Are you engaged?
I experienced the Christmas holiday a bit differently this year. For many positive reasons, Becky and I spent the weekend in separate locations.
It’s not something I want to establish as a family tradition, but spending the holiday weekend mostly in solitude allowed some worthwhile introspection. I explored a great book (more later), looked back at a wonderful year, and found a bit of clarity about direction for 2012.
My main focus for 2011 involved expanding the circle. That certainly occurred—most of my blog and speaking metrics increased significantly. But I also learned a valuable lesson: a bigger circle (more people) isn’t the point.
Of course I want more people to read and hear the words—that’s sort of the point of writing and speaking. But unless something happens, unless we learn and grow and change the world, it’s all a bit empty. Something’s missing.
God designed us for relationship. Unless we engage with one another, the circle ends up looking like this. The gears turn, lots of energy’s expended, but very little of value occurs. I’m not interested in attracting more people to this kind of circle.
Engage
So my major focus for 2012 is engagement. If this or any other circle is going to have much impact, it needs to look more like this.
I’ll admit that this scares me. I’m not really sure how to make it happen. I’m stepping into territory that makes me uncomfortable. It’s much safer to just spin my little cog in my own little protected circle.
And—engaging is tricky. Everybody’s spinning in their own direction at their own speed, and if you’re not careful you get a lot of grinding and even some stripped gears. Frankly, I’m tempted to delete all of this and choose a less challenging direction.
This is the point at which I’m forced to confront my personal core values: Agape, Grace And Truth, Courage. I don’t want them to be empty words on a page, so I’ll skip the DELETE button.
The problem with relationships is that they involve humans, which makes them complex and difficult and messy. But I’ll risk a little gear-grinding to follow the path in which I believe I’m led.
So I’m establishing goals that’ll guide me to increase engagement. More about that next time—for now, a question:
How can you become more engaged in 2012?
Please leave a comment here.
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