90 | How to Lead Yourself Before You Lead Others - Chris Hodges

Summary

GrowLeader Podcast Episode 90 Summary

How to Lead Yourself Before You Lead Others - Chris Hodges
Host: Chris Hodges | Date: January 5, 2026

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Episode Overview

Pastor Chris Hodges kicks off the new year with practical and inspirational guidance for leaders—focusing not on mere goal setting, but on the deep personal reflection and intentional planning required to ensure 2026 is not just a repeat of previous years. With a fresh calendar in hand, Chris encourages listeners to pause, review their lives, and develop rhythms of self-leadership—a necessary foundation before leading others with impact.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

The Power of 21 Days of Prayer and Fasting

• Chris' Testimony: Chris discusses the transformative power of beginning each year with 21 days of prayer and fasting—a foundational reset for the body and spirit.
  • “I look back, Matt, over 42 years of ministry now, and think, where would I be if I didn’t start the year off with 21 days of prayer?” (01:01)
• Community Impact: Personal stories highlight how this discipline has been life-changing for individuals and entire families—sometimes more profoundly than preaching, small groups, or courses.
  • “Maybe the greatest discipleship moment of a person at Church of the Highlands isn’t...teaching or small groups...but the discipline of getting up early, pushing the plate away, seeking God for 21 straight days.” (02:46)
• Health Benefits: Chris ties in new medical research that affirms the physical benefits of fasting, emphasizing the holistic nature of the practice (spiritual and physical).

The Importance of Reflection Before Planning

Chris introduces a two-step process:

1. Reflection (Review)
2. Planning

He stresses the idea of working “on” your life, not just “in” it.

1. Reflection: Five Steps to Reviewing Your Life

• A. Work ON It, Not Just IN It

  • The urgent often crowds out the important; leaders must create space to intentionally review, not just react.
  • “Most leaders are excellent operators, but they’re not intentional reviewers...If you don’t create space to review, this year is just going to look like last year.” (06:07)

• B. Collect Data

  • Review your calendar from the previous year (both digital and paper) to see where your time, energy, and attention actually went.
    • Was that vacation well-timed? Are recurring meetings effective? Should any be moved or eliminated? (09:00)
  • Review your photo/camera roll for an emotional inventory—gratitude, fatigue, joy, and learning moments surface visually.
    • “What the pictures are gonna tell us is where your attention was, where your joy was...” (11:11)

• C. Write Lessons and Patterns

  • Don’t just think; write down eight to ten lessons or things you learned from your reflection.
    • “You have a 42% more chance of retention and really changing your life if you put it pen to paper.” (13:13)
  • Find the patterns: what grew, what stalled, what frustrated, what energized?

• D. Deep Self-Evaluation Questions (14:00–20:00)

  • Regularly ask:
    • What’s my original calling from God? Has it changed?
    • Which activities fuel my calling, and which drain my passion?
    • What dreams or visions am I carrying into the new year?
    • What do I need to stop doing? What do I need to reduce?
    • Who can hold me accountable to these insights?
  • Notable quote:
    “I write down my original calling from God...God didn’t call me to preach...there’s two things...get lost people saved...and pour my life into young leaders.” (15:41)

• E. Celebrate and Confront

  • Celebrate legitimate wins—don’t let dissatisfaction rob gratitude.
    • “Don’t just be dissatisfied...I did get this accomplished this past year...to God be the glory, had a little bit of a success there.” (21:41)
  • Confront the facts with honesty—what absolutely must change this year?

2. Planning for the Year Ahead

Chris pivots to intentional planning, avoiding “resolution mindset” and offering a structured approach.

