He’s Making a List, Checking It Twice

There are a lot of debates about when it is acceptable to begin playing Christmas songs. Am I right? I have certainly been around some heated conversations about this subject. After discussing this topic with my household, we have a family agreement that there will be no Christmas music until after Thanksgiving. And now that we are in that time frame, these songs are nonstop on our playlists.

My wife and I gravitate to faith-based songs while my children only play songs about Santa. Our youngest daughter often forgets the lyrics to her favorite song, “Santa Claus is Coming to Town,” so I keep repeatedly hearing, “He’s making a list, checking it twice.” And while she is singing this one line about Santa, over and over, it has served as a good reminder for me to go check my organizational and personal lists for the year to see how I did with meeting my goals.

The holiday downtime provides all of us some time for reflection and possibly thinking about new goals for the upcoming new year. I often pull out our strategic and annual plan to see how we are doing and ask myself the following questions: Where are we seeing successes in meeting goals? Where are we falling short and what do we need to do to get back on track? How are we going to rally our team when we get back to work around these goals? These plans and goals are our agreed upon roadmaps for living into our organizational missions and these simple questions help ground me in the realities of where we really are.

Finally, it is just as important to check your list of personal goals and ask similar questions. Last year I used Olga Phoenix’s Self Care Wheel to create two goals in each of these areas: psychological, emotional, spiritual, personal, professional, and physical. After reviewing my goal list, I can share that working towards them has been life-giving and I feel whole. Leaders need to be whole for the big work we are each charged with, especially as we continue to navigate the ups and downs of pandemic life.

I hope each of you takes the time at the end of this calendar year to check your organizational and personal goal lists…and maybe even check them twice.

Happy Holidays!

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