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How to Make Your Goals Work with Your Lifestyle
Story time.
When I was seven months pregnant with my first, I decided I wanted to be a work-at-home mom. My husband and I had been discussing all of our options, and I had been dabbling in the family business for a few months. While I'd always imagined that I wouldn't take on any serious income-earning projects until my kids were totally self-sufficient (like in high school, or something), certain life events combining with my studies of Scripture had me looking at things from another angle. My husband and I started charting out financial goals for our family. I looked over them with excitement because I was starting to believe that I would be able to help us reach our goals through grit, determination, and good old fashioned hard work.
At the time, designing my own planner was nowhere on my radar. I had a complex system of todo lists and digital calendars that honestly makes my head spin to think back on. But what was worse than my lack of a cohesive system of organization, was my total lack of understanding about the concept of trade-offs.
That's why, at seven months pregnant...
Recap of the ROOTED Podcast Season
Tired of goal setting systems that pump you up, introduce massive tension between your goal and your daily responsibilities, and then leave you feeling like a failure?
We were too. So we created a system that is mercifully realistic, embraces everyday responsibilities as valid, and helps us become more deeply rooted in our broader life callings. We believe that the best goals are the ones that fuel a great way of life, and that a great way of life will fuel great goals. If you want more than a mountain top experience—if you're ready to actually translate your goals into action—then The ROOTED Goals workbook was created for you.
But we didn't stop at creating the workbook! Below is a recap of the podcast season we recorded to do a deeper dive into each step of the ROOTED Goals system. Listen to the season as a standalone, or as a companion to the workbook—no matter how you approach it, the ROOTED podcast season is sure to renew your goal-setting drive!
The ROOTED Podcast Season: Developed by Providence
In this episode, we talk about the sixth and final letter in the ROOTED acronym: Developed by Providence. The ROOTED Goal-Setting System reminds you that the Kingdom of God does not rise and fall by your efforts—but that you do have the responsibility to do your part, exercise your influence, and steward your resources.
Having a Christian growth-mindset allows you to set goals with an "amen" posture towards God's unknown plans for the future, knowing that when you give your goals back to God, you can trust Him to develop them in the best of ways.
Join us as we talk about how this Christian growth-mindset has played out in our real lives and goals over the last quarter (including our goal of recording this podcast)! We chat about goals that have had to change, how we stay motivated in the messy middle of goal development, and how our planner enables us to pivot effectively into new or changing goals as we follow the Lord’s leading.
The ROOTED Podcast Season: Etched Into Your Memory
In this episode, we talk about the fifth letter in the ROOTED acronym: Etched Into Your Memory. For a goal to be sustained in the long-run, it has to stay top of mind. Enabling your brain to think about your goal often and easily will ensure you can make progress on your goal even in the most chaotic of seasons.
Join us as we talk about the exact process we take to make sure our goals aren’t forgotten in the busyness of everyday life and responsibilities! We talk about how we use our planners to support our goals and to train our working memories to take action whenever possible, enabling us to make steady progress until a goal is accomplished.
The ROOTED Podcast Season: Tailored to Your Lifestyle
In this episode, we talk about the fourth letter in the ROOTED acronym: Tailored to Your Lifestyle. If you want to craft compelling goals that are grounded in your unique calling, then you’ll have to give yourself permission to develop creative solutions that make sense for your particular circumstances. Sometimes this means tailoring your goal to match your lifestyle, and other times this means tailoring your lifestyle to match your goal.
Join us as we chat about how taking time to tailor your goal and your lifestyle will prevent unnecessary tension between the two, and enable you to actually follow through even on the most challenging goals you set!
The ROOTED Podcast Season: Outlined for Clarity
In this episode, we talk about the third letter in the ROOTED acronym: Outlined for Clarity. Clarity is key when it comes to giving your brain an objective that it can actually process, prioritize, and tackle in the day-to-day.
