So… it’s the first part of January! Which one of the following best describes you:
—I haven’t set goals yet and I feel behind!
—I want to make my goals happen now. I’m anxious for life to change.
—I have goals, I just don’t know how to accomplish them.
—There are so many goals I want to complete this year—I’m overwhelmed!
—My goals feel the same as last year—am I doing something wrong?
—I haven’t made perfect progress—I already feel like a failure.
—Doing new things feels hard. Is it supposed to be hard?
—I’m afraid to commit to goals. What if they’re the wrong ones or what if I don’t follow through on them?
—I’m feeling great! Clear. Ready. Let’s do this. 🎉
Which one (or ones!) are you feeling? Name it and then…
Let’s take all that pressure off to start the year, shall we? Great!
There’s nothing magical about January 1.
February 1 can be your January 1, if you want!
To learn out how to break free from all of those New Year’s feelings, listen to this podcast episode (one of your favorites!).
How do you get started on your goals—or begin uncovering them?
Small intentional steps.
How do you make a goal happen?
Small steps taken over time.
How do you avoid overwhelm?
You guessed it. Break your goals down into small steps! 🙂 (Much more to come this month on the Cultivate What Matters blog to help you with this!)
Let’s take a quick look back at our small steps from December and then we’ll jump to January. Sound good? Wonderful!
Here are my December PowerSheets goals and what I learned. I can’t wait to hear about your progress, too!
December Monthly Goals:
—Finish the Old Testament. I am so excited to finish this goal! Going through this slowly this year with friends has been wonderful. Here’s the reading plan we have been going through together each morning. / Yes! On to the New!
—Prayerfully lead Cultivate Your Year Live. I’ve done the Making Things Happen Conference 50+ times over 10 years, and this will be a first for me! I’m nervous and excited. / All my nerves melted as I walked into that room of 200+ women! What a JOY that day was! It was a powerful experience and so fun to spend it with so many women I love.
—Finish and release the 2020 Goal Setting Series. / Hooray! I have LOVED this year with you and recorded podcast episodes to go along with each part of the series! Get started here.
—Pray for all of you as you set your goals! 🙂 / Yes, I’ve been praying for you almost daily!
—Turn 40 ☺️ / Ummmmm yes! My husband (with the help of my team, friends, and family) gave me the biggest surprise of my life with a surprise celebration. I am still in shock—and so grateful for these people who have supported and shaped me over the years!
—Prepare for a new year with joy! / Yes! I am so grateful for the last two weeks of time with family and slowly setting us all up for a great year. I cleaned the house, spent lots of time outside with the kids in the sunshine, and generally enjoyed life. I finished my PowerSheets action plan pages and am so excited about what’s ahead. I’m starting a new year refreshed and ready!
—Get ready for the 2020 Fresh Faith Challenge. I can’t wait to do this again! This year’s January challenge was faith-changing for me—and so many of you! Sign up here for 30 days of Writing the Word. (I’ll be using this journal if you want to join me!) / Yes, loving this and it’s not too late to join!
I made progress on all of the weekly and daily goals below…
December Weekly Goals:
—Sabbath
—Read great words and stories to the kids.
December Daily Goals:
—Bible reading
—Run! / I ran TWO MILES without stopping, guys. This was such a milestone for me! 3 weeks of stepping up my fitness and I felt the little by little progress add up. I could have done more!
Don’t miss these from December:
2020 Goal Setting Part 1: Let’s Get Started!
2020 Goal Setting Part 2: How to Choose a Word of the Year
2020 Goal Setting Part 3: The Intentional Goal-Setting Checklist
2020 Goal Setting Part 4: How to Make It Happen
The first monthly PowerSheets PrepCast!
Your 2020 pep talk
My chat with Jennie Allen
My chat with Jordan Lee Dooley
Okay, January! Here we go!
Each month, I give you an update on my goals progress from the previous month – what went well and what I learned – and share my goals for the month ahead. I love writing these posts for accountability, but mostly, I love hearing your goals!
I have 2 goals for 2020 (each with 4 mini goals under them) that are focused on growing something that matters to me in the big picture. Each month, I’m breaking my yearly goals down using my PowerSheets®. I love the new features in the monthly pages that ask you to look at your yearly goals and break them down with smaller action ideas!
