Setting Goals for the New Year

Happy New Year!

It’s the big day, New Years Day, the day that people proclaim their New Years Resolutions. Here’s what I want you to do with your new years resolutions…

Forget them!

C’mon, chances are you’re going to do that anyway. These resolutions are by definition things we are going to attempt to do in our own strength, which is usually the reason they don’t make it past January 31. Instead of making resolutions look toward your God-given vision and mission and set some goals… things to work toward with God’s help in the year ahead. These goals should all be things that move you closer to God’s will for your life. Here are some steps toward setting those goals.

Step 1: PRAY!!!!!

Yes I know all caps are shouting, that’s what I’m doing here, because this is the most important step. Without prayer these goals are just another doomed-to-fail resolution. I know it’s a cliche but if God is your co-pilot, switch seats and let God drive. Don’t pray to invite God into your idea, ask God for his idea, His path, His goals.

Step 2. Write them down.

There’s something about  writing things down that helps make things a little more real. So write them down and place them somewhere that you will see them every day. Be as specific as possible.

Step 3. Break them down.

It’s okay if your goals are huge. God-given things often are. It’s okay if they’re not going to be complete by December 31. Sometimes God defies our timelines and that’s okay because He’s God and is not bound by timelines. What you don’t want to do though is have something that is so big that you feel you’ll never get there and quit. The way to accomplish a big goal is to break it down into small bites, small steps that you can chip away at until you reach your goal. When Michelangelo sculpted his David, he turned an immensely hard piece of rock into one of the greatest works of art the world has ever seen. He didn’t hit the block once and expect perfection, he took his chisels and chipped away. Your masterpiece life is the same way.

Step 4. Be faithful.

Part of chipping away at something is to keep chipping. When you have a God given vision or goal it’s a journey, the key is to keep making the next right step forward, doing what it takes to reach the goal.

Step 5. Accountability

One of the best ways to stay faithful on goals is to share them with others who will check up on you to see how you’re doing. In my case, this year I am going to post my goals here, so that as I work through them, I can share the progress. In addition I work with a coach, who helps keep me on track. This is someone I respect deeply, who respects me, but is also close enough to me to check me and help me to stay on track. I also have a few other friends who will help me to stay on track (more on that tomorrow).

Step 5. Be flexible.

People often ask me, “How do I know if a goal is from me or from God?” The truthful answer is, sometimes you don’t. It’s be nice if it was always a “bolt from the blue” experience, but that is not always the case. I believe it was the band .38 Special who wrote “Hold on loosely.” It was a song about a romantic relationship, but it also applies to our goals. If we hold on to God tightly and our goals loosely, it allows God to guide is from the stuff that is just us and more deeply into the things that are of Him.

As a sidebar, just because things get tough doesn’t mean God’s not in them. Do all that you do to God’s glory.

There’s one more big part of this that we will touch on tomorrow.

In the mean time here are some of my goals for the coming year.

1. To do 50 creative arts ministry programs this year. (Last year I posted a goal of 15 presentations and Got to do 25.)

2. To develop a new full length art ministry presentation and two workshops.

3. To finish my vacation Bible School presentation (It’s booked in one church already, so it will be done, but I’d also like to try to book it in at least three more places).

4. To work up a secular creativity presentation for schools and businesses.

5. To post a blog post here every day and grow this tribe.

6. To finish the book projects I have underway. (1001: A Sketch Odyssey, Running A.M.O.K. II and God and the Creative Process)

7. To post to BewareofArtists.org each day (most of these have already been worked up).

8. To post a Creachertoon five days a week and discern whether it is being effective enough to continue in 2014.

9. To be one-on-one coaching at least five creative ministry people by the end of the year.

There are a few more that I am still discerning and one or two of these may not make it, but this is where I am headed. I know I want to do a few philanthropic things this year, I’m just not sure what they are yet.

What are your goals for 2013? Share them in the comments section if you feel so led.

End of Year Question…

Having posted nearly a thousand posts, my comments are pretty low. The question is, How can I get more comments in 2013? It’s not that I need my ego stroked, I just want to make this less of a book and more of a community of people helping each other out.

We have a big assignment creatives and an awesome mission. If we’re going to do it right we need all the help we can get.

