2017 Powersheet Goals Recap

Who else loves to geek out over reflecting on the past year and planning for a fresh new year? If thats you, then you came to the right place :)

This is Val & ‘s 3rd year of our annual goal planning series and first up is a recap of last years goals! If you’ve been here before you know that I use the Cultivate What Matters power sheets for goal planning and absolutely love it. I started using them about 4 years ago and I cannot tell you the difference this has made in my life. My husband laughs when I tell him I used to be kinda lazy (🙈), cause all he has ever known is my more goal oriented self. Lol. That is all thanks to the power sheets!

So today I’m sharing how I did on my goals and what I learned from pursuing that goal and how it was met (or not met).

1. Treat My Business as a Business

Since launching the Wholeheartedly Devotional, I have had a very relaxed attitude about the business side of things. I haven’t focused on making a profit and found my self doing things that might make a business coach cringe (aka giving away too many or discounting too much). My desire is for this little shop to grow into a full time job for me. Never before have I had a job that I loved so much or that felt like not working at all, until now. :) It is hard just working on it in the mornings and the weekends because and I find myself wishing I was doing this during the day! I know to get to that point, I really need to invest in this little business so that it can grow to one day be more than just a hobby or a side hustle. In the new year I plan to invest in business courses and tools that will help me to grow my shop into everything that God has in store.

 

DID I DO IT?
Yes, for the most part!
I have invested in education, taken one day off from my day job day to work, taken bigger risks, and joined a mastermind with some seriously awesome ladies! And starting next week I will take one more day off a week from my day job to pursue my dream, so I will have 2 full days during the week to crush it.

WHAT DID I LEARN?
These past few months I have been praying for direction with this and God is showing me so much. He is speaking more and more to me on this and having so much communication with Him is the sweetest thing to my soul. I’ve learned (once again :) ) that uncertainty brings us to a place of dependence on Him that fosters so much intimacy and I am grateful for all the questions and the unknowns.


2. Enjoy & Celebrate our Marriage

Josh and I will be married 1 year on April 8th and I want us to celebrate and enjoy each others company! My goal is that we would each be the “easy part of life” for the other. That whatever stresses may come, we will be the easiest, most refreshing part.

DID I DO IT?
Yes! This past year was fun and easy and a breathe of fresh air. We went to Barbados for our 1 year, went to the Woodlands to see Need to Breathe, had tons of date nights and laughed a lot. This year was meant to be focused on enjoying each other and continuing to build a foundation and I feel like we really did that.

WHAT DID I LEARN?
Another lesson re-learned :) To make the most of the season your in. Circumstances could change when we least expect it, so it is so important to make the most of the season we are in and may never get a chance to be in again!
Letting the small things go makes for

Holding offense is a self-made prison. Letting the small things go is a gift to you and the other person, and makes for a much easier life. (The Bait of Satan by John Bevere taught me so much!)

Marriage is a cycle and a rhythm. If you see it start to go sideways, it usually just takes one person to decide to serve the other person to get it back on track and into the good cycle.


3. Write & Launch 2 Devotionals

This was on my list last year, and I didn’t even get close so I am really hoping to get the next 2 devotionals out this year. It’s not that the writing takes long, its more that its hard to get started. Doubt creeps in and makes you think your not ready or need to do more research. But I’m happy to say I started the next one about a month ago so it IS coming.

DID I DO IT?
Nope!

WHAT DID I LEARN?
This goal got a little derailed when God put it on my heart to create the Devoted Life, prompted journal for singles. This was not even in my head until around August, but it has been one of those things that make me grateful that I am not “in charge”, but that God is. It has been so fun to put out there and I am seeing the Lord work in many ways through it. It is so encouraging to continue to surrender my business and yield those decisions to Him!

But these devotionals will be on my goals for this year. Did you get to see what the next devo will be?  What did you think!?


4. Cultivate a Life of Awe & Worship of God

After reading the book AWE by Paul David Tripp, I have been awakened to the importance of just sitting in awe, reverence, and worship of the Lord. My relationship with the Lord is so unique, in that, while we can share a close relationship with Him, He is also so majestic, powerful, and almighty. I don’t ever want to be too comfortable and forget that. I want to sit in His presence and attempt to recognize how remarkable it is that I get to experience Him.

DID I DO IT?
This happened, but in a really different way than I expected. It happened less through nature and worship and stillness like I thought it would and more like action and following His plan.

WHAT DID I LEARN?
As I surrendered my business, heard His direction, and obeyed, I saw the Lord working in ways that only He can and it brought a stronger sense of awe and worship to my life!


5. Grow a People First Business

My first goal for this business is that it will always be centered around people. Specifically the women who read my devotionals, who I connect with online, and the people I interact with on the business end. I want their hearts to always be the motivation for the decisions I make and the content that I put out. I never want to get so wrapped up in business end that I push out the important stuff.

