Celebrating Six Months of PowerSheets Wins!

As goal setters, we spend so much time looking forward: to a big-picture vision for our life, to our goals, and even to our plans for the month, week, or day ahead. It’s equally important, though, to pause and celebrate what we've already accomplished: if you're only looking ahead, it's easy to get discouraged. If we don't feel like our efforts are adding up, we won't be motivated to continue them. If we DO notice them adding up, we'll be motivated to do MORE of them! The parts of our life we're proud of are way more likely to get attention. What we celebrate, grows!

Today, we're sharing some of the goal wins from the first half of this year from Team Cultivate. We'd love for you to add yours in the comments! 

Pssst: Want to hear us chat through more wins and some of our biggest fails from the first half of 2023? Tune in to this episode of the Cultivate podcast!

EMILY: One of my goals this year focused on our home - I wanted to methodically make my way through decluttering and organizing some of our trouble spots. At the beginning of the year, I walked through our home and noted the spots that needed some help, and then I assigned them each to a month, and put those areas on my Tending List each month. I have since switched them around and reassigned areas to months depending on what was going on in our life at home, but this has been a smashing success. So far I’ve tackled my desk, our linen closet, our coat closet, our master bathroom cabinets, our loft, and my older daughter’s closet.

I think three things have really helped me stick to this goal. One was breaking down my big goal and the accountability of assigning areas to month. Since I knew each month had an area, that really motivated me to not get behind.

Two, I gamified it a little and used some visual aids. As I worked through each area, I’d take before and after photos, and sometimes I’d even take a time-lapse video as I worked. Sometimes I shared them on Instagram and sometimes they were just for me, but either way, it’s gratifying to see the visual progression.

Finally, I told someone about it. My family knew about this goal, so after the first month, they’d ask me what area was up next and it’s been fun to unveil each space as it’s finished!

CASEY: Finances have been a focus for me for the past few years. This year, my goal was to focus on my financial education. I’ve read several financial books, inundated myself in the language, and been more accountable to tracking and recording my next steps. Though I haven’t made leaps and bounds of progress here, I’ve been so proud of my educational growth, which I know will pay off in later steps to come. I’ve learned a lot, and I feel more confident in taking those next steps!

A final big win in this area: I hired a financial advisor, which has helped me to think about my life holistically in terms of my finances. 

ALLI: Community has been an ongoing goal for me for the past many years. Sometimes it feels so hard to make friends as an adult! And I’m quite introverted, which makes this even more of a challenge for me. 

This year, I had a mini goal of establishing relationships in our small group, which just celebrated our one-year anniversary together - YAY!

The other community goal I’ve had this year is to develop connections with some families on our street that are in our exact same life stage. We know a lot of our neighbors, but I feel like we didn’t know the few families with little kids (besides a neighborly wave in passing). I scheduled some walks and playdates with them this spring, and now that we are in pool-season, we get to be around each other a lot more spontaneously, too.

All this takes intentionality on my end, but it is something that I know is worth it. I hope this is an encouragement to someone that just setting up one walk with a neighbor is a really great low-stakes entry point to community.

KELLEY: Little-by-little steps in my fitness goal is a win I'm celebrating so far this year! I have a history of going all or nothing with fitness, but since I bought a Peloton, I've committed to hopping on even for just a five-minute ride or strength class. It's so much more doable now that it's in my home and I can rely on the instructors to tell me what to do :) I've been proud of myself for getting up early to fit it in, even sometimes joining 4:30am classes!

We’ve seen firsthand the impact that intentional goal setting and little-by-little progress have had on so many women’s lives over the years.  If you are looking for a tool to better help you cultivate what matters, snag a copy of the Fresh Start Planner or the 90-Day PowerSheets now and finish 2023 strong. There's something for everyone! :) 

Friends, please share your wins from the first half of 2023 in the comments! We'd love to hear.