A question that I get asked a lot is, “how do you break down your goals using the ‘Goal Action Plan’ pages in your Powersheets?” (Don’t know what Powersheets are? Start Here!) So today, I am going to walk you through one of my goal action pages along with showing you the different ways you can break down your goals. Remember these are YOUR powersheets, so don’t be afraid to make them work for you!

If you want to see the walkthrough of my 2022 prep work you can find that here!

We are going to walkthrough my first 2022 goal: Cultivate a Love for His Word

First we start by filling out the box with our goal title and our why. Now the why to your goal is essential because our “how“ when tending to our goals may change, but our why is what keeps us focused and willing to adapt to our challenges. As the Cultivate Team reminds us frequently, “goals will not change your life, knowing what matters will.” The reason Powersheets are in a league of their own when it comes to goal setting is because they help us uncover what matters to us and the why behind our goals. The why to our goals is what will keep us persevering when things don’t go the way we planned.

My why for this goal is: “This is my daily bread. The joy of the Lord that strengthens me starts here. Hope is found here. His Word is the only thing that will truly sustain me in this fight.”

Next we answer a few question to help us start the process of narrowing in on this goal.

Type of Goal: this year, on pages 25-26 in the 2022 Prep Work, we learned more about the types of goals. The three we are focusing on here are habit, finish line, and big dream. Now there is no right or wrong way to classify your goals, and you can have parts of your goals in all three areas. For a couple action plans I have checkmarks in all three areas. If you really aren’t sure which box to check wait until you finish the second page “break down my goals.” To give you an idea of how our goals can be overlapped in categories I will show you what I did in my Powersheets below. You can see that I can put the same action steps in multiple categories so do what makes the most sense to you!

Area: This is where you will check what area of your life this goal impacts, and again you can check multiple boxes.

Resources Needed: This is a really helpful evaluation because it prepares us to know what we need before we dive into that goal. You can choose between time, money, physical space, expertise or advice, emotional capacity, and help from others. I checked all the areas in bold; now I could have added physical space, but because this is a goal that I am continuing on from years prior, I already have a physical space carved out. So a year or so ago before I did that, I may have checked it off, but to help me stay focused on growth for this goal for this year, I only check off what I currently need (even when technically I still need that physical space resource for this goal.) Only check off what is helpful to you – remember these are YOUR Powersheets so make them work for you!

This Plan Aligns With My: I love this question because it takes you back to your prep work. It can be overwhelming sometimes when you are going through these pages so by flipping back to our prep work we can recenter ourselves before we get into the boxes below. For this goal, I checked off all three of these bubbles and physically went back to every single page to focus my mindset.

Next you move onto the boxes on the latter half of this page

What success looks like for this goal at the end of 2022:

Okay, so I do something a little bit different in this box. I use the heart/star flags (from the faith sticker pack) to define success for this goal in two ways rather than one. Success isn’t solely defined by checkmarks and physical growth, we can also see success in our “lifestyle and heart growth.” We often note our success in easily “measurable growth” such as through numbers, seeing your house decluttered, and through checkmarks and progress bars. There is also “heart growth” success such as your mindset shifting in the direction you want to go, watching habits develop, and most importantly following where God is leading you in that goal.

Over the past 5 years, I have found that I easily get caught up in counting the “measurable growth” to the point that when I don’t hit the “numbers” I planned I feel like a failure. So knowing this is a struggle of mine, I build grace and proper expectation into my goals through this box by defining what success looks like in both “measurable growth” and in “heart growth.”

For this goal, to cultivate a love for His Word, my “heart growth” success looks like: not letting imperfect note taking stop me from getting in the Word. In my prep work, I noticed that I was getting in my own way by not reading my Bible just because I didn’t have the energy to take the “right notes.” So even if I don’t meet my numerical goal, this mindset shift would be successful enough for me. Then my “measurable growth” success looks like: reading on the Bible app with a reading plan in the evening, doing my Write the Word journal on weekdays (so go through 2-3 volumes), and continuing my multi-translational deployment dive study into the Psalms on weekends.