• A. Clarify & Choose Goals Intentionally
  • Select one goal each in eight areas: Spiritual, Marital, Parental, Intellectual, Social, Vocational, Physical, and Financial.
  • Determine: Is each an “achievement goal” (e.g., lose 20 lbs.) or “habit goal” (e.g., work out 4x per week)?
  • Always write the “why”—the deeper reason a goal matters:
    • “My peloton username...is ‘for the grands’...every time I get on that bike it reminds me, I’m not here just to look better...I want to be around to be a granddad.” (24:57)
• B. Use the 12-Week Year Approach (25:50)
  • Inspired by the book The 12 Week Year, avoid annual goals; set and pursue objectives in 12-week “sprints” to create urgency and manageable milestones.
    • “If you had to do it in 12 weeks, man, the next meal matters...think about what you can do by spring break, not December.” (26:06)
• C. Break Goals Down: Action Steps & Scheduling
  • Each 12-week goal needs concrete, actionable steps scheduled weekly.
  • Use tools/planners (e.g., Michael Hyatt’s Full Focus Planner) to identify “the big three” weekly tasks related to your main goals.
  • “If it’s not scheduled, it’s not real...My time with God is actually on my phone as an appointment.” (28:45)
• D. Schedule Regular Reevaluation
  • Set standing weekly/quarterly times to reflect, adjust, and course-correct—Sunday nights are Chris’ own rhythm.
  • Practice the weekly “list sweep”—cross out completed tasks, move unfinished ones forward, and rewrite the “big three.”
  • “What worked, what didn’t, what needs to adjust, how far did I get, and what course correction do I need to make?” (31:37)
  • Don’t forget habits of sleep, diet, movement, and social connection in your reviews.

Final Leadership Principle

• Lead Yourself First:
  • “The greatest leadership you can do is the leadership you do for yourself. So lead yourself well in 2026.” (32:45)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On reflection:
  “You can be tired, but you can’t be depleted.” (18:38)
• On the purpose behind goals:
  “The more we do that… that kind of clarity and that motivation, that why motivation, I’m going to tell you, it’ll change the whole aspect…” (24:57)
• On planning your time:
  “Nobody gets to decide what’s on your calendar… there’s so much personal agency in that.” (32:27)
• On leading yourself:
  “The greatest leadership you can do is the leadership you do for yourself.” (32:45)

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Key Timestamps

• 21 Days of Prayer & Fasting: 00:51–03:58
• Reflection vs. Planning (Work ON it, not just IN it): 05:02–08:54
• Reviewing Calendar & Camera Roll: 08:58–11:23
• Writing Lessons for Retention: 13:05–14:00
• Self-Evaluation Questions: 14:00–20:03
• Celebrating Wins & Confronting Facts: 21:06–22:52
• Goal Planning (Eight Areas; 12-Week Year): 22:52–27:40
• Weekly/Daily Tactical Planning: 27:40–28:35
• Importance of Scheduling (Calendar Hack): 28:35–30:56
• Weekly Reevaluation & Closing: 30:57–32:52

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Episode Takeaways

• Begin with deep reflection—review, write, and dig into what fuels and drains you.
• Choose focused goals in all areas of life, with a clear “why” for each.
• Plan in shorter, urgent cycles (12 weeks).
• Schedule both your tasks and regular reflection time.
• Celebrate progress and make adjustments, leading yourself with the same diligence you hope to provide others.

“Reflection will give you wisdom, planning will give you focus, but execution gives you real results.” (31:51)

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Resources Mentioned:

• 21 Days of Prayer & Fasting—Details and materials at Church of the Highlands website
• Michael Hyatt’s Full Focus Planner
• The 12 Week Year book
• “Pray First” by Chris Hodges

For more, visit growleader.com/podcast and check out the detailed show notes and resources.

Transcript

[A]

All right, everybody, it's a brand new year. You have a fresh calendar, and a lot of leaders that are listening right now are already feeling a little bit behind. And it's January, unless, of course, you're listening later on in the year. But the truth is still the truth. Today we're not just talking about goal setting. Pastor Chris is going to help us really review our lives so that 2026 doesn't have to be just a rerun of 2025 or 2024. First of all, happy New Year, Pastor.

[B]

Happy New Year to you. I'm so excited about this year. I really am.

[A]

We are grateful to have you on the Grow Leader podcast, where we grow leaders that grow churches by helping them reach their full potential. And do hope you had the best Christmas and the best new Year ever. And Pastor Chris, you're going to help us today. I'm already feeling a little bit behind looking at the calendar.

[B]

That's. That's not good, man.

[A]

So if the podcast is for nobody else, I'm going to get help today. It's going to be amazing. But seriously, so glad to start the day.

[B]

Thank you. And I'm very excited to, especially because day two of 21 Days of Prayer. It truly is probably the most important season of the year. It might not be my favorite, but. Cause you know. Cause it's so intense getting up every morning early for prayer and fasting. Of course. But I'm telling you, there's nothing that has reset my life. I look back, Matt, over 42 years of ministry now, and think, where would I be if I didn't start the year off with 21 days of prayer? And if you're listening today and you've never done a 21 day fast, I'm encouraging you. I know it's already day two. Start with this. Right now, we have all kind of material on the Church of the Highlands website. There's information about prayer and fasting. And of course, people can join us in our daily prayer services at 6am Central Time. It's archived for 24 hours if you want to pick a different part of the day to pray with us. But I'm telling you, nothing is better to start your year off than this 21 days.

