I have mentioned KRAs (Key Result Areas) before in this blog, and they have been a huge help for me this past year to stay on target with my goals and needed areas of growth. However, one thing I have not mentioned as much is probably one of the most important aspects of the KRA process – the personal retreat day I do each month.

It is simply a day that I take each month to quiet my soul, not answer the phone, not answer e-mail, not do tasks around the office, not do tasks around the house – but just temporarily ignore the busyness around me and spend time with God, prayerfully re-analyzing my life priorities – where I see God taking me, who He’s calling me to be, and what areas of my life I need to grow in, change, and nurture.

It’s like a life realigning every month, and I just did it today. I had mistakenly skipped last month’s personal retreat day in the midst of all the busyness, and that was definitely a mistake.

It’s hard to even describe the degree to which this focused time each month can cut through the chaos of life, and bring me back to the big picture. It removes the clutter so that I can see the blueprints on the table again, and remember what it was all about in the first place.

I highly recommend doing this. I’m blessed that personal retreat days are built into my schedule at work – but even if I wasn’t allotted the time, I’d still carve out the time for them. They’re that important. I just drift too much, and so if I don’t take focused time to pull myself back on the right track, I wind up going on so many pointless tangents. Not good.

If any of this strikes a chord with you, feel free to ask me more about it. I’m a big advocate of this, and would highly recommend it. Today was the greatest testimony to that. I feel so refreshed, refocused, and ready to press on again.