I filled out my January Tending list today, and it was right on time. There’s no rule that says you have to start exactly on the 1st of each month! You aren’t one bit behind if you have yet to make your January Tending List. Want to do your January pages with me guiding you? Introducing the PowerSheets PrepCast!
Fun, right? A new episode will release at the end of each month to help you prepare for a great month ahead!
And now… my January goals!
January Monthly Goals:
— Cultivate our calendar for 2020—looking ahead at the whole year to plan what matters!
— Break my goals down using the action plan pages and yearly overview in my PowerSheets (I will report back on how I did it—spoiler alert, it involves sticky notes!)
— Decide on new digital boundaries to try. I want to be away from the internet more—even for good things. There are so many things I want to grow and do in 2020, and I want all the time I can get to do them! I’m not sure what my new boundaries will be, so the goal is to decide on a new rhythm of when to use my phone and other digital items—and for what good purpose.
January Weekly Goals:
—Sabbath
—Play more music in our home to fill our souls with music – a starting step here is to organize our music library on Spotify and make new playlists
—Write in my commonplace book
January Daily Goals:
—Bible reading. I’m going through this plan with friends each morning!
—Run with Him using the Peloton app and my old Craigslist elliptical now in the colder months. The kids play Legos while I “run!” Tip: I listen to my own music and watch their feet in the Tread classes pacing. Also, and very important, I do NOT love all of the classes or instruction. Some of the teachers can be a little too self-helpy for me. I do, however, love taking Matt Wilpers’ classes. He is an excellent technical trainer—takes me back to my personal training days. My form and focus are improving with his coaching.
—Write the Word each day in the 2020 Fresh Faith Challenge
—Interact with my physical Bible. I’ll be trying new things in January to see what helps me delight in Him.
Your turn! What are your goals for January? Comment below and I’ll pick one of you to send a special surprise box of goodies from the Cultivate What Matters Shop!
Don’t have your 2020 PowerSheets yet? We just SOLD OUT of Confetti covers and have only 1 cover choice left—Blooms (the one I’m using!). Order NOW before we are sold out for the year!
keep reading
33 Comments
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on January 3, 2020 at 4:19 pm
My goals are to continue bi-weekly budget meetings with my husband (so helpful around the holidays!), take the stairs whenever possible, participate in the Fresh Faith Challenge, go through our bedroom and declutter, walk one block further when walking my dog and pick a devotional for February!
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on January 6, 2020 at 9:47 am
Love it, Rochelle!! Such great goals (:
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on January 3, 2020 at 6:08 pm
I love seeing your goals! (So interested in your Sabbath goal—have you read “The Gift of Rest”?) My main January goals include a full day meditation retreat tomorrow (can’t wait!) and giving up diet soda (when did that become hard to do?!).
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on January 3, 2020 at 6:36 pm
My goals are to reestablish quality daily devotional times with the Lord, get caught up on grading (I’m a teacher whose semester ends in January), receive and set up and use my new PowerSheets (newbie here!), and begin the process of selling my handlettering! So excited to begin using this system.
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on January 6, 2020 at 9:51 am
Cheering you on, Amber!! So excited for you to dig into your PowerSheets and uncover what matters!
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on January 3, 2020 at 7:25 pm
Some of my goals include to run three times a week. Just got a treadmill and it gets here Monday! Track food spending to create a realistic grocery budget and finish a painting for the business I’m launching this year. It has been tempting to over plan for January. Little by little progress here I come.!
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on January 6, 2020 at 9:52 am
Yes! So exciting, Kristen! Little by little (:
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on January 4, 2020 at 10:57 am
Faith Challenge, pray each day, drink more water
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on January 6, 2020 at 9:52 am
Such great goals, Jo!!
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on January 4, 2020 at 10:09 pm
1. Open my bible every single day
2. Keep a gratitude journal
3. Write my prayers out to God.
4. Have one intentional date night out and one date night in a month with my husband.
5. Spend intentional time with each of my 5 children. (Each kid gets a special weekday night, everyday get on eye level and make sure they have been told how much I love them., and read books with each child)
6. Find out my food triggers and what intolerances I have so that I can be healthy and active!I feel like I have too little goals but they are big and so important to me!
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on January 6, 2020 at 9:55 am
Love it, Nikki!! I am cheering you on!