[A]

You know, early on in my being a part of the team at Highlands, actually, just to confess it to you, I was like, man, here we go. I had young kids, and now I find myself in December going, I need 21 days of prayer. Fasting.

[B]

Well, we come out of the most indulgent season, right? I Mean Thanksgiving and Christmas. We not only eat too much, we spend too much, we. We sleep late, we stay up too late. Everything is. Well, not everything, but a lot of things get out of order by this time of the year. And man, what a great time to just kind of get this reset, get our lives back, you know, Matt, I recently had this lady walk up to me and I thought I was just going to get to meet her and, you know, shake her hand. And she, you know, she hugged me real big, says, man, you changed my family's life. And I said, how so? Of course, I always redirect that. I said, you know, really? I didn't. I didn't change anybody's life. I just pointed you to the one who can. But tell me about it. And she said, she goes, my kids were always. She goes, I'm not even sure if they were Christians. They were just kind of nominal Christ followers, church attenders at best. But they came every single morning at 6am for 21 days of prayer. And I'm telling you, it changed their life. And I'm hearing this so much now that maybe the greatest discipleship moment of a person at Church of the Highlands isn't, you know, my teacher or maybe Pastor Mark's teaching or even small groups or the growth track. I'm telling you, there's something about the discipline of getting up early, of pushing the plate away, seeking God for 21 straight days. And I wanna encourage every person I know. You may not know much about this. Maybe you're listening, you never even heard of it. Go to our website, check it out. We again have teachings about prayer. I have a book, of course I wrote, called Pray First. I would love for you to read. Check it out. And a lot of people don't know a lot about fasting, but fasting is so important from a health perspective. Just physical health. Just go research it yourself. I mean, there's just great data, new data on the medical benefits of fasting, how it resets your body, how it allows you to detox in ways that, you know, a healthy diet can't even do. But, man, the spiritual benefits are out of this world. I'm encouraging every person to come join us in 21 days of prayer and fasting.

[A]

Yeah, and as far as resources go, we're going to make that really easy for you. If you just go to growleader.com podcast, we'll put it in the show. Notes of the show today, even previous episodes here on the podcast where you've taught deeply on fasting and prayer. Super excited about. About the year. And I'm not even kidding. Looking at the calendar, I'm like, man, here we go. There's amazing stuff coming up. Do want to make sure you know about something that's coming up on February 10th. We were having a grow Leader one day here on the campus of Highlands College, all on teams.

[B]

This is going to be a good one because this is the number one question that we get asked at Grow Leader, and that is all things teams, how do you. How do you develop leaders? How do you hire and fire? How do you build a healthy staff culture? How do you build a successful dream team of volunteers? I mean, all things team, even getting into governance, building elder teams, building overseers, all things teams, developing people. You don't want to miss it. February 10th.

[A]

Yeah. Any questions at all about anything to do with Grow Leader, just email us infogrowleader.com and somebody on our amazing team will help you out. Here we go. 2026.

[B]

I'm ready.

[A]

You're ready to go?

[B]

