I began this process in 6th grade. The picture shown is of the first goal list I ever wrote out in 6th grade. Its grown a lot and developed a lot, but essentially, its the same thing. Each new year brings a sense of a fresh start.

Here are my 2012 goals. These are the ones I feel comfortable sharing about. I seem to have a lot of more “private” goals this year than ever before:

1. Beat my best half marathon time ever
2. Bike 150 miles in a race
3. Spend less money on junk food (starbucks, lunches, etc) and bring healthy lunches to the office. This will also help me accomplish more in each work day because lunch won’t take so long.
4. Complete a 30 day Daniel Fast. Yikes.
5. Read 15 books. I have a partial list. Any suggestions?
6. Lead Revolution Church to love God and love people like never before. Make Revolution the place that LOVES GOD, LOVES PEOPLE and PROVES IT!
7. Keep God’s bigness in my heart and expand our reach. Check out this message.
8. Add a kiddo to our family and not die from the loss of sleep (baby white is due in July!)
9. Pay cash for said baby.
10. Date my wife and love her like Ephesians 5 commands husbands to do.
11. Speak LIFE into every relationship and every interaction.
12. Serve people like never before.
13. Work HARD and rest HARD.
14. Push. The. Envelope.
15. Look further than 2012. Set goals for 10 years, 20 years and beyond.

I think goals are important for everyone. I just refuse to drift through life. Most people spend more time planning a 3 day summer vacation than they do planning their life out.

I think that’s a tragedy.

These are not resolutions. Resolutions stink. These are GOALS. These are not all of my 2011 goals, I am not including all of the details, and they are not in any order. I did pretty good knocking out most of my 2010 goals. Here is my 2011 goal list scorecard, followed by my comments in red as to how I did. These are just the goals I felt comfortable sharing about:

Take Amber out every week! This is a goal EVERY week! Took her out almost every week. We love switching off every other week with our friends and sneaking in a mini lunch date every other week while Couper is in school!

Spend good, quality time with Couper every day. Some days it might be 10 minutes; others it could be 10 hours. I refuse to miss my son grow up. I spent a lot of time building stuff in the garage with my little Pard. Loved it!

Be more focused and work harder than I ever have in my life but also REST harder than I ever have! We worked HARD in 2011. I mean HARD. But we rested HARD too. I took 10 days off in the summer to celebrate our 10 year wedding anniversary. I took a week off to go to Montana. I had lots of guest speakers come in. It was a great year of hard work and hard rest!

Memorize an entire chapter of the Bible and mucho other Scripture. I memorized a lot of Scripture this year, but not an entire chapter of the Bible.

Read 20 books. I never reach my reading goals!

Continue to pray a LOT. My knees are sore.

Visit an orphanage in Haiti that I’d like to see Revolution adopt or a place in Belize that I am interested in. I want to begin the process of having a regular place for us to minister and pour in to. We are going global baby! I did not get to do this, but Amber did! And, we took our first step towards this by providing Christmas for over 300 orphans in 5 different orphanages in Haiti through C3 Global.

Take my wife on a crazy cool trip to celebrate our 10 year wedding anniversary! EPIC! Check! We hit Miami and the Keys for 10 days.

Send more personal, handwritten notes to people. Check. My handwriting has gotten better!

Lead our church to an average weekly attendance of 1,000 people…this goal has a HUGE sub-list of smaller goals. We did not average 1,000 people, but we saw TONS of people accept Christ and get baptized and the church doubled in size.

Lead our church to be financially strong. I feel like we are financially strong, but this goal is ALWAYS being worked!

Throw an OFF the HOOK one year Birthday party for Revolution! We had a blast at our one year birthday…balloons galore!

Knock out some more marathons and my first triathalon or bike race. Did lots of races, but no triathalons or biking.

Wakeboard more and / or save up to buy a dirtbike. I want to learn to JUMP like PASTRANA. I wakeboarded more, but did not save a penny for a dirtbike. I did get a cool X-games hat…

Get in the gym for weight training 3 days a week (only did 2 days a week in 2010). Check.

3 words: DAILY. DANCE. PARTY. Ashamed and happy to say, check!

Convince a total stranger to make a goal list of their own. Check. Fun. Happened at Starbucks.

Hang my hammock in the backyard and chill for once in my life. Well, I never hung up the hammock, so…

Start some new family traditions. Check.

Buy an old rusted pickup for Couper and I to work on and drive on man day. Fail. We gave more money than we ever thought we could to Revolution this year, especially for Illuminate, that the pickup went to the backburner. And we don’t regret it one bit.