DID I DO IT?
Yes, and again this happened in a much different way than I thought! I thought it would be through mass content that I produced or community I would build, but this year it has been smaller and more one-on-one.

WHAT DID I LEARN?
Serve the person in front of you and let God work on the multiplication part. God showed me this through really cool experience that happened a few weeks ago that I plan to share more about soon! And while this was going on, the message was reinforced through a video class from Michelle Myers and she works His way (an amazing resource for Christian women in business)!


6. Make the Effort to be Styled & Polished

I won’t claim to have ever been a terribly stylish or put together person, but over the last year or so I have gotten even more lazy about it. My current style consists of asking “What’s the least I can get away with?”. “Do I really need to wear heels?” “Can my hair last a few more days with dry shampoo?”  You get the idea. I know there will come a day (probably with kids) when I might not have the time or energy I have now to spend on making myself look and feel nice, so I would like to figure out a way to be more polished and stylish now, cause it would probably be harder later!

DID I DO IT?
Ehhh… not really!

WHAT DID I LEARN?
I would still love to develop a “work uniform”, keep my nails painted, and wash my hair more often, but what I discovered with this goal was that it wasn’t the most important thing to me, so I never really created action steps or gave it priority. And thats ok! There are some things that we can want to do, but they may not be the things that will be truly life-giving and it seems like we end of wedding those things out naturally. It reminds me of Simon Sinek’s concept of “your why” and that you need to have a strong “why” to propel action.


7. Surrender My Business & Future Daily

The truth is that this little business of mine is really all His. My name is on it, but I am a servant and a steward. I want to make it a point everyday to surrender my business to Him, so that I can have a moment everyday where I acknowledge that this is not on my terms, but it should always be on His terms.

 

DID I DO IT?
Not daily, but regularly and very often!

WHAT DID I LEARN?
It is soooo exciting to be walking in the purpose God has for you and to let Him guide the next steps! Literally every week, I feel like I’m brought to tears over seeing Him work, as I choose to surrender and obey. The Lord has these ginormous plans and this great adventure and I feel silly that I’d ever think that me being in control could ever possibly match up!


8. Develop a Big Picture Game Plan for our Finances

Confession time… dealing with finances in a marriage is tough! Lol! Josh and I have 2 opposite personalities when it comes to spending & saving. I want us to take the next year coming up with a game plan TOGETHER so that our goals are really OUR goals and not just mine or just his. I also want to get focused & make it a habit to choose future gains instead of present pleasures.

DID I DO IT?
Not so much, but I’m seeing some progress. We did meet with a financial planner and get life insurance so thats good, but I’ve kind of avoided looking at finances the past 4-5 months, so I know thats not good!

WHAT DID I LEARN?
I’m trying to figure out the balance between letting my husband lead the finances and being as strict on the budget as I would like.  We tithe, but just yesterday Josh told me he wanted to

So I’m seeing it more as a heart thing than a discipline thing. The roots are probably where I need to focus instead of the habits.


9. Practice Steadiness

If you read this post, you know that steady is my word for the year. I really feel like so much can be gained from a steady life and a big aspect of steadiness,I believe, will be to create good routines.

DID I DO IT?
Yes I think so. I have developed some good routines and learned to be more steady in my emotions. (The Bait of Satan also helped in this area!)

WHAT DID I LEARN?
When Lara Casey says progress is made “Little by little” it isn’t just a cute phrase to make you feel better. It is truly the way we build a pattern for a more beautiful and well lived life.


10. Seek the “Illumination of the Holy Spirit” & Draw on the “Power of the Holy Spirit”.

As I was reading The Pursuit of Man the other day by A.W. Tozer he spoke about these 2 concepts in a way that made me never want to miss out them. Illumination of the Holy Spirit, the way he described it, is the act of the Holy Spirit opening our eyes to the truth, whether it be as we read the Bible, pray, or just go throughout our day. By having the Holy Spirit we have been given the ability the grasp things that are outside of our earthly understanding. The Power of the Holy Spirit is just what it says. We have been given this holy power to do (& be, & understand, etc.) more than we could ever on our own, but often times we choose to refuse this power and we do things alone. I don’t want to do that.

DID I DO IT?
Yes, for the most part. I didn’t do it every time I sat down to read or pray, but it definitely became more of a habit!

WHAT DID I LEARN?
From pursing this goal I learned that I wanted to invited the Holy Spirit into EVERY part of my day. SO since then, I have begun something I am calling “Pray Before”. Spoiler Alert: It is one of my goals for this year and I will be doing a blog post soon and go into more details, so you can do it too if you want!


If you were inspired by some of these gals and want to see what some of my action steps were, check out the full post from last year here.

And be sure to check out my sister, Vals series for more inspiration!

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