James 1:22 “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.”
Do you have a healthy balance of hearing (input) and doing (output)? Professional development strategies are filled with recommendations for more activities related to hearing. We’re encouraged to read books on the topics we wish to grow in. We’re encouraged to attend conferences and take notes, and then organize those notes for ease of access. We’re encouraged to find mentors and life coaches to hear more of how we can grow and develop. Many of us even go a step further and pursue more and more degrees to not only increase our input and growth, but also to validify to the outside world that we have attained that level of input. We are constantly perfecting our ability to hear.
But what about our strategies for doing (output)? In Genesis 12:2 the LORD said to Abram, “And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing” (emphasis mine). All throughout scripture we see that God has called us to action. Yet many of us go through our professional and personal lives with little thought of how our inputs are intended to transform our outputs. We lead busy lives and fill up our schedules with the urgent issues that present themselves before us. When we have the pressure of making a grade in a course we manage to find the self-discipline to create output in the form of written papers or exams, but when the professors are no longer looking and normal life comes calling again, we do not manage to find the same discipline to create output in our family and work schedules. Our computers and journals become backlogged with notes and thoughts from all of our inputs, and our lives remain minimally affected by those experiences.
So what’s the solution? Many people recommend setting aside times for review. Experiences don’t bring about change…but reviewed experiences do. I believe review is a necessary step in the solution, but not the entirety. We need to add to review both an intentional strategic plan and accountability. Taking time to review the notes from the conference you’ve attended or the book you’ve read is definitely helpful in sorting through which points are the MOST helpful for you at the moment. But then you must take time to do the hard work in creating an action plan. And that’s the catch – it’s HARD WORK! It takes time and energy to figure out how we can tangibly apply the concepts we have learned. But this is our challenge as professional disciples. We are not to be hearers only, but doers. So we MUST stretch ourselves to create strategic output plans. And then we must find people to hold us accountable. It is not intention that brings about success, but action. So as you create your output plan, find others to hold you to that plan.
Taking intentional time to be strategic in our output may cut into our time for input, but for our input to truly be effective, this is our challenge! It’s my challenge to you, and to me as well!
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