Over the last few years, ever since I started using Cultivate What Matters PowerSheets, I’ve fallen in love with the practice of reviewing the year and visioning for the coming one. It’s been such a helpful experience to stop and reflect, and then to pause and plan. Before doing that, I felt like years were flying past without me even knowing what really happened or if I was truly headed in a direction I wanted to be going!
I’ve become intentional about my years, but in a way that’s not stringent or full of an overwhelming list of small to-do’s. Instead, I think about the big picture, like who I want to be and what kind of impact I want to have had on the world when I’m 80 years old. Then I figure out which areas of my life or what kinds of habits I want to focus on cultivating during the coming year. (Cultivate What Matters PowerSheets walk you through this whole process in a much more thorough way.)
I end up with focus areas that I’m pouring more energy into for the year. It doesn’t mean I don’t do other things during the year–it just means I’m being way more intentional about cultivating certain areas on a deeper level in this season.
BTW, this is not sponsored by Cultivate What Matters, though that is an affiliate link above. I’m sharing about it because it’s the framework I use to think about goals for the coming year. I’m going on my 4th year of using PowerSheets, and they’ve been SO beneficial for my life that I wanted to share about them.
What I’m Cultivating in 2020
1. Stronger spiritual rhythms. This was one of my 2019 focuses, but I’m feeling a need to go deeper. Benson often quotes Marshall Goldsmith, “What got you ‘here’ won’t get you ‘there’,” meaning that sometimes life practices or modes of operating that once worked for a season in your life may not work for the upcoming season of life. The next season of life might require something stronger, something deeper, something more intense, or just something different. We’re feeling that with spiritual rhythms, and we need to cultivate something deeper.
2. Girls nights every 2-3 months. In 2019 one of my focuses was to show up well for my family. I feel like I did a fantastic job with that, and I say that proudly because it took a LOT of change on my part! This year, I want to deepen relationships with my girl friends. We spend a lot of time with friends in family settings, but you know–those involve conversations that get cut off and often never finished. I want to spend some non-kid time with friends regularly this year.
3. Two 10-minute walking breaks everyday. I hit my step count everyday, so doing two 10-minute walking breaks is more for mental rest and space. It’s time to break from the to-do list, step away from work for a moment, and breathe. Honestly, I’m iffy about this goal and how much I’ll actually feel its effects–Benson made me do it. 😂 But I know taking a break and walking can’t hurt, so I figured why not?
Like I said, I’ll still do other things, like show up for my family well or maintain my health. But since I focused on cultivating those areas the last couple of years, they’ve become well-established habits that feel like they’re in a satisfying place for now. They don’t need to be focus areas this year.
My PMT Focuses for 2020
1. Launch a course on foundations of style! I’ve been wanting to do this for over 2 years and finally started in 2019. But, knowing a lot of my time and energy would go towards that conference I was leading worship for, I knew I had to wait until 2020 to really get the course going. This will be my main focus from January through March. The course will be a step-by-step guide for creating put-together outfits that work for YOU and boost confidence and make you feel amazing! You’ll learn to identify your style and what kind of pieces work for YOUR lifestyle, determine your colors, learn to best dress YOUR body shape, learn the foundations of putting together pieces in a way that works, and get coached in using my go-to tips to pull together outfits every time. OH MAN, I can’t wait!!!
2. Continue writing style how-to posts. This was one of my focuses for 2019, and one big way I did that was with the Plain to Polished series among other style tip posts. Looking forward to continuing them, and I believe that launching the course and the type of content that’s in there will only increase the amount of these types of posts.
3. Finish Starter Kit Wardrobe Guides. The Casual Starter Kit Wardrobe Guides are done and available for every season, and this year I’ll focus on finishing the Business Casual ones. The Winter Business Casual version is next! There’s currently no Summer Business Casual Starter Kit, but literally NO ONE asked me for one whereas I’ve been asked regularly for all others. I figure summer office style can be very similar to spring. Would love to hear your thoughts if a Summer Business Casual Starter Kit is necessary, or if spring suffices!
4. Cultivate the PMT Team. This was a goal last year as we just added a 3rd team member at the end of 2018. We got into a great groove! I mentioned in the 2019 Year In Review that we grew our team from 3 to 4 at the end of 2019, so I’ll be focusing again on cultivating our team dynamics.
Do you create goals or intentional areas to cultivate for the year? If not, I’d highly suggest coming up with a few!