I'm ready. Because one of the things that I do during the 21 days, Matt, is I try to slow my calendar down quite a bit. First of all, you're getting up very early. So I always kind of reset my day. It's no longer. I'm looking at it through the lens of kind of the five. I'm looking at it from the five, maybe to two or three in the afternoon. Cause that we're getting up so early, so kind of starting the day early. But I intentionally slow my calendar down so I could have some times of reflection. And we're gonna call it goal setting, but it's really not even goal setting. It's more how I'm gonna plan my life and better my leadership in 2026. And I think one of the most important things that people can do is have a plan for your personal growth. And I think before you kind goals or resolutions. In fact, I'm gonna even encourage you not to be in a annual resolution mindset. I want you to do two things. I want you to reflect and I want you to plan. Planning and reflection. Reflection gives clarity. Planning gives traction. So here's what we're gonna do today. I have two sections to this podcast today. There's gonna be a whole section on how do you reflect and how do you review, because you can't fix what you cannot see and you cannot fix what you don't even know that's broken or maybe just not in a healthy place. So we're gonna. We're gon to ask ourselves some questions. We're gonna go through a review process that I wanna teach today. Five different points on how you can have a healthy review and reflection of not only your ministry or your occupation or whatever you do, but also your person, your leadership and your personal health. And then we're gonna get into the planning. Four other points. So got nine things to cover in a short amount of time here. So let's get started. Here's the first one. All in the category of reviewing your life before you set your new goals. And I'm encouraging you, even though this is already the fifth of the month and you probably already have made some plans. I want you to start with review number one and work on your life and your leadership, not just in it. And this is a leadership principle I learned years ago from another great leader that simply says, don't always work in it, work on it. And what that means is if you're not careful, the next thing coming up is so demanding. The next Sunday for pastors, the next meeting you have to be in bills you have to pay. The next, the next, next, next, you can get so busy in it, you forget to work on it. And in order to work on it, you have to look back. Most leaders are excellent operators, but they're not very intentional reviewers. And this is the difference. When you work in it, you're, you're, you're, you're reacting, you're solving problems, you're putting out fires. But when you work on it, you're stepping back, you're actually asking what matters the most and you're deciding what needs to change. And if you don't create space to review what to happen. And I'll just predict this for every person listening. This year is just going to look like last year. But if we can actually have some healthy review, we're not working always in it. Work on it just a bit. I'm telling you, it's going to give you a completely different perspective for the new year.

[A]

You're saying this because it is the start of the year. It's an amazing time to do this, but this is actually a rhythm you need year long. You do this quarterly. How do you do this in your life?

[B]

It is. Well, it is, it is year long. But I like it especially during the prayer and fasting time because I have more spiritual clarity than ever before. And I, matt, don't have the distraction of, you know, food or things. And I have some other things that I fast. I fast the news for a month or during the 21 days I just, I don't let my mind actually even know what's going on in the world. And what happens is, is when all those other distractions, and I'm encouraging every person, set aside as many distractions as you possibly can, remove as much of the secular as you possibly can. And I'm going to tell you, it's just going to take your reflection time and the ability to work on yourself, just not in the next thing that comes up. It's going to make it so much better. The clarity is unbelievable.

[A]

Well, set us up. How do you start? When you start this process, where are you going first as a leader?

[B]

Well, that's point number two, and that is I want you to collect data. And maybe data is not a great word, by the way, because when I say collect data, I want you to put in front of yourself the things that actually allow you to be able to see how well you're doing in a medical situation. This would be your physical exam. So you don't even know if there's something wrong with you until you go through a series of tests, right? If you've ever done a comprehensive test of your physical body, I mean, they're gonna test. I go to this, this exam about every other year. That is a like a four hour. They maybe do 40 different screenings this exam process. So they can check on some things because you don't always have external indicators that something's not where it should be. So the numbers sometimes have to tell you whether things are healthy or not. So you have to collect, I call it data, but just information because you can't evaluate what you do not track. And what's gonna surprise people is how I do this. I do it in some things in ways that John Maxwell actually taught me. I do two things that you might not have thought of in order to check yourself. So I'm saying collect the numbers, check all of that out. But actually do a review of my weekly calendar, actually replan what my ideal week looks like. And I do it by Matt going all the way back to January and actually slow going through my calendar on my phone. And then I still have a paper calendar for the month, monthly planning, because I like to see things in context of the whole. And so I even show where I took time off. I'm gonna look at times where I had my meetings. I'm gonna look at, you know, times where we did grow leader conferences coming up in February. Like, was that the best season to do that in? And I'm going to ask a series of questions and try to reflect back on the calendar and just see, did that work? Was it good? Was that vacations? Was that a good week to take the family vacation? Was that a great time to have the grow leader conference? Was that, you know, is my weekly schedule in the right place? Do those meetings need to take place on Wednesday? Would they work better on Thursday? All these type of questions and Matt, this is gonna take me two or three hours. I have taken a whole day just to slow go through my calendar on my phone and on the paper from January to the end of December and just. Are you following what I'm saying? 100%. Okay. Because what happens is if we're not careful, we're just gonna keep doing the same old things. Even what time you get up when you work out, you know, just checking out all of these. These calendar items. And the second is this might surprise some people. Again, John Maxwell taught me this, and that is I'm gonna go through my camera roll from January 1st to December 31st, and I'm gonna. And I'm gonna reflect on the pictures so good. And what the pictures are gonna tell us is where your attention was, where your joy was. You get to reflect more of an emotional way and actually think about the lessons I learned along the way. And I try to write out, you know, eight to 10 different lessons or things I learned experiences. And I found that to be one of the healthiest. You know, this look back through pictures has been one of the healthiest things for me to grow. And I asked myself in that setting, you know, what did I learn? What. What did it mean to me to spend time going to that place or, you know, whatever. I took a picture of my grandkids. It's about 80% of it, by the way. But. But again, before we get planning ahead, I just want us to have these reflection times.