Here is what I came up with: goals are nothing more than words. And a LOT of people set goals. I mean, anyone can SET a goal.

Accomplished goals, however, are a process…a set of steps. When I decide to accomplish something this is how I attack it. Maybe it will help you:

SET A GOAL: Establish a big hairy audacious goal.

LEARN: Be humble. Find people who have accomplished the same or similar goals and be willing to learn from them. Know-it-alls don’t accomplish anything. You need to learn all that you can about your goal to succeed.

PLAN: Plan out all incremental steps that it will take for you to accomplish your BHAG.

UNDERSTAND: Know what you are getting in to. Research it. Heed the warnings from the experts, but don’t dwell on negative info.

VISUALIZE: Hammer your plan into your brain repeatedly. You should know it like the back of your hand.

SACRIFICE: There aren’t any goals in life that don’t require you to make a sacrifice. Decide if you are willing to sacrifice to accomplish your goal. If you’re not, then don’t even start.

RALLY: Get some troops around you that will encourage you. Keep away from negative people.

PARTY: When you reach your goal, celebrate!

Get ready Revolution! Its time to get God’s BIGNESS into our hearts!

(Using an RSS Reader and can’t see the video? Click here for a direct video link)

As 2011 comes to a close, it’s time to finish the year well!  There are still 3 days left to make a major impact for God before 2012 begins. Here are few suggestions about finishing well:

Invite Someone to Church!

Can you think of a better way to celebrate than introducing someone to the gift of eternal life found in Jesus?  People are making resolutions and setting goals for 2012 right now and many are thinking about getting back in church. Grab some invite cards when you are at church on Sunday and BE A BRANGER by inviting people!  I encourage you to identify at least one person right now that you can pray for and invite to join you for worship all through 2012. It might change his/her life forever!

Give Generously!

There are a number reasons to give generously during these last 3 days of 2011.  First, we are close to reaching our goal for “The Gift” our special Christmas offering. We set a goal of $30,000 and have brought in $28,200. That is incredible!

Your gift could put us over-the-top. Second, Christmas is Jesus’ birthday, not our birthday. There might not be a better way to say, “Happy Birthday, Jesus” than by giving to Jesus’ body, the church.

Also, you have 3 days left to receive tax credit for 2011. All gifts must be received at the church office before January 1, 2012 or post-marked by December 31, 2011 for the contribution to show up on your 2011 charitable contribution statement.

The best way to give is by visiting our website. Go to RevYourLife.com/GIVE to make your online donation.  It’s fast and simple, and it makes a big difference.

God bless and I can’t wait to see what God has in store for us all in 2012!

If you have not heard about The Gift yet, you can click here to read full details and even download a PDF with additional information. Many people have already given to this initiative. I LOVE how God is BLOWING IT UP at REVOLUTION CHURCH!

Here on the blog, I wanted to share my heart with you.

The Gift isn’t about warm fuzzy feelings. Its not about our church having nicer things or extra cash. Its not about more worship space or even planting new churches.

The Gift is all about JESUS. Its about our mission to Love God, Love People and Start a Spiritual Revolution in one life at a time all over the world!

At Revolution Church we are passionate about the Gospel, and while there are lots of great causes (especially at Christmas time), we make no bones about our belief that the local church is of the utmost importance. The local church is where spiritual revolutions start and eternities are changed. Its the only place you can make an investment that will last forever.

So why would we have a special offering and call it The Gift? Why would we set a goal of $30,000 and end 2011 with a bang of generosity?

Because it revolutionizes our lives and the lives of people around us when we jump out in faith and go for it!

Our hearts and money are connected. Jesus said that whatever we choose to treasure will also be where our heart is. Read Matthew 6:21. Give big to The Gift this Sunday, Revolution Church.

In preparation, I challenge you to read through 2 Corinthians 9 this week.
Pray and Ask God, “What would you have me give this Sunday?”

And then GO FOR IT. And remember: When God speaks, He always challenges you because He knows who you really are and that you are better than you think you are.

When you do this, God will grow your faith. Your vision gets stretched and you grow spiritually!

If you won’t be around this Sunday don’t worry. You can give online now by clicking here or you can give to The Gift anytime before December 31st at midnight.

Don’t forget to bring your envelope for The Gift this Sunday, December 18th (we will have plenty extra if you do) and I’ll see ya then!

