The Cultivate Glossary

Have you ever arrived somewhere new and felt intimidated by all you didn’t know? Like the first day at a new job, when you couldn’t find the coffee and struggled to understand the acronyms your new coworkers were tossing around?

We’ve been there, too. And we know it’s how some gals feel when they open up their PowerSheets® for the first time, or take an inaugural spin through the PowerSheets Facebook Group. These spaces are welcoming and exciting, yes, but they can also be confusing: like any community, we have our own lingo! CLE? Wildcards? Cowbells?! What??

We want you to feel right at home here, so we’ve rounded up some terms that might be new to you here at the start of your goal planning journey. Consider this your cheat sheet as a new Cultivator! (Almost as good as a hot cup of coffee on your first day!)

Action step | The smallest unit of goal progress! An action step is a simple, concrete to-do that helps you accomplish a goal. Think: register for a class at the gym, shop for groceries, or book an appointment with a therapist.

Big Dream goal | Big Dreams are goals without deadlines that help you become the person you want to be, cultivate a purposeful life you love, and leave a legacy. These big-picture goals are supported by Finish Lines and Habits and lived out day by day, little by little. Think: create a welcoming home, build a strong marriage, or grow in my faith.

BLOOM | The power of the PowerSheets® process comes from setting big-picture goals and then—equally as important!—breaking them down into simple, concrete Finish Line goals and actions steps. The BLOOM acronym (our version of SMART goals!), helps you do this. The letters stand for Break It Down, Little by Little, On Purpose, On a Schedule, and Measurable.

Core truths | These 15 guiding phrases to ground your goal setting are sprinkled throughout the PowerSheets® and our other tools. (And you’ll hear them a lot if you hang out with us on social media or the blog.) They sum up what makes our goal-setting process and community unique! See them all here.

Cowbells | We’re taking it way back to our SW days! Before Cultivate, Lara owned Southern Weddings Magazine, and we rang fancy cowbells in the office to celebrate big and small wins. Though SW has since retired, the cowbells made the leap to CWM, and they still come out on special occasions. What can we say, we love a good celebration :)

Cultivate Your Year LIVE (or “CYYL”) | This is the live, in-person (and then virtual) event we hosted in 2019, 2020, and 2021 to help Cultivators complete their PowerSheets® Prep Work together. Thousands of you attended over those three years and it was a delight for our team, too. We hope to bring it back in the future!

Cultivated Life Evaluation (or “CLE”) | This is a signature exercise in the PowerSheets® Prep Work. A sort of life audit, it walks you through rating 8 life categories (including one that you get to choose!) to help honestly name where you are in order to move forward.

Cultivator | That’s you! Everyone who uses one of our tools or adopts our teachings in her own life is a part of this community. If you’re cultivating what matters, you’re a Cultivator!

Finish Line goal | These are goals with a shorter time horizon that are specific and measurable. To achieve Finish Line goals, you define and follow action steps toward a clear endpoint. Think of them like projects: for example, opening an online shop, completing a triathlon, or hosting a book swap.

Fresh Start Daily Goal Planner | This unique tool combines the PowerSheets® Prep Work with the daily pages from the Season by Season™ planner, one quarter at a time. Perfect for those who like their agenda and goals all in one package!

Goal Action Plan | After you uncover what matters and set your goals in the PowerSheets®, you move on to the Goal Action Plan pages. There, a few questions and plenty of space to brainstorm help you break down your big-picture goals into specific and measurable Finish Line goals, simple action steps, and life-giving habits that help you live out what matters. 

Goal planner | A goal planner is a workbook that helps you to set, plan, and track progress on your goals. Our favorite, of course, is the PowerSheets®!

Goal School Premium (or “GSP”) | Goal School Premium is our paid membership of friendly and focused goal setters led by Team Cultivate. Join us for live master classes, accountability meetings, special offers on current and future tools, and a private online community that will encourage you as you work through your PowerSheets® each month. We’d love to have you!

Lara Casey | Lara is the founder of Cultivate What Matters and the creator of the PowerSheets®. She lovingly sold her business in 2022 to begin a new season with her family, and we are proud to continue her legacy.

Making Things Happen (or “MTH”) | Before there was CYYL, there was MTH. Started by Lara in 2009 (and last hosted in 2020), Making Things Happen was a live workshop that guided guests to uncover what matters, live on purpose, and do the things they’d always wanted to do. Sound familiar? It should —in many ways, it laid the foundation for PowerSheets!

PowerSheets® | Our signature tool. The PowerSheets goal planner helps you to uncover what matters, set goals, and live them out with joy—leading to a more purposeful and meaningful life. With thousands and thousands sold over the last decade-plus, we couldn’t be more grateful for how this tool has changed the lives of women around the world—including our own! (And psst: you may hear us refer to “OY PS”—that’s One-Year!)

Prep Week | PowerSheets® Prep Week is the week in early December when we, as a community, walk through our PowerSheets Prep Work together. Expect video teaching and other resources from Team Cultivate to guide you, as well as lots of excitement and encouragement from your fellow Cultivators!

Prep Work | The first few pages of your PowerSheets® are known as the Prep Work. This series of introspective prompts is part of what sets us apart from other goal planners (and certainly your average planner or calendar!). Through careful questioning, you'll get to the root of what makes you come alive, where you want to spend your time, what matters to you in the big picture—and (most importantly), what doesn't. If you're new to PowerSheets, your first time going through the Prep Work might be emotional, and it will absolutely be eye-opening.

Season by Season® (or “SBS”) | The Season by Season Planner is a dated daily or weekly agenda to hold your plans, appointments, and to-dos. If you love the mission and message of Cultivate but a goal planner isn’t for you, you’ll love Season by Season! Of course, many women choose to use an SBS alongside their One-Year PowerSheets®.

Tending List | The Tending List is the heart of PowerSheets®—this is where it all comes together! The Tending List is a one-page goal planner and habit tracker where you commit to a focus for each month, making little-by-little progress on your yearly goals by breaking them down into monthly, weekly, and daily action steps. There are 12 (one for each month!) in the One-Year PowerSheets.

Tending List Tuesday (or “TLT”) | On Tuesdays, we check in on our goals! We do it together on Instagram at 1:30pm EST, where a member of Team Cultivate will share her goal progress, places she’s pivoting, and what she’s learning. This is a perfect chance for you to check in on your Tending List, celebrate wins, and make a simple plan for progress for the week ahead.

Wildcards | The PowerSheets® are flexible on purpose, and the Wildcards extend that flexibility even further. Simple worksheets designed to help you make progress on your goals (think: books read this year, monthly spending log, weekend reset, morning and evening routines, and much, much more), Wildcards are available as free resources and in full-color packs!

Word of the Year | A Word of the Year is a word or phrase you choose to sum up your goals and dreams for the year ahead. Many Cultivators find it a powerful tool to focus their energy and attention.

Write the Word® (or “WTW”) | Write the Word is our simple but impactful series of Bible journals. With themed scripture to handwrite each day over many volumes, they make it easy to get right into the Word—the ultimate place for refreshment and peace.

What would you add? We're so glad you're here!