[A]

I started doing this about three or four years ago. And you thought it's taught the team about it. And the two things I get from it, anytime that I'm feeling.

[B]

Talking about the pictures.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

And. And I'm. And I'm. I'm. My brain works a little more that way just on kind of.

[B]

Well, you're an artist. We hired you to do video editing. I mean, years ago, anytime, there's a.

[A]

Deficit in gratitude in my life. If I go back to my camera roll, the gratitude goes way up. Well, man, life's way better than. Than I'm imagining right now in that moment. And also, you can look at yourself in a picture, in a situation and go, man, I look like a zombie there. Or I remember how tired I was on that family vacation. Well, now I'm changing the week before that vacation. It's so clarifying to go into the new year.

[B]

And by the way, don't just think it, write it out. John will actually do a lesson in pictures and he'll. Whether he teaches it or not, by the way. And he'll do up to 20 lessons. I've actually been in settings where he'll show a picture from his previous year and then teach the leadership lesson he learned through that event. So be sure, don't just sit there and think it and reflect. In fact, I just read a study that you have 42% more chance of retention and it really changing your life if you put it pen to paper. Wow. So don't just sit there and think it and look at your pictures and, you know, get lost in your mind. Like, write out the lesson, write out the. This is gonna change. This is what I'm gonna do differently in that time. So great. The third thing is, so once we kind of decide to work on it, just not in it. And now that we're collecting data or looking through some kind of review process, me, it's calendar and pictures and a host of numbers, by the way. I'm gonna have the team send me all of the, you know, the KPIs, basically for Highlands College, and I'm gonna review it and ask God to show me things I can't see. All right, all of that. Then the third thing you want to do is you want to do an evaluation process of these results. And what I mean by this is make sure that's in your calendar. In this review time. I'm gonna do during the fast, but also throughout the year so that we stay in this, work on it, not just in it mindset that you give calendar time for evaluating how we're doing. Because here's what we know about. It's just like in staged disease, it's a whole lot easier, harder to see, but easier to fix. If you can catch something early, that's great. It's a whole lot harder to fix. Easier to detect though, if you wait long and let it have all these symptoms. So what we're trying to do here is actually give some calendar time to look at what we reflect on. And even whatever you write out, whatever all the lessons I write out or the review process, I'm going to look for patterns, I'm going to look for drift, I'm going to look for places where we caught momentum, I'm going to ask myself. And we'll have all this in the show notes. So if anybody's thinking, wait, wait, you're going too fast. What grew, what stalled, what declined? Where did I show up excited and where did I slowly disengage? And then years ago, Matt, I found this list of questions. And I've had this list of questions. And I'm not sure I've ever shared this on the Grow Leader podcast, but I've had these reflection questions. These are actually in my monthly reflection day. I actually have a day where I get away from my home office and I plan, I go find a quiet place, have a little cabin about 30, 30 minutes outside of Birmingham that belongs to a friend of mine that I go sit, it's by a lake. And I have some reflection questions. I kind of had this monthly, shorter than this annual, but a reflection day. And I asked myself these self evaluation questions. Not even sure where I got these. These aren't mine. I just. I found these, Matt, probably 20 years ago. And I've been asking myself, what is my original calling from God? And I remind myself of that all over again. And Matt, by the way, when I get right to it, God didn't call me to preach. I love to preach. God didn't even call me to lead organizations. I love leading organizations. There's two things that if you cut me that I bleed and I remind myself and I stir the passion of it all over again, and that is to get lost people saved. I just love evangelism. And secondly, I love young leaders. I want to pour my life into young leaders. It's. And so I write down my original calling from God. I write down as many components as I can or different aspects of it as I can. And I ask myself, how has it changed over the years and have this reflection time? And then I ask myself, number two, what activities am I doing to support those? And what are the ones that I love the most and the ones that I dream about the most? And now I'm digging down into. How do I say this? I'm trying to dig down into a part of me that I think is the most spiritual part of who we are. I think it's what I call the language of the Holy Spirit, and that is dreams and visions. I truly believe that when the Holy Spirit pours out himself in our lives and through our lives. This is Acts, chapter two. You know, I'm going to pour out my spirit and you're going to prophesy have visions and Dream, dreams. And I truly believe that when you're the most in tune with God, he's not there just there to bless your life and he's there to put inside of you things that assignments, passions, dreams, visions. So I try to tap into those and I write out my dreams. And when I say dreams, that means there are no earthly limitations to it. It'll take God to show up for it to accomplish, for it to be accomplished. It was the same time last year, Matt, that I felt like the Holy Spirit showed me that we've got to do more than build one college, that we've got to help church based colleges and universities have great, great learning institutions all across this, this country in order for us to really reach the goal. It was in a dream day that, that happened last year. And that's what I'm talking about. I asked myself the opposite of that question. What activities and people are draining my passion, draining the tank. And I try to resolve or remove any unnecessary drain, ask questions like what triggers my depletion? And we all have moments when, where we're not at our best. And that happens to all of us. And you can't avoid it because fatigue is just a part of life, right? But depletion, we can't get depleted. So you can be tired, but you can't be depleted. So then I asked myself things like what am I doing now that I can't do anymore? So I had to do it perhaps to get to this point. But I need to raise up another leader or I need to, because I need to give my life and my focus. And I wish I had a lot of time. Cause I would tell people, I know, I already know what this is for my life. There are some things that in order for Highlands College to go to the next level, there are some things that I'm not gonna be able to do. Like I've been doing them in order to reach those goals. And so you gotta ask these questions and then ask yourselves, what are the things that I enjoy doing but I can't do at the level I'm involved in them now? So. And that's a sad thing sometimes because like, I love music, is a good example, and I love being involved in productions and creativity. And that was a real fun part of leading the church for me. And that's just something that I've actually had to, you know, to give up to a certain degree. Is all this making sense? Okay. And then the last one's the most important and that is who do I need to share these findings with so that I can be held accountable to them. And this might be one of the most important things you'll do in your reflection time is that make sure you make an appointment with someone and say, can I share with you the answers to these questions? Because I want you to hold me accountable to these. I want you to ask me questions and make sure that I really stay true to these.

