MattCleaver.com

I said a few days ago that the key to focusing is willing to give up and cut out some things in life. So, with that, here’s what I’m cutting out in 2012:

• Personal: Reading non-Bible stuff. As I said, this year is the year of the Bible, reading-wise, for me. So I will do very little reading that isn’t related to scripture.
• Personal: Miata & Autocrossing. I bought a 1994 miata a couple of years ago in hopes of tinkering on it and doing some autocross events with it. When I bought my road bicycle last year, I spent so much time on my bike that I didn’t have the time to work on the car. Instead of feeling guilty for not giving it the attention it deserves, I’m going to sell it.
• Personal: Motorsports on TV. When I was in high school I considered being an engineer, for one reason only: to design and work on racecars. I thought that auto racing was the most exciting display of engineering and have never lost the awe of watching cars scream around a track. My DVR is usually filled with hours of racing from March-October. Giving this up will keep me from sitting in front of the TV so much.
• Personal: College Basketball on TV. Last year, thanks to my parents, I crossed something off of my bucket list: going to the NCAA Final Four & Championship game. I watch quite a bit of college basketball in the winter months and during March Madness. Now that I’ve made the pilgrimage to the Final Four, I feel like I can cut back on that.
• Ministry: Administration. When I requested that my hours be cut back at the church, it really didn’t leave time for me to do a significant amount of administration. Instead, I’m focusing on teaching and discipleship. The size of our church and ministry really doesn’t make it that big of a loss. Looking back, I’m not sure how effective it was to spend the time I did on administrative matters.
• Professionally: Continuing Education. I’m not cutting this out entirely, but I am scaling back. Last fall I spent a ton of time learning about business, marketing, and web development and design practices. I feel like I needed to do that, because I learned a lot, but those things don’t pay the bills. With that foundation behind me, I’m going to scale back on the continuing education and focus on things that actually grow my business and pay the bills.

I’m content with giving these things up, because I know it will allow me to focus on other things that I already enjoy and that will be productive. And if a year from now I want to cut something else out in order to add in something above, then I’ll do it. This isn’t a permanent decision, but one that I think makes sense in my life right now.

Are you giving up anything in 2012 to focus on something that you think is important?

Taking into account the questions I asked myself to help me focus this year, here’s what I want the next 12 months to be about:

• Personal: Reading the Bible. I love to read and have lots of interests. My default reading genre is theology (but recently I dabbled in lots of business, marketing, and financial crisis reading), but this year I am going to narrow my reading down to scripture. Quite honestly, I didn’t take enough advantage of great Bible classes in college and I want to go broader in my exposure to scripture. So, this year I am using the M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan to read through the Bible this year. I like it because you read one chapter from four different books of the Bible every day, so you don’t get bogged down in certain difficult books for months on end as you would reading it straight through. I will also limit most of my reading to Biblical-type material rather than theological and philosophical. Do you have any good biblical studies books to recommend?
• Personal: Cycling. I took up cycling last year and was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. It’s a great hobby because it allows me to spend time with my wife, meet new people, stay in shape, see the countryside, and tinker around with keeping my bike running in top form.
• Personal: Baseball. My wife and I both enjoy watching baseball, and the recent success of the Rangers has made it even better. 2012 should be another good year for the Rangers, and we both look forward to taking in the season. Spring training will be here before you know it.
• Personal: Writing. I haven’t written much in the past year, and I miss it. The blog has suffered for various and sundry reasons, so I will likely re-energize myself towards blogging.
• Professional: Specialize & Systematize. Since starting my own business last October, I have taken on almost any and every project that has come my way. I’m seeing the need for specialization in order to better systematize and speed up my productivity. I have a few ideas for how to specialize and will be testing a few different areas out in 2012. Then hopefully I can pick one or two and really start to master them.
• Ministry: Teaching. Teaching is something I enjoy (and people say I am good at it), so I’ve reworked my job to do almost nothing but teach. My ten hours a week are generally spent teaching or preparing to teach. In addition to my job, I am entering into a new venture as a presenter with a non-profit organization, Call Incorporated. I will be co-leading a two-day workshop next weekend; depending on how that goes, it may blossom into something more.
• Ministry: Discipleship. However, I know teaching isn’t the end-all of discipleship, and I want to form some more relational discipleship structures in 2012. I want to intentionally be discipled and to disciple others.
• Ministry: Mission. The church exists for the sake of those outside of the church, but quite honestly, I haven’t participated in much mission over the last few years. I want to get in a better regular rhythm of mission in 2012.

What are you going to focus on in 2012?

Tomorrow I’ll post the things I am giving up to make room for the things I think are most important.

I ran through a list of questions in my mind to help me decide on what to focus in 2012:

• Is it pleasurable? Things you spend time on should, if possible, be pleasurable. Yes, there are certain tasks and responsibilities that you can’t get away from, but I bet you would be surprised how flexible some of them can be (I like the book Go, Put Your Strengths to Work for this). And, if they aren’t pleasurable, maybe you can systematize them in such a way as to minimize the time you spend on them.
• It is productive? Some things are simply frivolous. Certain things that I read or watch on TV ultimately have no value, so there’s no real reason to continue such things (don’t forget, my first question is about pleasure, so it’s not like I’m advocating asceticism here). “Productive” has different meanings in different areas of life, for example:
• Personal: Does in bring your closer to other people? Does it help you to order your life? Does it build you up?
• Ministry: Does it help in discipling others?
• Professional: Does it enhance a critical skill? Is it billable time? Does it expand your business?
• Does it use your strongest gifts? I’m a big fan of maximizing your strengths, because the research is so compelling. You are more productive trying to build up your strengths than your weaknesses. The best tool I have found for defining your strengths is the StrengthsFinder 2.0.
• Does it help you accomplish a goal for your life? I’m twenty-eight, and while that is by no means old, I’m closer to thirty than twenty (and closer to forty than fifteen!). I really don’t want to wake up at fifty and ask “what have I done with my life?” There are things I would like to do, and unless I am moving towards them day-by-day, they will never be achieved.

If yes, then:

• Is it addictive? Things that are potentially addictive are dangerous, so I try to stay away from them.
• Is it expensive? All things being equal, I’m going to choose things that are less expensive.

If no, then:

• Is it something I can do with my wife? When it comes down do it, I have lots of interests, and so does my wife. Some of them overlap. When possible, I want to maximize the time I spend with her doing things we both enjoy.

Are there other questions you use to help you focus?

Tomorrow, I’ll reveal what asking these questions has shown me and on what I am focusing my energy in 2012.

I’ve maintained blog silence for a little while because I knew a change in my job was imminent, but I wasn’t sure how it would turn out. Effective October 1, my status as an employee at my church was reduced from full-time to 10 hours a week, at my request.

Now that I’ve gained a little distance from the decision and had some time to adjust and reflect on it, I decided it was time to make that public. I still have thoughts about youth ministry, and I still want to be a part of the conversation about the future of youth ministry. My decision has nothing to do with my commitment to youth ministry, but it does have to do with my convictions regarding the future of the church. More on that later.

In the meantime, I’ve started my own business as a freelance small business website developer and designer. I have a handful of clients so far for whom I’m building websites and helping with their Facebook presence and their email marketing. We’ll see where that goes, but in the short-term it has kept me busy.

So that’s where I’m at. More later on the reasons behind the decision and what I think it means moving forward.