Jon McClarnon

A few years back my boss had a little exercise he wanted everyone to complete on a monthly basis. The 6 R’s. R stands for Result Producing Activities. So, every month we wrote out and handed in a list of 6 things we were working on, as well as providing an evaluation of how last months 6 R’s and the result.

As an example, here’s how one of my months as youth pastor would have looked:
- Plan and execute a retreat for middle school students
- Eat lunch at two different schools every week
- Launch a new small group study for high school students
- Recruit 2 additional adults to join the youth team
- I always included whatever preparation I had for teaching
- I always included something I was reading

I’ll say that as much as I hated doing the exercise, it was a good practice to remind me of being intentional about what I do so that I get the results that I really desire.

On the flip side – I found it easier to make a list of Result Reducing behaviors for the month. Rather than go back in time on this one…let’s make it current.
- Facebook and Twitter – both are great ways to connect with people and share information…but it’s very easy to get stuck over-connecting and knowing worthless information about what time people are going to bed and who needs what to have a better district on the Frontier.

- I can’t sit still for more than one hour straight. Rather than walking outside for 5 minutes I find myself wanting to drive around town in the name of something “good”. “Don’t we need some new batteries for the wireless microphone? I better compare shop between WalMart and Target too.”

- YouTube and other Video Watching. Sometimes in the name of sermon research you have to do this…but then it just goes from there. And then I can’t figure out how I ended up watching Jim Gaffigan talk about Hot Pockets.

- Disc Golf. This is a recent addition to my sports menu. You don’t need tons of skill or a lot of equipment. Usually it’s Trevor talking me into a “quick round” and because there’s not a course in Garner (yet, I’m campaigning soon to join the Parks and Rec board) it ends up being a big endeavor. Now we have to work in lunch too.

- Parks and Rec. I will not comment while I’m lobbying for a Board position. Still waiting on an answer to a question from June 21st.

- I could go on…but this blog post is quickly becoming “Result Reducing”. I will get back to work and doing things that help me achieve something!