Catholic tradition sets aside the 40 days prior to Easter as a period of prayer, penance, and repentance. I typically head into Lent like most Catholics do, having chosen a couple of sacrifices that will fulfil my obligations and remind me of the reason for the season.
This year I chose to do something different.
I applied lessons I’ve learned through my business experience to Lent. Instead of giving up coffee, dessert, or some other nicety, I challenged myself to strategically define Lenten sacrifice to ensure that it had a real impact on my life.
Here are a few tips that may help make your Lent a little more powerful.
Solicit Feedback
In business, I start every planning effort by listening to others. If it’s annual planning, I am deliberate about meeting with clients, employees, and third parties. I want to hear what people say about the business. I want to have an open mind. It’s silly to build a plan in a vacuum.
In my spiritual life, it’s important to do the same. Spend time in prayer asking God to enlighten your mind and give you insights into your life that you may not have. Talk to your spouse. Do you have a spiritual director or accountability partner? Talk to them about how you’re doing. In all cases, be truly open to the feedback you receive.
Analyze the Current State
In business, I am deliberate about making sense of the feedback I receive. After being out in the market, I typically sit our leadership team down together to perform a SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats).
By identifying the current state of both the business (Strengths and Weaknesses) and the market (Opportunities and Threats), I am more prepared for the actual planning exercise. I double down on my strengths, resolve the most glaring and impactful weaknesses, and look to take advantage of opportunities while mitigating the risks.
Why doesn’t it make sense to do the same thing in my personal life? It does! By having my strengths and weaknesses at the forefront of my mind and knowing both the opportunities and challenges that I am going to encounter over the next years, I am able to plan my Lent more strategically to ensure that my penitential sacrifices actually propel me forward towards the man I want to be.
Define Success
Before you get tactical, get strategic. Choose a handful of strengths you want to double down on or weaknesses you want to improve. In doing so, consider the opportunities and threats that might have the biggest impact on your life. From these, define the outcomes you’re looking for and a path for getting there.
What does success look like? What is the best approach for getting from your current state to that ultimate outcome? Chart your course.
Perhaps you feel as though it would be beneficial to enhance your prayer life.
What does that look like? Are you looking to develop a healthy habit of daily prayer? Perhaps you want to integrate your prayer life more fully into the everyday aspects of your life. Or maybe you are looking to deepen the quality of your Mass attendance.
All of these can lead to an enhanced prayer life, but, you need to define which approach would be best for you and aligns with your success metrics.
Set the Plan
Tactics should always fallout from the strategy. Once you define the strategy, define the tactics. This is where you finally get to the point of developing the specific actions that you will take. Just as in business, the purpose is to propel you forward in your strategy, not to do things for their own sake.
In other words, don’t be afraid to throw out the old standbys – giving up chocolate is great, if you’re working on generosity and have chosen self-denial as your strategy. But it might not help much if you’re working on developing your prayer life.
Be strategic and think outside of the box. Taking the time to plan your Lent will lead to a productive Lent rather than a Lent that simply checks the box.
I have been thinking a great deal about my experience at Reconciliation this past Saturday. I felt an intense and unexplainable urge to go and confess my sins when I woke up that morning. I try to go every six weeks or so, but this was no routine visit to the priest for me. I needed to unburden myself of the numerous venial sins I had committed since I last participated in this Sacrament.
Purest Gold: God's Refining Fire in our Lives »
After salvation, many young Christians wonder if there's anything more to their newfound faith than just the security blanket of "being a Christian." Time and time again, God shows himself as a "refiner," and our lives are as gold. God started leading me in this study to understand what He was doing in my life, as well as in the lives of others.
Picking up my pen to write this column, I couldn’t imagine how time flies. Since the last publication of this column I have gone through a lot, especially the loss of my dear mother to whom I dedicate this article. Not only her, but seems I lost a whole generation of my close family.
How to Achieve Business Excellence »
“Do you see a man who excels in his work? He will stand before Kings; He will not stand before unknown men.” Proverbs 22:29
Spiritual Development for our Youth »
Most of us youth in today's fast moving world are easily thrown off by difficulties and worries.
The theme of conversion is a thread that runs all through Lent, but conversion takes on different aspects throughout the phases of Lent. The first two and a half weeks focused on the interior turning of hearts; the liturgy urges the faithful to reflect and examine consciences thoroughly.
Saint Josephine Bakhita »
Feast Day: February 8
Patron Saint Of: Sudan
Saint Josephine Margaret Bakhita was born around 1869 in the village of Olgossa in the Darfur region of Sudan. She was a member of the Daju people and her uncle was a tribal chief. Due to her family lineage, she grew up happy and relatively prosperous, saying that as a child, she did not know suffering.
Catholics Must Fast More Intensely This Lent»
The Norbertine Canons of St. Michael's Abbey have created this digital Lenten retreat so that you can journey through this holy season alongside them. If you want to have one of your best Lenten seasons yet, join us in our Lenten Program "The Great Fast" - https://theabbotscircle.com/the-great-fast-join
When Your Faith Is Put to the Test - Bishop Barron's Sunday Sermon»
Friends, we come now to the Second Sunday of Lent, and we’re on both dangerous and very holy ground with the first reading from the twenty-second chapter of Genesis. The ancient Israelites referred to it as the “Akedah,” which means the “binding”: Abraham binds and is ready to sacrifice Isaac at God’s command.
Copyright © 2002-2024 THE BEACON INTERNATIONAL CATHOLIC MAGAZINE. All rights reserved.
another mc.rufus interactive web design