Have you ever reread a book and wondered how you missed so many valuable nuggets during the first round? Rereads used to be rare for me, but book club has changed that. I look forward to revisiting a book because my book review is consistently more favorable after re-reading it with my book club. The book has not changed, but its impact feels greater.
When I decided to prioritize reading, I set quotas to help me stay on track as any driven achiever would. Reading became a competition to see how many books I could move to my “read” shelf on GoodReads. The burden of being a driven achiever is seeing each accomplishment transform into a baseline for your future self. Experiencing the satisfaction of marking a book as “read” became so compelling that I forgot the purpose behind reading. I prioritized reading to discover new ideas and philosophies that would spark me to dream, play, and grow. Reading was my commitment to stay curious, but I made it into a consumption competition.
The real growth begins after the fast-paced excitement of the sowing season. Slow, deliberate progress during the growing season leads to an abundant harvest that multiplies over the years. Each season is essential, but as a driven achiever, I rush the slowly built momentum of the growing season. Here are a few lessons on savoring the sowing and growing season that deliberate achievers have modeled for me.
Pausing Pivots
Driven achievers have an impressive capacity, but their pace can be somewhat erratic. In the quest to be, do, and have more, they may pivot twenty times before deliberate achievers have considered changing strategies. Quickly releasing a failed strategy is prudent, but adopting a new one before understanding why the last failed is an inefficient use of time at best, or reckless at worst. It takes discipline for driven achievers to pause for a quick analysis before pivoting when our brains have already generated 20 more strategies. The few minutes invested in this reflection can drastically reduce how many failed strategies we cycle through. Let’s clarify our desired outcome, and identify what worked and what didn’t before charging forward without a plan. To be clear, these pausing pivots should take less than 5 minutes in most cases. We are not seeking to hinder action, only to better inform it.
- What is my desired outcome?
- What is working well?
- What is broken/missing?
Layering Progress
Deliberate achievers practice the art of layering progress. It requires a lot of restraint for me to give an idea time and space to take root firmly. This is especially true when I know there’s another brilliant idea waiting to be sown in the next chapter. When I shared with my friend that I skipped over application questions at the end of the chapter to jump into the next chapter, I recall my friend staring at me with disbelief. Profound ideas need time to take root. We can expect suboptimal results if we race from one big idea to the next before processing and applying it. My friend challenged me to answer the questions and reflect on the material before racing to the next chapter. I know not every book has reflection questions. In honor of my friend, I keep these handy when I come across interesting content, whether in a book, blog, podcast, or video. Let’s appreciate the solid progress that our deliberate friends are creating and develop the art of layering progress in our journey with intentional reflection.
- What is ONE key takeaway from this message?
- What is ONE action I can take to put this into practice now?
- How can I create a reminder to continue practicing this in the future?
Sharing Insights
One of the skills I admire most in Deliberate Achievers is their natural ability to build deep, meaningful communities. They naturally rise to Stephen Covey’s challenge to “Be Efficient with Things, But Be Effective with People” by generously sharing their time and presence. Deliberate achievers create space and time for us to share incubating ideas. They patiently examine with detailed focus to help us determine if it’s worth pursuing, brainstorm how to use it, and address jeopardizing obstacles. My mentor always reminds me that if we can’t explain it simply, we probably don’t understand it as well as we think. Sharing ideas allows us to find overlooked insights and deepen our understanding. Their intentional approach to building community creates the perfect environment for creativity and strategic thinking. Let’s deliberately prioritize time and space in our schedules to share insights and ideas with others today. As the proverb directs, “If you want to go fast, go alone, if you want to go far, go together.”
- How will I make time and space to prioritize people today?
- Who challenges me with fresh perspectives, insights, and ideas?
- Do I have an encouraging community to fill the distinct roles of accountabili-buddy, mentor, and mentee in my life right now?
Savor Life
The word, savor, beautifully captures how deliberate achievers approach life. They savor experiences, books, meals, and even ideas. A deliberate mindset challenges us to slow down to fully engage with what’s important right now. We can see it demonstrated in revisiting philosophies and ideas with fresh eyes and renewed curiosity. It’s found in the humble pause to evaluate our successes and failures for clues before charging ahead to the next adventure. Finally, it’s in the courageous vulnerability required to build deep, meaningful communities in which we can share insights and encouragement during our pursuits.
During our sowing and growing seasons, let’s challenge ourselves to shift from a waiting mindset to a savoring mindset.
Accountabili-Buddy Check: Did you answer any or all the questions? If you are feeling deliberate, save them for later or answer them now.
Pausing Pivots to Make the Connection:
- What is my desired outcome?
- What is working well?
- What is broken/missing?
Layering Progress by Focusing on ONE Step at a Time:
- What is ONE key takeaway from this message?
- What is ONE action I can take to put this into practice now?
- How can I create a reminder to continue practicing this in the future?
Sharing Insights to Go Deeper:
- How will I make time and space to prioritize people today?
- Who challenges me with fresh perspectives, insights, and ideas?
- Do I have an encouraging community to fill the distinct roles of accountabili-buddy, mentor, and mentee in my life right now?
“Better a patient person than a warrior, one with self-control than one who takes a city.” – Proverbs 16:32