It IS possible to buy all of your Christmas gifts without incurring any debt. Here is how we roll at the White House:

1. We save money for Christmas throughout the year. This is very simple. Add up how much you think you will need for Christmas (do this for 2012 NOW) and then divide by 12. Put that much in savings each month. Trust me. It is the most refreshing thing to get to the holiday season and already have everything you need in your savings account!
2. In late October, we prepare a Christmas budget that guides how we spend EVERY PENNY of the money we have saved all year. We use Joe Sangl’s free Mini-Budget Tool. We include everything on this budget. It has stuff on it like:
   • food for Christmas parties
   • gas to travel over the holidays
   • gifts for each person we will buy for
   • Christmas cards and postage
   • Money we save for any special opportunities to be generous over the holidays
3. Balance your Christmas budget to EXACTLY ZERO. Spend every penny on paper BEFORE you go out and start buying stuff.
4. Finally, the MOST IMPORTANT way to stay out of holiday debt is to actually USE the budget! Spend according to how you have planned!

Its simple…go for it!

Each day this week on the blog, you will find great financial tools, videos, etc to help you kick start the changes that you want to make when it comes to your money.

Today: DO SOMETHING DRASTIC

If what you are currently doing with your finances is not working and you want to see your finances flipped around, you may have to do some drastic things.

Real change never comes easy. If it did, we’d all be millionaires!

We all develop bad habits with our money over time. Obviously, I can’t take the time to speak to every bad habit. But I can say this: Your money problems are your fault and it’s only through self-decipline in handling money matters that you can achieve financial peace. It doesn’t matter how great of a system you have or how many steps you take – you can only flip your finances if you change your behavior in regards to money.

Do something drastic. Cancel your cable. Ditch the cell phone or get a cheaper plan. Stop eating out so much. Cut up your credit cards and swear off debt forever! Identify your bad habits and then take them out!

Let me pick on one particular bad habit we have in America as an example: new cars.

Stop buying new cars. How many times have you heard or said, “I’ll always have a car payment”? That’s the normal way of thinking. But normal people today are BROKE. I want to be WEIRD! To get new results, you have to try new things. Several years back, Amber and I decided to sell our cars and buy cheaper, used cars. And that’s what we’ve done ever since. Did you know that if you took the average car payment of $475 that Americans have today and invested it every month over 40 years, you would retire with over 5 million dollars. I LOVE CARS…but I can’t think of any car that I would pay 5 million dollars for.

Each day this week on the blog, you will find great financial tools, videos, etc to help you kick start the changes that you want to make when it comes to your money.

Today: THE “B” WORD – BUDGET.

I used to be scared of the “B” word. But then I learned that a budget is really just a PLAN. When you budget, you’re spending on paper and on purpose, before the month begins. Many people view a budget as a straight jacket that keeps them constrained. But that is just not true. A budget allows you to spend your money intentionally.

And best of all, when you do it and stick with it, you’ll actually experience more freedom than before. My family actually found more money once we got on our budget and stuck with it!

These tools are incredible and come from the man that straightened out my finances: Dave Ramsey.

First, I would encourage anyone out there that feels like they are losing with their money to take Dave’s 13 week “Financial Peace University” course. This guy is the real deal. He has helped hundreds of thousands of people pay off their debt, live generously and invest wisely!

One of the first steps I shared on Sunday that we have to take in order to flip our finances is a seemingly simple task: MAKE A BUDGET. Here are some simple budgeting tools with instructions for you to download in PDF form.

• Here is a sample “quickie budget” you can use. This is a great way to get a quick start! Or if you are a tech geek, you can use Dave’s new online tool here.
• Here is a sample “monthly cash flow” plan. This is the one we run the finances with in our home.
• And last, if you have “irregular income” then this one is for you. If your income varies greatly from month to month, don’t buy into the lie that you can’t budget. YOU CAN.

Here are some pointers once you get cracking on your budget:

• Give it three to four months to start working. It won’t be perfect the first time you do it.
• Spend every dime on paper before the month begins.
• Over-fund your groceries category. Most people underfund that category.
• If married, spouses need to do the budget together. The preacher said “… and you are ONE.”

GO MAKE A BUDGET. GET TO FLIPPIN’!!!

I’ll see ya tomorrow!

Most people are paid to ensure that everything is in its place. Sure, there are random events called problems that pop up that we deal with; but most people try to extinguish these things as soon as possible.

I see my job as the opposite. My job is to create a ruckus, to insert the random, to yell ‘fire’ and to shake things up spiritually.

Its actually a little more “tame” than I am making it out to be when it comes to leading the entire church. I think the greatest pastors are good at dancing with chaos, not creating it necessarily (though sometimes they do).

When the random ruckus of life hits, pastors and leaders have to take it, sort through it, leverage it and then improvise to make something great out of it.

My life goal has nothing to do with everything being “alright.” I want to cause a ruckus and shake things up just enough that you experience a spiritual revolution and come out on the other side looking more like Jesus.