I Will Be Doing This Soon

This is another way to do the reverse painting I showed earlier. The artist is kind enough to provide a tutorial type video, so you cfan really see how it’s done. This is amazing stuff.

Journey through Michael Hyatt’s Platform: Post 29 Landing Pages

In this chapter of Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World Michael Hyatt looks at the importance of properly setting up your landing pages. I apologize for not posting for a while on this topic, but the truth is I am still working on getting all my landing pages up to standard. I decided the best way to demonstrate this was to set up a new landing page for a new service I am planning on offering soon, Creative Ministry Coaching.

You can see it gathers all the usual information, plus a few added features. I am fairly new to coaching though I’ve done it unofficially as a pastor for years as well as with folks I’ve met through AMOKArts. Because I am new to coaching professionally, I am looking for what my potential clients might see as an acceptable rate for what I have to offer. I am also including a text block to find out what the person expects from a coaching relationship. This way I can decide whether I can meet their expectations or not.

If you’d like to look into coaching, please feel free to fill out the form and I will get back to you soon.

If you haven’t done it yet, check out Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World.

Journey through Michael Hyatt’s Platform: Post 29 Create a Better “About” Page

According to Michael Hyatt in  Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World (and my statistics bear this out) the About page on your blog is one of the most frequently read pages. It is highly important, especially in the  realm of ministry. People want to know your background and whether or not they can trust the orthodoxy of your point of view. They also want to know what your focus is going to be. In short they want to know who you are and what they’re going to be reading.

Hyatt gives ten ways to make a better About page. I decided to compare them to my about page. To be sure it needs some adjustments. He says to write in the first person, mine reads like a press release. He says to write in a conversational style, and once again, mine reads like a press release. He also includes a lot more information than I currently have in mine. What I see is, I have a lot of room for improvement on my About page and I will be highlighting that change in the weeks ahead.

How does your About page look?

Having read the chapter,

If you haven’t done it yet, check out Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World.

Journey through Michael Hyatt’s Platform: Post 28 Avoid Common Blogging Mistakes

In this chapter of Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World Michael Hyatt looks at the mistakes bloggers make. He has a list of 10. To see them all you’ll have to read the book. I am going to focus on just a few. I think the biggest one is people who don’t post enough. Now I realize I may dance on the edge of posting too much, but the idea is to post on a regular basis so that your readers get a consistent flow of information. This blog goes out daily. Hyatt recommends no more than that. Actually right now I am posting twice in some days (Hyatt would say that is too much) but there is a reason for that. And it has to do with another post on Hyatt’s list…

Keep your posts on brand. I am aware that a lot of my readers come here  for posts about art and arts ministry. Because of this I am taking a risk with some of you by posting these posts on Platform. I am posting them because I believe every one of my readers should be trying to build his or her own platform. I feel it’s crucial to our ministries, but I know some may not agree with that sentiment, so on the days I post on Platform, I try to also post something else. I want all my readers to stay engaged.

The last thing from the chapter I want to highlight is the idea that we need to make sure we grab the reader’s attention. Remember most of the reason for this book and these posts is there are so many things vying for your reader’s attention. It”s important that we develop good headlines and a good lead in paragraph, to draw the reader into the story. I am still working on this but it must be the goal if you want to win your readers’ attentions.

If you haven’t done it yet, check out Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World.

Journey through Michael Hyatt’s Platform: Post 27 Protect Your Intellectual Property

This is one of the few places where I part ways with Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World. Michael Hyatt has a lot to say about protecting your work. Of course in order to see that you’ll have  to buy the book. I get  where he’s coming from and I even see a need for it and I suppose if someone were to take all my work and make a best seller pout of it I would be pretty upset and want some payment but here is the larger issue.

To me, I want this message to spread. I want it to go far and wide. Seth Godin says “Ideas that spread, win.” (I’ve asked Mr. Godin for permission to use his stuff on several occasions and he has yet to say no. Incidentally he treats everyone like this and it’s hard to argue with his level of success.) Since my goal is to spread the word, I really hope you’ll spread it around, repost it, take it and run with it. It’d be really nice if you’d credit it to me and AMOKArts.com so that you would help draw people into the tribe and if you make a lot of money off of something, remember who fed you and share the wealth. But above all what really matters to me is that the word is spread and this mission goes forward.