When you break down a goal into tangible action-steps, you are equipped to move past your vague theories about what it will take to make your goal happen. You’re able to see the gaps in your knowledge about the process, which compels you to research until you have concrete and actionable understanding.
Listen in as we talk about exactly how to take a vague goal and break it down into actionable and compelling steps!
The ROOTED Podcast Season: Organically Growing Out of Your Context
In this episode, we talk about the second letter in the ROOTED acronym: Organically Growing Out of Your Context. You need goals that take your real life context seriously and embrace it. You need goals that connect with where you are right now, and that respect that you’re here for a reason. Recognizing the season you’re in and identifying the contours of your priorities can empower you to identify the next right step—the one that can realistically begin to build the lasting change you want to see.
Join us as we talk about why this is one of the most critical steps in setting ROOTED goals, a step that most other goal-setting systems completely ignore. We talk all about what this looks like in our lives and how embracing our context has empowered us to craft and execute meaningful goals year after year!
The ROOTED Podcast Season: Rooted in Your Core Calling
In this episode, we talk about the first letter in the ROOTED acronym: Rooted in Your Core Calling. Grasping the unique calling of God for your individual life is a life-long process! But leaning into your core calling is an essential part of creating goals that fully resonate over the long-haul, compel you to follow-through, and produce a lot of satisfying fruit along the way.
Join us as we talk through discovering how your core calling is playing out in your life today, and how that should impact how you set goals! We also talk a lot about how this part of the ROOTED Goal Setting System is not meant to weigh you down, but give you freedom to lean into your God-given strengths, passions and responsibilities!
The ROOTED Podcast Season: Overview
Tired of goal setting systems that pump you up, introduce massive tension between your goal and your daily responsibilities, and then leave you feeling like a failure?
We were too. So we created a system that is mercifully realistic, embraces everyday responsibilities as valid, and helps us become more deeply rooted in our broader life callings. We believe that the best goals are the ones that fuel a great way of life, and that a great way of life will fuel great goals. If you want more than a mountain top experience—if you're ready to actually translate your goals into action—then The ROOTED Goals workbook was created for you.
Setting ROOTED Goals: Developed by Providence
Recap:
Last week, we talked about the secret sauce for making progress on your important goals— even when things change —by writing your goals down frequently, even daily, so you train your brain to care about your goal. This week, we're wrapping up the entire ROOTED goals system by talking about the most critical mindset you can have when setting and executing your goals.
Your goals must be Developed by Providence, the final step in the ROOTED goal setting system.
The Kingdom of God does not rise and fall by the successes and failures of our written goals. Knowing this gives us an incredible amount of liberty to simply follow the Lord's leading through the messy middle. Leading our lives with integrity and excellence is a deeply meaningful endeavor, and God loves to give us the grace to do that. Having a Christian growth-mindset allows us to set our goals with an "amen" posture towards God's unknown plans for the future, knowing that when we give our goals back to God, we can trust Him to develop them in the best of ways.
Setting ROOTED Goals: Etched into Your Memory
Last week, we talked about how to create a symbiotic relationship between your goals and your lifestyle so they mutually support each other over the long-haul. This week we're going to talk about the secret sauce for making progress on your important goals— even when things change. When you train your brain to care about your goals, your subconscious joins the team and starts looking for every reasonable opportunity for you to make progress.
We call this "etching" your goals into your memory, and it's step 5 in the ROOTED goals process.
Setting ROOTED Goals: Tailored to Your Lifestyle
Last week, we talked about how to make sure your goals are clear and actionable, so that you can make significant progress whenever you have the time. Today, we're going to talk about that time, about how to create a symbiotic relationship between your goals and your lifestyle so they mutually support each other over the long-haul.
Step 4 is all about how to Tailor Goals to Your Lifestyle.
Other goal setting systems might show you how to reverse-engineer your goal (what we talked about last week), but then they end there and wish you good luck. This system shows you how to look at your goal in the context of your daily life, and then make strategic shifts in your schedule in order to make space for this goal.