3 Big Questions...Question #2

Like I wrote before, I started writing about this book back in late February! I wrote about Patrick Lencioni's book 3 Big Questions for a Frantic Family. My mom also wrote about this book on her blog and got to each section (the 3 questions) much faster than I did. Here are all of her links and mine if interested.

My overview
My Question #1

My mom's overview
Her Question #1
Her Question #2 (which I'll be addressing today)

So, the first question was all about what makes your family unique.
The second question is what your "rally cry" is right now...basically, what is your current top priority?

This is something that can be accomplished within 2-6 months. Lencioni (the author) says that if it is less than 2 months, it will not be enough time and you won't see progress. If it is longer than 6 months you may end up just putting it off since you "have time".

Also, he talks about the importance of having one goal at a time. Obviously there are a lot of things that you won't stop doing while pursuing this goal. Those are your non-negotiables and things that have to get done (going to work, making meals, taking care of your family :)). But, what is the top priority right now? For most people, I think this comes to the forefront fairly quickly.

It's nice to have a good time frame. For us, doing this in January/early February, we said that our time line will be before we head out for the summer. So, from then till the end of May (a solid 4 months).

Our rally cry is/was (we are just about to the end) to save as much money as possible till the end of May. We set a specific dollar amount that we felt would take intensity to reach, but was also doable.

After you've created your "rally cry" then "define objectives". This simply entails writing out what you will do to achieve your goal.

So, our goal was to have $____ in the bank by the end of May. We wanted to work as much and as hard as possible without compromising peace and simplicity in our home.

To accomplish that goal we would

• Spend as little money as possible - stick to a tight budget
• I added 2 nights of work to the 1 night a week I was already serving at a restaurant (totalling 3 nights)
  
• Clint would continue to be with Evee while I worked extra hours - so we just had to be smart about getting our other things done (Clint's school work and his job, my other job as well as online stuff)
  
• Take any additional opportunity that may come along that wouldn't jeopordize peace in our home. (One did come up soon after we set these goals - for me to watch a little girl at our house 2 mornings a week).
  

We also were able to go through Dave Ramsey's "Financial Peace University " through our church. This ended up being a wonderful added resource for us and helped keep us accountable to saving up money.

So, I'll finish by saying that it's going really well, but I'll wait and talk more about it all when I share about question #3.