Practical Tips for Starting Your PowerSheets Prep

Practical Tips for Starting Your PowerSheets Prep

by: Emily Thomas

Next week is a big one around here: it's 2024 Prep Week! With daily video coaching and your PowerSheets® in hand, we're breaking down our proven goal-setting process into six parts you can complete when you're ready (including each day with us, next week, if you'd like!).

With your PowerSheets Prep Work, you'll look at what worked this past year, what didn't, what's holding you back, and what fires you up in a simple, life-giving way. It will help you reflect on this year and allow you to move forward with confidence and joy. This will feel so good!

So, grab your 2024 PowerSheets and join us each day next week for a much-needed life refresh. Bookmark this page: your videos and other Prep Week resources will be waiting for you there, and we'll be with you each step of the way! (Our team needs this, too—we're going to be doing our PowerSheets right alongside you next week! We can't wait!)

Here's what we'll be tackling each day if you like to plan ahead:

PowerSheets Prep Week Schedule

As we get ready to turn the corner into 2024 Prep Week, we wanted to share a few ideas for how to self-reflect in a meaningful wayand to make your time with your PowerSheets truly feel like a personal retreat. You deserve it!

For some of us, self-reflection might not be a natural part of our regular life, so sitting with the introspective questions in our PowerSheets might feel uncomfortable. They might ask us to look at painful parts of our life or acknowledge fears we have. This is natural—whenever there's a gap between where we are and where we want to be (even if our life is going well!), we're bound to feel that tension of wasted time or regret.

And that's not a bad thing! Use that tension—that pain—as fuel to move forward. (That's why we're setting goals, right?) After all, what causes people to change starts with one pivotal moment: it’s the moment when you decide that the pain of staying the same is greater than the pain of change. 

Friends, fear is a non-negotiable when going after your goals. It's natural and essential! The good news? Each time you step out of your comfort zone, the next uncomfortable thing feels a little easier. And, you can soften the blow a bit in the midst of the uncomfortableness by intentionally bringing comfort and refreshment to the experience. And that's where these tips come in! 



Even if you're just stealing 15 minutes here and there to work on your PowerSheets, that time can and should feel like a mini personal retreat. After all, you're doing really good work! Here are some of our best tips as you prepare to get started:

  • Get physically comfortable! Wrap yourself in your favorite blanket, kick off your shoes, sit yourself in front of a window with a view, or head to your favorite coffee shop or library. 
  • Switch on a sensory cue. Turn up a favorite playlist (pump-up hits or relaxing instrumental—your choice!) or light a candle. These cues will help your brain know something special is going on!
  • Fuel yourself. If you're working through your Prep and setting goals in one big chunk, pack a snack and have a glass of water, coffee, or tea at the ready. Hangry goal-getters aren't nearly as effective!
  • Put your phone in another room (or pop it in a cute bag!) so that you aren't distracted by news updates, texts from friends, or social media notifications. Studies have shown that we are much more likely to pick up our phones when they are visible as opposed to out of sight, so the removal to another room (or at least your bag) is important!



As we walk through 2024 Prep Week together, remember: change takes change. Our brains don't always like change, but pushing through the tension is worth it! A year from now, you will be so glad you started today.

We want to hear from you! Do you block off an entire Saturday morning for your Prep, or tackle it a few minutes a day? Let us know in the comments below!

P.S. Next week doesn't fit your schedule? The Prep Week resources are here for you anytime you're ready to dig in!

2 comments

Excited! I usually take a week to do my prep work – I don’t think I could do it all in one sitting! My goals and the answers to the prep work questions take time to marinate in my mind :)

Tiffany L.

This looks like last year’s prep – not heading into the weeks of 2023?

Leslie Galloway

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Emily Thomas

Emily Thomas

Emily Thomas

Emily Thomas is Cultivate What Matters' Content Strategist and Writer. With over a decade at Cultivate, Emily loves helping women uncover what matters, set good goals, and live them out with joy. Her free time is spent with her high-school-sweetheart husband and three young kiddos.

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