Three winning wise moves

Do you ever have those moments when you take a deep breath, step back from life, and stare bewildering at all the spinning plates that represent “things to do?” I find myself doing that frequently, and I was recently helped with a focus question to stop and choose three plates.

If you are running back and forth, keeping plates spinning in your life, this post will be a help to you. Some plates need to be allowed to fall. Choosing three – today – will help you move from overwhelm to overcoming.

This past winter, my church leadership team hired an executive coach to meet with our church staff, as a group and individually. It was an encouraging learning exercise for us all. We’ve been in a season of unprecedented church growth, and personally, I needed all the help I could get. I want to grow. Much of what my coach (also named Jeff) challenged me about was embracing tasks and functions appropriate to my role and scope as a leader.

As our church has grown, I still had my fingers in lots of pies. I had become a roadblock in some ways to other’s growth. When I “just took care of it,” it meant that others didn’t get to experience the opportunity to lead. I prevented them from learning through success and failure.

In one of our conversations, I was encouraged to identify “three winning wise moves.” With all the plates spinning and the pies with my fingers in them, I needed to focus and choose.

What are your three winning wise moves?

This challenge embraced the well known communication principle of The Rule of Three. Ideas, concepts, or items presented in threes are more satisfying, memorable, and persuasive than any other number. ¹ By encouraging me to think about only three decisions, it simplified and narrowed my focus to consider what three key decisions would advance ministry, move me from inertia and clear cloudiness.

I know that three was an arbitrary number, but when combined with biblical counsel, it gave me much food for thought and prepared me to move from being frozen by indecision due to the plethora of spinning plates that mocked me on my priority list and calendar.

“Now if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God—who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly—and it will be given to him.” (James 1:5)

So here’s a sample worksheet that I had ChatGPT whip up for me:

What about you?

Maybe you’re facing a heap of competing priorities, tasks and needs right now. It’s like a room full of yipping chihuahuas. The sheer amount of things that need to get done overwhelms you. Rather than being discouraged and retreating into mindless doomscrolling to avoid responsibility, identify your three winning wise moves.

1. Identify three spinning plates.
2. Choose an action can you take to address the issue, problem, project on that plate. It needs to be a tangible action, and only something that will advance the solution/resolution. (Schedule a meeting. Send an email.) ²
3. Make sure each action/decision you make is:
   1. Wise (godly, thoughtful)
   2. Winning (effective, fruitful)

This really simple activity helped me cut through the “cloudiness” that was slowing ministry momentum and also hindering productivity because I was frozen by indecision.

One thing I’ve also learned over the years is that some spinning plates are best left alone, even if they fall of their pole and break. An item gets put on a pole and spun, to hopefully stay there for a bit by sheer centrifugal force, but a better process is needed to determine whether it should have been elevated on a pole to begin with. Not every plate that I keep spinning is worthy of my attention or effort.

Now it’s your turn. What are your “three winning wise moves?

1. A great book to read on this concept of advancing tasks is What’s Best Next? How the Gospel Transforms the Way You Get Things Done.[↩]
2. A great book to read on this concept of advancing tasks is What’s Best Next? How the Gospel Transforms the Way You Get Things Done.

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