And as a leader, I want to dance with the chaos that life will bring. I want to mix up the Rubik’s Cubes of life!

If you had encouraged me to take a 10 day vacation like the one I am on right now a few years back I would have laughed at you…with very tired eyes, a low moral and little passion for ministry…

But now I understand. The idea that so many pastors have that says “I can’t take a week off from preaching. My church depends on me and would not survive without me…and my people won’t show up if I’m not there” is NOTHING but a LIE that satan uses.

Revolution, thank you for being a church that get’s this simple concept…a church is not effective when the pastor ministers to the people but rather when the body ministers to the body! If the church is a one man show, all about a pastor, then Jesus isn’t the one man and we have a problem!

Pastoral leadership matters a ton and I do believe that God has called me to be the main communicator at Revolution Church. But I’m in this thing for the LONG HAUL and that requires that I take some time off to re-charge, renew and reconnect!

AND…for the pastor out there thinking he can’t possibly take any time off…bro…you’re wrong.  Stop and catch your breath. You will benefit. Your marriage will benefit. Your kids will benefit. And your church will benefit.

The church was here 2,000 years before you and I were…and it will be here long after you and I are gone.

They said, “Zak, what goals do you have as a leader?”

More than anything, I want to HEAR.

I want to hear from God.

I want to clearly hear His plans and His agenda. And then, go for it with everything that I have inside of me.

I love the response of the prophets in the Old Testament. Read through the stories.

They would hear from God and then go and do what He told them.

They didn’t care who they offended or even if they had to put their life on the line.

I want to follow the leadership of Jesus in my life with that same passion, energy and ambition.

I want to go for His goals, not mine.

In 6th grade, I started writing out my life goals list. Each year, I make adjustments and go for it.

I think goals are important for everyone. I just refuse to drift through life. Most people spend more time planning a 3 day summer vacation than they do planning their life out.

I think that’s a tragedy.

These are not resolutions. Resolutions stink. These are GOALS. These are not all of my 2011 goals, I am not including all of the details, and they are not in any order. I did pretty good knocking out most of my 2010 goals. Here is my 2011 list:

• Take Amber out every week! This is a goal EVERY week!
• Spend good, quality time with Couper every day. Some days it might be 10 minutes; others it could be 10 hours. I refuse to miss my son grow up.
• Be more focused and work harder than I ever have in my life but also REST harder than I ever have!
• Memorize an entire chapter of the Bible and mucho other Scripture.
• Read 20 books.
• Continue to pray a LOT.
• Visit an orphanage in Haiti that I’d like to see Revolution adopt or a place in Belize that I am interested in. I want to begin the process of having a regular place for us to minister and pour in to. We are going global baby!
• Take my wife on a crazy cool trip to celebrate our 10 year wedding anniversary! EPIC! Got any suggestions?
• Send more personal, handwritten notes to people.
• Lead our church to an average weekly attendance of 1,000 people…this goal has a HUGE sub-list of smaller goals.
• Lead our church to be financially strong.
• Throw an OFF the HOOK one year Birthday party for Revolution! Who wants to help?
• Knock out some more marathons and my first triathalon or bike race.
• Wakeboard more and / or save up to buy a dirtbike. I want to learn to JUMP like PASTRANA.
• Get in the gym for weight training 3 days a week (only did 2 days a week in 2010).
• 3 words: DAILY. DANCE. PARTY.
• Convince a total stranger to make a goal list of their own.
• Hang my hammock in the backyard and chill for once in my life.
• Start some new family traditions.
• Buy an old rusted pickup for Couper and I to work on and drive on man day.

Here is what I came up with: goals are nothing more than words. And a LOT of people set goals. I mean, anyone can SET a goal.

Accomplished goals, however, are a process…a set of steps. When I decide to accomplish something this is how I attack it. Maybe it will help you:

SET A GOAL: Establish a big hairy audacious goal.

PLAN: Plan out all incremental steps that it will take for you to accomplish your BHAG.

LEARN: Be humble. Find people who have accomplished the same or similar goals and be willing to learn from them. Know-it-alls don’t accomplish anything.

UNDERSTAND: Know what you are getting in to. Research it. Heed the warnings from the experts, but don’t dwell on negative info.

VISUALIZE: Hammer your plan into your brain repeatedly. You should know it like the back of your hand.

SACRIFICE: There aren’t any goals in life that don’t require you to make a sacrifice. Decide if you are willing to sacrifice to accomplish your goal. If you’re not, then don’t even start.

RALLY: Get some troops around you that will encourage you. Keep away from negative people.

PARTY: When you reach your goal, celebrate!