What it Looks Like to Start Small with your Goals

What it Looks Like to Start Small with your Goals

Little by little adds up.
Legacies start with one small seed
Progress, not perfection
Break it down to get it done. 
Celebrate every tiny win.

If you’ve spent any time around the Cultivate What Matters community, you’ve likely heard us repeat one of these phrases. And — because you’re a smart, perceptive human who’s lived a bit of life — you nod right along as we do. Yes to starting small! Yes to stacking tiny wins! Yes to ditching perfection and just getting started!

But when it comes to starting small in your own life, maybe it feels more complicated. Are you doing enough? Are you doing it right? What does breaking down a yearly goal look like, anyway?! 

Good news: there’s no one right way to break down a goal. If you’re moving forward toward a destination that matters and pivoting along the way, keep going! But because it can be helpful to swap stories with others on the journey, in today's blog post we’re sharing how a few members of Team Cultivate have started small on their 2025 PowerSheets® goals. We're with you every step of the way, and hope today's post gets your wheels turning about what small steps might look like in your life! 

PowerSheets goal planner on a colorful desk

Alli, our Marketing Specialist

I’m really looking forward to what I have planned this year! Here are a few of my goals and first steps:

  • Create a recipe binder. I pulled out an old binder and divider tabs. I might order some new tabs, but this will be a great way to start while I figure out exactly how I want to set it up.
  • Save for a new (to us) larger family car. We’ve begun squirreling away money month by month.
  • Develop consistency in a workout routine. This has been a fun one so far! I’ve switched up the time of my workouts, which has led me to become more consistent already, and I’m trying a new measure of what I deem “success” with my workout cadence. Happy to say I’m off to a good start turning motivation into a habit!
  • Read two books with my husband. We’ve selected our books for the year! One we already own, and the other I just ordered, so we’ll be set to start when the time comes.
  • Find a rhythm for scripture memory or Bible lessons with my son. I’ve been gathering some resources and options this month, and next will cull through those to move forward! Recognizing this will likely be trial and error, I’m holding plans loosely and knowing that trying will be its own success.

Emily, our Director of Content

With 20 goals (!) on my plate this year, I've had plenty of opportunity to start small! And also plenty of opportunity for overwhelm. Here's a little sketch of what I've got going on, how I'm breaking things down, and the tiny steps I've taken so far.

  • My 20 goals are mostly Finish Lines, with one Big Dream and a handful of Habits mixed in.
  • Of the 20 goals, know that I have done absolutely nothing with eight of them so far. Not every goal has to start on January 1! Some just make sense to start later in the year, and some I just don't have time for right now — and that's okay!
    I've started all my habits: practicing the piano a few times a week, running every weekend, cleaning out my screenshots daily.
  • Now, here's a closer look at the Finish Line projects I've started. It's mostly just tiny steps forward on each!
    • Plan and enjoy our 20th high school reunion. I've confirmed a date, started a Google Doc for organizing our itinerary, and brainstormed activity ideas.
    • Refresh our master bathroom. I emailed my first-choice designer and heard back that she can't take on our project. Pivoted and emailed my next choice!
    • Transition our littlest to a big-kid room. I swapped in the dresser that's been waiting in our garage and listed her old dresser on Marketplace. After a few weeks with no bites, I gave it away in our local Buy Nothing group.
      Better understand our school-issued Chrome book. I've collected information by exchanging emails with several friends.
    • Work toward a district-wide bell-to-bell phone ban. The school board is currently deliberating and collecting perspectives, so my next step is to email a wide swath of my local network with information and a sample email and encourage them to contact their representative in support of a ban. I've already brainstormed the list; just need to finish drafting the email and send it.
    • Achieve Wait Until 8th pledges for both of our kids' classes. I emailed the parents in both of their classes and posted in my son's class year Facebook page.
    • Read 24 pre-planned books for my personal book club. I'm reading my non-fiction pick for January right now and have requested the rest of the January and February books from my library!

Jessica, our Vice President

First off, I’ve already deleted one of the goals I wrote down when I did my PowerSheets® Prep Work. That might seem like a misstep, but I’m counting it as a small step of progress! I decided another goal was more important, and the necessary resource for it was time. I can't do it all — so I picked the goal that I believe will have a bigger outcome.

Otherwise, four of my goals are Finish Lines and two of those are untouched so far. To make progress on the other two, which are financial goals, I re-worked our family budget for January – the first small step that had to happen!

The other four goals I have this year are Habit goals. My small start for all of these was scheduling: in order to make progress, I needed to time block for the new habits and also put them somewhere highly visible for accountability

One of my goals (actually, it’s a family goal!) is spending more screen-free time together. So far, we’ve brainstormed what this could look like as a family and came up with the idea of monthly screen-free game nights. Our family of seven will order in our favorite fast food, set out a bunch of games, and spend the evening enjoying ourselves without screens. As our kids get older, I think this will be a vital time to connect. The kids are excited and have already picked out our first meal — pizza!

Looking for even more ideas? Here are a few past blog posts you might love:

How to get started on a health and wellness goal
How to get started on a finance goal
How to get started on a spiritual growth goal
How to get started on a family goal

Friend, you don’t have to have it all figured out here at the start of the year. You don’t have to have a perfect plan. You don’t have to know steps A, B, and C, and you certainly don’t have to know steps X, Y, and Z. Just keep taking the next step forward — little by little, you’ll get there.

We'd love to hear: what has starting small looked like so far in your goals this year? What small steps are you celebrating right now? Tell us in the comments!

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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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