[A]

You know, as I think as I get older, the thing that I see leaders I respect doing more than anybody else is having a practice of reflection.

[B]

Right.

[A]

I think young leaders get so busy. I know young kids and all that. But when you talk to the Chris Hodges of the world, the Craig Groeschells, the Nito Cubanes, the John Maxwell's, there is this contemplative life that I feel like maybe we've left for those of us that are younger, how do you even start that practice and develop that?

[B]

Well, you have to make time for it. And most of them, by the way, I don't know a great leader that doesn't rise up early in the morning and do it. Which is another reason why I think these 21 days is so important. Because the prayer is important. Obviously connecting with God, worshiping God, declaring our dependence upon God, all that's very, very important. It is the reason why we're praying and fasting. But I love the discipline of it because I love the fact that even though my body's screaming, I'd be saying, no, please, no. You know, five o' clock in the morning that alarm goes off. Because on day 22, my body just gets up without that alarm now. And now. And now we get up early and build a habit. And I've developed a habit now. And I'm just going to say it. I'm not trying to. This is not a boasting moment by no means. But man, I get up early and never set an alarm. My body says it's time. And I know that moment. I wake up, I get up and I have probably two or three hours of reflection time, devotion time. And Matt, I don't know a great leader who doesn't master their mornings in that kind of a way. I need to move on. I have so much more material because I haven't even got into the planning side. But there are two more points to the review and I'm going to go through these really quickly because people know these right? And number four is celebrate the wins. Number five is confront the facts. And celebrate the wins means don't be always so dissatisfied because that can remove that gratitude that you were just talking about. So I always, even though. Even though I look at things and I go, wish that had been a whole lot better. And that happened to me in several areas that I'm actually even embarrassed to say. There are some things that I said would change this past year, and, Matt, they just didn't change. And you got to be careful of beating yourself up too much and just celebrate, you know what? But I did get this accomplished this past year. This was the first year, by the way, in 20 years that I actually met some of my weight loss goals and my fitness goals. I'm the worst in that area. And finally, to God, be the glory, had a little bit of a success there. So celebrate the wins, even though maybe some other things didn't happen the way you wanted it to. And then obviously, number five, confront the facts. Don't be afraid to saying, this has got to change.

