SubscribeA checklist for a New Year
My pastor hit on something Sunday when she encouraged us once again to get off to a good start this year. Make a list, she urged. Not just any old list but a 2010 Master Plan and Checklist.
Rev. Dr. Cynthia T. Turner said the inspiration for her forward-looking checklist came from an interview that Charlie Rose conducted with Atul Gawande, a surgeon, author and New Yorker magazine writer who penned ”The Checklist Manifesto: How To Get Things Right.”
Gawande’s book shows how doctors and nurses in hospitals, and pilots and others in specialized fields can use a simple checklist to reduce errors and even deaths. An idea so simple that it appears dumb, one reviewer said. But it has been shown to work in these highly complex arenas.
What about a checklist for our own busy, sometimes complicated lives?
There’s something about making lists that’s important to do, our pastor told us. The plan and checklist she presented encourages each of us to assess where we are now, where we want to be and what we need to do to get there.
She asked us to take the slender sheet of paper home and pray over it before deciding which personal, professional, spiritual/church, recreational/hobby goals we would tackle this year.
“We will revisit it every first Sunday and see how we are doing,” she said, “doing right and staying right.”
Her words resonated with me when she remarked, “Sometimes our day seems like it’s too much life for one person to live.”
At times, I feel like I am trying to jam two days of stuff into one day and I look around at the end of the week and wonder where the time went and what did I accomplish. I’ve used to-do lists before, sometimes with great success. They have helped me manage priorities and sort through what’s really important.
I ended last year with some things in mind that I want to finish and some I want to begin this year. I am taking another look and reassessing my list. And I’m praying that whatever I do, it will bring glory to God and accomplish His will for my life. That goes at the top of all of my lists.
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