities. A bachelor is not the same as a husband, a manager is different from the Group Managing Director, and there is a difference between pastoring 200 members and pastoring 20,000 members. Beyond a change in title, there is a massive difference is skills, competences and thinking patterns. Output and results respond to input and growth. Our lives cannot travel faster than the speed of our self-development.
Hence, ask yourself, who do I need to become in order to attract and handle this opportunity with ease? What do I need to change or do differently? How do people at this level think? Who do they have in their inner circle?
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ACTION POINT: A desire or goal without a commensurate personal growth plan is a mere wish. Set up a personal growth plan towards accomplishing your dream.
TIP 5: Family Success: Keeping failure at bay in 2016
Today, we shall be rounding off our discussion on Family Success. Thank you for your feedback and comments.
Moving to the next level requires personal growth and nobody can grow without making changes. “Business as usual” perspective to things, which often institutionalizes mediocrity and underperformance, must be jettisoned if your family must make progress and fulfil destiny. Each year presents us with limitless possibilities, but how we handle them determine, to a large extent, the benefits we reap.
Talking about possibilities and opportunities, it is not every opportunity or open door we must walk into, some are distractions. Hence, it is important that we are spiritually sensitive. Beyond this, another key factor that should determine the opportunities we go for must be our personal vision. Vision is so compelling that it has the power to determine our decisions, our spouse, our friends, our behaviour and even our speech.
When you become consumed with God’s vision for your life, you operate from a supernatural dimension of faith and strange miracles follow. In the new year, pursue opportunities that would help you fulfil your God-given vision, do not allow temporary monetary gains make you sell your future like Esau. Your vision is your future.
Check out our Vblog here: https://www.youtube.com/
ACTION POINT: Be deliberate about your decisions and the opportunities you take. Consider how they would impact on your family and vision. More importantly, check it with God, He lives in eternity, He knows all things.
Chidi & Victor Akunna
Relationship Catalysts
…enjoy blissful romance.
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