This past month has been a whirlwind! Between being really focused on celebrating and creating content for the 2023 Powersheets Launch, taking an unscheduled week off of social media, and preparing for surgery – I have not had the chance to get on here and share about my goals! In this post, I am going to share my Q4 Refresh, My October Goals and then share about November!

#1: Over 40 women in the Grace + Goals Community said YES to intention, grace, and progress for 2023 by purchasing their 2023 Powersheets 🎉 (If you did not get your G+G Launch Day Gift, a brand new master class from me, please email me, livingthechronicillnesslife@gmail.com, with the time and date you placed your order along with the total and I will send you access to that master class!)

#2: We celebrated Ronald at his senior night! We are so proud of you, Ronnie! #RN15Magic ⚽️

#3: At the end of September, I set aside my second “day to dream” and it was so successful and wonderful! I hope to do this once a quarter in the seasons to come ✨

#4: I got to share my 2023 Collection Review with you and had the most fun! 🥳

Fall 90 Day Refresh

Before we get into my Powersheets, I want to share my prepare well page with you! (Don’t know what Powersheets are? Start Here!)

If you told me a couple years ago that I would use the word ✨dream✨ in a hopeful way I wouldn’t have believed you. It has taken quite some time to trust the Lord and write down my dreams and plans. The past 2 quarters, I have set aside a 6 hour block where all I do is refresh my goals and prepare for the season ahead! I share a whole video about how I do this here if you want to see! I also am still using the Yearly Powersheets and 90 Powersheets together.

My Q4 Refreshed Goals:

• Cultivate Preparedness: Get ready for the first half of an intense lower leg reconstruction (details here)
• Cultivate Diligence: All of my Grace + Goals/ Platform goals are in my 90 Day PS
• Cultivate Consistency: Continuing to pursue the good rhythms I am building in my personal life, marriage, and community
• Cultivate Persistence: I aim to dive deep into my relationship with the Lord with persistence and reliance as I persevere through a challenging season ahead
• Cultivate Communication: I want to make sure my marriage is rooted in faithful communication and love

October’s Tending List

My Encouraging Words for October were, “stay focused and stay diligent.” My top priority was “one thing at a time.”

Up until October 23rd, there were no checkboxes checked or progress bars filled in on my October Tending List. I was hesitant to transfer my progress from my notes page to my Tending List. Then I realized I had two options in front of me, I had the opportunity to feel intimidated or I had the ability to choose to start fresh and choose to count my imperfect progress.

At this point in my goal setting journey, I felt hopeful in knowing that my imperfect progress was still going to add up, and even though there would not be checkmarks perfectly placed. We can’t be afraid of our Tending List because if we are afraid to go check in, then we’re not going to get anything done or give ourselves the opportunity to see all that we ARE still doing… and we’re going to set ourselves farther back. You know, imperfect progress is defined by good intentions and thoughtful actions, and at times, unchecked boxes. Those boxes are tools, even those blank boxes are helpful! They help us better evaluate our season and our priorities. So today, in looking at my Tending List, I can actively see the grace that I’m living out, even if I don’t feel it, I’m going to act on it because progress doesn’t have to be perfect. 

Ultimately some progress is better than no progress, and once I started checking in on my goals I saw how much progress I had made. I let go of the blank boxes by choosing grace, as you can see I ended up writing in the word “grace” into some of the daily boxes.

This month’s Tending List

Now onto November! This month my top priority is to prepare and recover in His strength. This month is very bare compared to most because I am preparing for surgery. To help me focus on recovering, I used some of the 2023 gold striped Tending Tape to cover the days after my surgery. I can always (easily) pull off that tape and put in checkmarks if I can do more than I expect, but I would rather let this tape be a reminder of my top priority.

Monthly Goals:

• G+G Goals: I use the  90 Day Powersheets to track my platform goals in a more detailed fashion. This goal is a check-in I have built into my Yearly PS Tending List as a monthly action item to mark my progress on all of my Grace + Goals monthly action items.
• Diligently Continue Preparing: back when I made my October TL, I did not have a surgery date, so I have a couple extra weeks to finish those goals and rather than re-writing them I will track them here and go back and fill in those October progress bars. These goals mainly include preparing our house for when I come home to start this estimated 6 month recovery.
  • Plan Ahead + Ask For Help: There are a lot of moving parts to this surgery (read more about that here) so I will be figuring out who will be with me while I recover to give Jared some reprieve from the majority of my care post-op.
  • Purchases + Pack It All: There are so many hidden costs to surgery (if you would like to help support us in this time click here) and we have so many purchases to make. (P.S. thank you to those who have helped us with these purchases as anything that is not gifted we still need to buy.) Then we have to pack it all for the surgery and inpatient stay.
• Do the Hard Thing: Have surgery.

Weekly Goals:

• Timeblock + Plan the Week: This consists of our weekly check in as a couple along with time-blocking our week, and then my separate time that I set aside to plan out my week.
• Love Jared Well: We aim to spend intentional time together without our phones at least once a week.
• Power Hour for Calls: having a chronic illness is like having a full time job, and part of that job is coordinating everything between different medical teams and hospitals. So to help me stay more on top of this, I am planning to dedicate one hour a week where all I focus on is making phone calls and working on all of this.
• Water + Trim Plants: I gotta take care of my plants! Also with an Aerogarden, you have to trim the roots so they don’t grow into your filter weekly.

Daily Goals: I use my daily goals more as a habit tracker than a strict goal and it gives me more freedom in seasons of uncertainty.

• Today’s Win: I religiously use the “Quarterly Celebrate Every Tiny Victory” Wildcard to log one victory a day! 
• Rhythms:  I am tracking my morning routine with the Refreshing Rhythms Wildcard. This includes: opening my TL, my quiet time, and other tasks. My evening rhythm includes: checking into my PS at the end of the day, choosing my top priority for the following day, and winding-down at 10:15.
• I Made It Through Today: This is a daily reminder for me as I face some really hard days in the coming weeks – because this in and of itself is a VICTORY and helps me see that doing the best I can with the body I have is a win worth counting!

My Wildcards

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!

The 2023 Powersheets are here!!

I am #teampapaya this year and in this 2023 Collection my top three must haves are: the Goal Setting Sticker Book (I have had every sticker book Cultivate has ever made and this one is by FAR my favorite 🤩), the Snap In Wildcard Holder, and the Pencil Pouch in Papaya!

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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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