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on January 4, 2020 at 11:16 pm
It’s hard for me to set goals. I’m not sure why. With that being said I am choosing to make my quiet time a priority, taking captive my thoughts,not to complain, everyday write my gratitudes, and show love even in hard times. I’m encouraging my best friend & cousin Morgan to do the same with me but in her way. Also to encourage each other to keep it up.
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on January 6, 2020 at 9:55 am
I am cheering you on towards gratitude, Traci! Love that you’re doing these goals with a buddy!
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on January 5, 2020 at 1:12 am
My goals for January are to spend more intentional time with my 4yo, exercise at least 3 times a week, declutter my kitchen, read daily, and write my resume. This is my first year using PowerSheets so I’m hopeful it will help keep me on track!
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on January 6, 2020 at 9:56 am
Woo! So excited for you, Annette!!
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on January 5, 2020 at 9:17 pm
My main goal is to be more intentional in all things – faith, health, work, family, friends. Less time staring at screens and more time doing things that fire me up.
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on January 6, 2020 at 9:56 am
So good, Lecy!
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on January 5, 2020 at 10:45 pm
I have four goals for January: 1) de-clutter the front closet to make the space more inviting to guests, 2) schedule a doctor’s appointment that I’ve been putting off since the holidays, 3) confirm my volunteer commitments for this quarter, and 4) look into possibly joining a book club to accelerate my reading goal 🙂
P.S. I would be interested in hearing more about how to set digital boundaries (especially for good things!)
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on January 6, 2020 at 4:23 pm
Love it, Kim! Cultivate What Matters has some amazing blogs about Social Media Free Weekends and other practices for digital boundaries! There are also some great books out there to read about this subject, too, like “12 ways your phone is changing you” (:
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on January 7, 2020 at 8:39 pm
Thank you for your follow-up! Will review and reference as part of a future goal 😉
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on January 6, 2020 at 11:28 am
Last year was my first year with Powersheets and I. WAS. ASTONISHED. at how much I was able to achieve! This year I was surprised to have 7 goals at the end (last year I only had 4) and cannot wait to see my progress at the end of 2020. This month I’m going to::
1. (M)Set a healthy boundary with an adult family member
2. (M)Fill out my celebrations binder
3. (W)Stay current on my wedding checklist
4. (D)Eat less (hopeful no) refined sugar
5. (D)Go to bed on time
6. (D)Devote the first of my day to God and exercise-
on January 6, 2020 at 3:15 pm
Hooray! Love these goals, Jennifer! Cheering you on!
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on January 6, 2020 at 2:21 pm
Monthly:
Read through the Gospels
Read a book for fun
Set up a housekeeping scheduleWeekly:
Pray
Organize an event for the women in our church
Pray the Word journalDaily:
Exercise
Eat nourishing foods
Write the Word
Put my phone upstairs when I get home from work-
on January 6, 2020 at 3:16 pm
Yes! So good, Crystal!
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on January 11, 2020 at 1:42 am
My January goals include: Paying off my Target credit card from Christmas, intentionally setting time aside each day to delight in Him through prayer or reading scripture and 3 workouts a week.
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on January 13, 2020 at 9:37 am
I’m cheering you on, Jenna!!
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on January 13, 2020 at 11:05 am
I love how simplified your January monthly goals are! Thank you for the encouragement that it isn’t necessary to do it all at once!
We’re in a transitional era of life, so a sampling of my January goals are, with God’s help:
-Purge my stuff: Lighten My Load!!
-Tackle home-renew project
-Review 2019 in my journal
-Create my 2020 eye routine (eye exercises/rest)
-And more… *smile*Thank you again for your encouragement!
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on January 13, 2020 at 8:16 pm
My goals for January are to start my new occupational health nursing program and to be more present and playful with my son.
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on January 15, 2020 at 9:39 am
Yippee! So exciting, Gabrielle!
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on January 18, 2020 at 1:01 pm
Did you already announce the giveaway winners? I’ve been looking for it, but can’t find it. Thanks!
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on January 21, 2020 at 10:04 am
Yes! You can see the 2020 Goal Setting Series Giveaway winners on the Goal Setting posts! It was such a joy to chat with all of you!!
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on January 27, 2020 at 9:39 pm
When will new podcasts be available?
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on January 29, 2020 at 12:08 pm
You’re in luck! I just released a Prepcast for February last week! Hop on over to the Cultivate What Matters blog and you’ll be able to listen to it there! (:
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