So don’t forget:

Success doesn’t always look like a bunch of checkmarks! In my opinion the best “success” is seeing how those goals have positively changed my heart, mindset, and habits.There are some goals that can be hard to “measure” or see growth, which is why we should set ourselves up to see and acknowledge growth through more than checkmarks alone!

The people who will be positively affected by this goal:

This box is another one that helps us anchor down our why! We want to love the Lord, our people, and ourselves well so making note of who this positively affects gives me extra motivation. For this goal, the people who will be positively affected by this goal are: everyone in my life, but mostly my heart.

What might happen if I don’t start or make progress on this goal:

This box only helps you if you are truly honest with yourself. Now this box is not saying that you need to start this goal and every other goal on January 1st right away, this box is meant to help you notice what the negative effects would be if you didn’t move forward on this goal (just like the big picture and yes/ no list help you notice the positive effects your progress can make.) For this goal, if I don’t make progress: I will not grow, I will not be sustained, and I will miss out on what He made me for + His joy.

How I will [celebrate] this goal along the way:

I love this box because it is super important to celebrate our little by little progress while we are on our way to the goal not just when we meet the goal. I tend to answer this in either: how I will have fun along the way or what I will do when I meet that goal. Most of the time if the goal is a continuing goal from years past, I will choose to define how I will celebrate when I meet that current piece of the goal. I have been eyeing the Well Watered Co. In Every Season Bible Journal Set so: if I can get into a solid 4+ month long habit of digging into the Word in the evening I will celebrate by buying those Journals!

Break Your Goals Down

So there are multiple ways to break down a goal, and as a veteran Powersheets user I was PUMPED to see a blank page, but I know that can be really intimidating so I am going to share the way I broke this specific goal down and then share 3 other ways that I broke down some of my other goals in this space.

Now if you have a set of Powersheets you have access to Goal School, Goal School does have a paid premium option, but the Goal School itself comes with your Powersheets which is where you can download the two goal action wildcards offered along with a host of other resources. (If you were gifted a set of Powersheets just email orders@cultivatewhatmatters.com and Team Cultivate will get your login for you!)

I chose the 3 Mini Goal’s Action Plan Wildcard from the Goal School wildcard library, and I wrote down 2 mini goals that I wanted to start with. The first was to “Establish Evening Quiet-Time” by choosing a reading plan and creating accountability to follow through. The second mini goal was to focus on getting my “Daily Bread” (God’s Word) by getting into a solid rhythm of starting my day in His Word and in prayer, WTW on weekdays, and to add Psalms to my weekend rhythm. I am getting into a solid weekday routine and prayer routine, but am bumping adding in the Psalms until either March or April.

Other Ways to Break Down Your Goals

There is no wrong way to do your Powersheets and I hope this helps you break you goals down!

In case you didn’t know, here on Living the Chronic Illness Life you now have access to the

🎉 Grace + Goals Resource Library 🎉

which helps you tailor your goal setting and powersheets to seasons of uncertainty. You can find all the info here!

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Cassie Nolin is a married spoonie who lives the chronic illness life with EDS + Co. (Ehlers Danlos Syndrome and it’s comorbid conditions.) She challenges others to choose grace over guilt while goal setting, and is in ministry part time serving the online community through Grace + Goals and The Spoonie Study. She loves planting, confetti, hand lettering, and sharing the hope she has found in Jesus. Her blog, Living the Chronic Illness Life, is in the top 100 chronic illness blogs and in 2019 she launched her podcast, Chronically Cultivating, where Cassie encourages women to live authentic and intentional lives through their diagnosis’ not in spite of them. She is on a mission to help other women learn how to trade guilt for God’s grace and control for confetti! You can learn more about her at www.livingthechronicillnesslife.com

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