johnmdemarco posted on February 14, 2011 18:36
It was the summer of 2004. I was having lunch with a life coach, and I was all over the vocational map.
Six months earlier I made a transition from pastoral ministry to financial services. After knocking out several required certification examinations, I built a Web site to promote my writing and speaking work and hit the streets of Central Florida to build relationships—and raise money.
By the time I sat down to dine with my coach friend, I’d drawn a graphic depicting eight or nine different “buckets” I was trying to execute. Writing, speaking, financial services, teaching, ministry, politics, board of director service, etc. You name it, I was trying to do it.
The coach looked at me, and with great kindness and compassion advised me to throw a few buckets down the river. It took me a while to get the message.
A year or so later I stumbled upon the Gallup Organization’s book Now, Discover Your Strengths, by Marcus Buckingham and the late Donald Clifton. This was one of those life-changing, eye-opening experiences. I learned formally what I was growing to suspect instinctively: that each of us has a few, core strengths in which we can achieve excellence through constant focus, skill-building and learning.
I kept fine-tuning my graphic across the years. I learned a few more things about strategic thinking. And today I’m down to three main buckets that—when properly cared for—free me to focus on my core strengths and apply them toward any specific goal that I choose to pursue.
My buckets are called Health, Family and Vocation. Here’s what fills them:
Health: Emotional, physical and spiritual habits and hobbies, along with the cultivation of quality relationships, that make me available to execute my strengths.
Family: Loving and nurturing my wife and children, creating powerful memories and being a good steward of our home and financial responsibilities.
Vocation: Embracing lifelong learning, ongoing networking and excellence work in all that I do.
Your buckets might be named something else. Whatever you call them, make them purposeful, focused and able to be integrated with one another. It is out of that synergy that a person truly leverages their strengths and tackles any endeavor.
Jesus understood the value of strategic buckets and integrative synergy. His buckets were deep intimacy with his Father, compassionate service to everyone he encountered, and purposeful equipping of a core team of leaders who would carry his message and love to the world. He lived these buckets flawlessly so that he might fulfill his redemptive mission at Calvary and offer a resurrected life to all.
This posting is the first of a 12-part series examining the benefits of a strategic, integrative life plan. In the weeks to come I will further explore the tactics of the three buckets, as well as tackle key principles and approaches for Christ-centered, critical-thinking to apply within core areas of organizational management and leadership.