Christine’s PowerSheets – May’s Progress

Our goal for this community is to create a safe place for PowerSheets users to share their intentional goal-setting journeys. We’re honored to have our Blog Contributor, Christine Dore, share about her May PowerSheets progress. Thank you, Christine, for taking the time to share your story with us! If you haven’t yet, be sure to read Christine’s introduction here. – Laura

I am terrified of my goals. Whew. There, I said it. It’s not something that is easy to admit: being afraid of what you want. I have an unfortunate tendency to procrastinate from the things that really matter. I get bogged down by being overwhelmed by all there is to do, or feeling like I’m not good enough or smart enough or creative enough or whatever enough. So, I put it off. If I don’t do anything about my dreams, then I won’t fail because I wasn’t capable, right?

That little niggling fear and habit of setting aside my dreams in favor of what’s comfortable—my 9-to-5 job that pays the bills though I don’t agree with the office policies, my Boston address where I’ve built lasting friendships and found my husband but never really feels like home, being sedentary after a long day and commute is why I have fallen top over tea kettle for the Goal Action Ideas pages in my PowerSheets. They don’t let me fall into the putting-off trap. Right there, on paper, in front of my face, I write down every reason why each of my goals is worth it. Why I am worth the effort.

One big, scary, put-myself-out-there-to-change-my-life goal surrounded by encouragement, reminders, and six pretty, purple totally-do-able action goals.

These pages help me overcome my procrastination by reminding me why each goal is important. They also help break each big goal into little, bite-sized goals that I can further break down into little goal nibbles each month in my Tending List. Launching my freelance business or applying to my dream grad school program are amazing goals but they’re also incredibly daunting. Reaching out to friends and family asking for prayers and potential client leads? Not so scary. I can totally email my Aunt Lynne or my maid of honor Ange or if I’m really feeling nervous my parents to ask for their guidance. Those little emails, I won’t put off. Those actions will also boost my confidence enough to try reaching out a little further to contacts on LinkedIn next month, or one of my favorite creatives via Instagram. I’m willing to bet those bite-sized actions will shepherd plenty of advice and prayers and leads to keep me going and growing.

“Bite-sized isn’t intimidating! I also leave room in my tending lists to add to as the month goes on, or to give myself a break if it’s a particularly busy month (like this one for me; I got married this month!).

When I get stuck or feel myself starting to put things off because I’m nervous, I go back to my Goal Action Ideas pages. Seeing how my monthly progress on concrete action steps in my Tending Lists adds up to my big goals and dreams keeps me motivated. Seeing everything I’ve crossed off the list pushes me even further.

It’s good that my dreams scare me. Andrew van der Bijl once said “If your vision doesn’t scare you, then both your vision and your God are too small. Everything is possible with God. If you find yourself feeling like your dreams aren’t possible, or you aren’t worth them, you aren’t giving God credit for all He’s capable of and all He’s created you for. If our dreams didn’t scare us, or make us nervous, or feel big, then they wouldn’t be worth it. We were created to do big, beautiful things. It’s ok to be afraid of your dreams; you certainly aren’t alone in that! But let’s not let the fear keep us from trying. Let’s take our time, break down those big, scary dreams into totally-not- scary monthly goal nibbles and we will do this together—one little bite at time.