[A]

I know you've got so much more to share, but especially with your team, whoever you're leading, if you're leading your family, thank you, man. Find some ways to celebrate the wins, even with your kids, with your teams, whoever you're leading, don't just make about what we haven't gotten accomplished yet.

[B]

That makes you not a fun leader, you know, when you're always dissatisfied. Because the truth is, God has been faithful, and I'm grateful for that. All right, so part two of this, with four more points and seven minutes to go, here is the planning part, how we're gonna clarify our goals. And I really wanna stay away from Resolution Mindset. And I want us to think about something I learned from Michael Hyatt and many, many others. And that is, number one, to choose your goals intentionally. And I recommend only one goal in each of these eight areas. In the spiritual areas, to make a spiritual growth goal, make a marital growth goal. If you're not married, it'll be your dating life, your parental goals, so how time you're going to spend with your kids. For me, it's my grandkids as well. An intellectual goal. What am I going to learn this year? A social goal. So where can my social life, my friendship networks, where can I be a better friend? A vocational goal. And that for me, that's chancellor of Highlands College. But whatever you do in your eight to five, so to speak, a physical goal. And we all know what that means, like what do my health goals need to be this year? And finally, a financial goal. And in these, this is something I learned from Michael Hyatt. It's just so Cool. Decide is this an achievement goal or is this a habit goal? And an achievement goal would be like I wanna lose £20. A habit goal would be I'm gonna eat healthy every day. So choose whether it's an achievement or a habit goal. And this is the key. And again, this has to be pen to paper. You can't just think this and that is write the goal out and then write out the reason why it matters. And here's what I've learned. This is so cool, this is so important. And this is one of the reasons, Matt, why a lot of people never reach their goals because they set a goal, but they never really tell say why. And so like in my fitness goals this past year, and by the way, I still have a long way to go, but man, I made some strides. You look great. Well, thank you.

[A]

You're welcome.

[B]

Not bad for a 62 year old. But anyway. But I made some strides in 2025 and my daughter in law is listening right now cause she works with this our podcast team, right? And so maybe she's even hearing this for the first time. But my peloton username. You ready for this is for the grands. It's the number four, the grands. And every time I get on that bike it reminds me I'm not here just to look better and to stay alive longer. I'm doing it because I want to be around to be a granddad to these greater why, it's the greater why. And the more we can write out the why behind that makes me want to tear up right here. The more we do that, that kind of clarity and that motivation, that why motivation. I'm going to tell you, it'll change the whole aspect of maybe a resolution mindset to I'm going to do some things and here's the reason why. Secondly, and there's some real power in what I'm getting ready to say. And that is you don't wanna think annually. And I didn't even know this. I've never taught this before cause I didn't know it. I read a book over the break called the 12 week year. Everybody listening to me needs to go read this book called the 12 Week Year. And basically the gist or the thesis of the book is people who set annual goals usually never accomplish them because you have too big of a Runway to accomplish it. So if you have £20 to lose in 365 days, the next meal doesn't have that much urgency. But if you had to do it in 12 weeks, man, the next meal matters. So you shorten the Runway and you even set goals that can be accomplished in 12 weeks, not 12 months. Again, go read the book. But what it does, it creates urgency. It forces prioritization. It emphasizes execution over ideas. And so then you ask yourself, and again, pen to pain, write this out. Ask yourself then, what are the next steps in that one of those eight goal areas do I need to do to accomplish that goal? So now I'm gonna write out next steps, and it has to be done over the next 12 weeks. So think about that. In the area of finances, for instance, if you were trying to get out of debt, then what do I need to do? Not this year, but by spring break, right? So now we're thinking a 12 week went. It just changes everything. And it's gonna create a little bit more of an urgency. And I have so much I wanted share here, but in this area. But this is really, really huge. Yeah, that for. So that people can and I think have a. Have. Have a sense of urgency.

[A]

It gives you the ability to celebrate the win and make adjustments so you don't get to December and go, oh, man, we didn't do it right. We lost in that you're getting a chance to adjust all along the way.