These abilities we have are called gifts for a reason. God has given them to us so that  we can give them to others. That doesn’t mean we can’t or shouldn’t get paid, the Bible says, “the workman is worth his hire” but Jesus also said “freely you have received, freely give.” Consider a piece of art, yes one person may pay for it, maybe you’ll license it and 1,000,000 will pay for it, but it’s still a gift because for every person who pays for it. thousands and millions will appreciate it for free. It’s the same with songs on the radio and books in the library. Creating art is a gift given to the world. Part of the purpose of this site is to build a tribe of creatives who are using their gifts to spread the Gospel, serve the Lord and others and glorify God.

Take these posts for example. I am being very careful to not give you much of what Michael Hyatt wrote. I’m doing my best to honor Michael Hyatt’s intellectual property. At the same time I feel he has written a very important book that every member of my tribe must read, so I am going to great lengths to tell you about it. Why do I do this? So you’ll go out and buy it. Yes I have provided the links here on the page and yes if you click through from this site to buy it, a few cents of the purchase will come back to AMOKArts, but my motivation is not those couple of cents, that will never pay back the effort I’ve put into it. I am posting this because I think if you read and apply this book, your creative ministry will spread and grow and that is part of the mission of AMOKArts.

At the end of the day, you need to know how much you want to protect what you’ve created. One way is not more spiritual than the next, I’ll simply say let the Spirit be your guide.

If you haven’t done it yet, check out Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World.

Journey through Michael Hyatt’s Platform: Post 26 Don’t Hire a Proofreader

In this chapter of Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World Michael Hyatt says something that a lot of writers would view as blasphemy, but I think it’s critical when it comes to blogging. Don’t hire a proofreader. Now of course we want to post the best work we can and we want it to be as clan as possible, but as writers, our perfectionism can keep us from doing what needs to be done. It can keep us tweaking ad infinitum and prevent us from “shipping.”

Remember, a blog is a way of disseminating information quickly. We’re not writing a book, we’re building a platform. It’s more important that we keep our tribes informed and connected that every t is crossed and i dotted. It’s more important that your posts go out when expected than that they be perfect.

The truth of the matter is someone in your tribe will tell you about your errors and unlike printed materials blog posts are easy to correct, and you should correct them. So basically, writer your post, read it, read it again and ship it. Your readers will forgive a typo or help you to correct it. What they may not forgive is spotty, sporadic posting.

Speaking of which, you’ll notice I skipped chapter 25, rest assured I am working on that one too. It is just more involved and I didn’t want to keep my faithful readers waiting.

If you haven’t done it yet, check out Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World.

Behind the Scenes: The Making of CREACHER, Cause and Effect

I decided to give you a behind the scenes view on how a CREACHER cartoon is made. This one is called Cause and Effect. It’s inspiration comes from numerous stories I’ve heard recently in the media and other places. They were very diverse and yet they all had one thing in common. In every case blame was being thrown at someone else. parents, strangers, society, even God. That’s usually not the case. In some cases we are just getting splattered by the effects of living in a broken world, but in more cases than not, the story behind the story is one of cause and effect. Understanding cause and effect is crucial. We feed cause with our choices and effect comes back to bite us. We don’t dare interpret this for others, that’s called being judgmental, but it is vital that we interpret cause and effect for ourselves.

Journey through Michael Hyatt’s Platform: Post 24 Write Faster

In this chapter of Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World Michael Hyatt gives 11 ways to write faster, all of which are  very useful. Why do you need to write faster? Well as Hyatt points out, most of us are fitting our blogs in, into the small spaces of available  time in our busy lives. If the process of posting becomes long and drawn out, there is a much smaller chance that we will post consistently.

One of the best tips I can give for this is keep it simple. Hopefully you are communicating important, meaningful ideas. The clearer and more concise you can make these ideas, the more likely your readers will remember them and put them into action, not to mention pass them along. Seth Godin says, “Ideas that spread win!” and he’s right. I would add, “Ideas that spread build platforms.”

How can you speed up your writing process to make your work consistent and shareable?

If you haven’t done it yet, check out Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World.