[B]

And so. And so now we're even going to bring the 12 weeks down to this week. Right. So that now we're actually going to set a task. And again, I learned this from Michael Hyatt. Again, this is. Cause I still use that full focus planner, where for me, it's Sunday nights, I think, through my week. And you're gonna end up doing a boatload of tasks. Right? So I mean. I mean, in one day, you might do 15, 20 things, but what three things for the entire week are the most important things to accomplish? And you look back over your eight goals and say, all right, for this week, I'm gonna plan that vacation with my wife, or I'm gonna, you know, I'm gonna sign up for a gym or maybe get somebody to work out with. I don't know what it is, but you're gonna find some actual task to do this week and plan it in that kind of a way. And then number three, put it on the calendar.

[A]

So great.

[B]

And this might be my personal hack, Matt, that I don't know. I mean, like, so I do it in every area. So my time with God is actually on my phone as an appointment. So I don't have a value of wanting to pray or spend more time with God or read my Bible. I make an appointment with God and put it on the calendar. And I'm telling you, if it's not scheduled, it's not real. But when it gets scheduled, it gets very, very real. So, like, I'm gonna give one example of an area I've been dreaming for weeks, not weeks, months, all throughout 2025, about learning more about fundraising. Cause it's so different in this Highlands College space than it was at Church of the Highlands. Completely different. And I will flat out say I'm fairly good at it, but not good enough. And I've been saying that for months, and in my reflection time that I've already started this process. Actually have a meeting coming up next week with eight people for three hours. And all we're gonna talk about and dream about is fundraising. We're gonna talk about, what do we need to do to share the message of Highlands College to the people of America. Because, you know, there's $70 trillion that's getting ready to change hands and money that's gonna be put into causes, man, I wanna know how. You know, here I am. You know, how do we do that? And I'm putting around some people. What did I do? I put it on the calendar, got the people that are gonna show up for it, and I found so many people that just simply don't do this. And then finally, we go all the way back. Gotta circle this plane in, man. I want to go. I want to teach him. I'm sorry for rushing right now, but once you put it on the calendar, number four, then reevaluate. And this is sometimes the biggest miss because none of us hit it perfectly. But what if you even had a scheduled reevaluation time? Again, for me, that's Sunday nights, and it's Sunday nights for me because I have all this energy from church, the church life, right? And I'm trying to rest, but. But I actually cannot. I still have so much adrenaline, and all this is racing through my head. So I take Sunday nights to kind of put everything on paper. And what I do. I'm gonna give you the steps, and we're gonna close this podcast. I write out my three biggest wins from that previous week. And I'm always disappointed, Matt, but I always find the wins. I didn't do it like I thought I should have. But let me tell you what I did do.

[A]

That's great.

[B]

I thought I was gonna work out four times this week. I only did it twice, but I did do it twice. It's better than zero, right? So I'm gonna write out my wins and then I'm gonna ask myself, what worked, what didn't, what needs to adjust, how far did I get, and what course correction do I need to make? And again, I'll have all this in the show notes for people because it it because at this point, you're able to make small course corrections that prevent major drift later. And I'm just trying to get everybody from that major drift. Then I take all the unfinished tasks from the previous week that were supposed to be done last week, and we do what's called a list sweep. So we cross out all the things that did get done and we move all the things on the to do list that didn't get done to a new list for the new week and then write out the weekly big three again. What three things must I accomplish this week? And I'm gonna close with this for my third closing today. Sound like a preacher right now. And make sure that it's not just tasks related to your vocation or even your eight goals. Make sure it's also sleep, diet, exercise and movement, your connections and play. Like, make sure you're reviewing those types of things because what happens is reflection will give you wisdom, planning will give you focus, but execution gives you real results. And that's what we want to help every person who listens to the Grow Leader podcast do in 2026.

[A]

It's so much to dive into. I do want to say this. One of the muscles you have that I've learned so much from you is your calendar. Is your calendar. Nobody gets to decide what's on your calendar. And I think if more of us took that intentionality and said, no, I'm. I'm planning my week. There's so much personal agency in that. And it's just so helpful for us to look at our lives that way.

[B]

Well, the greatest leadership you can do is the leadership you do for yourself. It's great. So lead yourself well in 2026.

[A]

It's going to be an amazing year, everybody. 2026. There's so much possibility in it. We can't wait to share it with you. Hey, be sure and go to growleader.com podcast, get the show notes. We're going to load it up with every resource you heard about in the episode today. If you liked what you heard, if you think it can help somebody else share it, let's get the word out there. We want to help leaders everywhere. We appreciate you. We'll see you next time on the Grow Leader podcast.