mindset

February 17, 2021

Intentional Pivoting: the Superpower of the Growth Mindset

Last week, we talked about how to set solid quarterly goals, and then use them to get back on track.

But, if you’re like most people, the one question that tends to trip you up in your intentional living aspirations is this:

What if I set epic goals, but then things change?

We can totally relate to this.

In fact, just yesterday, Shelby realized that TWO of the THREE goals she set for the quarter no longer fully made sense to pursue.

It’s really easy to look at a situation like that and throw in the towel, claiming that there’s no value in long-term planning whatsoever. But that’s simply not true. Because Shelby set those three goals at the beginning of the quarter, she was able to make significant progress on both of the goals before they needed to be de-prioritized. Even though she didn’t reach the point in either one where her motivating vision was 100% fulfilled, the progress she did make gave her a lot of hope that the vision could truly be realized in the future. The work that she did in skill-building and mentally organizing around those two goals would not be wasted—in the future when she turned her attention back to those goals, she’ll have a framework of positive experience in place and ready to build upon.

This kind of a perspective is vital to the development of a healthy growth mindset.

Taking into account the realities of changing circumstances—and then responding by intentionally pivoting on your goals in order to increase fruitfulness—is not the same as just neglecting or giving up on your goals. With the superpower of intentional pivoting, you’re able to stay in the driver’s seat (where you belong), even if Providence changes the terrain, the layout of the roads, or the direction you’re driving altogether.

How to Intentionally Pivot

These prompts will help you pivot intentionally in the wake of any major life transition. Transition periods can be as purposeful and fruitful as non-transition periods, even if in a totally different way. Think through these prompts as you go about your day, and then journal through them in your planner!

Describe the change and its implications for your 3 main goals for this quarter.
Which of my quarterly goals need to be de-prioritized so that I can show up focused, strong, and enthusiastic for this transition?
What was my motivating “why” behind the goals I realize need to be de-prioritized? Can I fulfill the essence of my “why” in other ways? Will I naturally get back to these goals, or should I time-anchor my intentions by tacking a note to myself on a future month in my Annual so I’ll remember to consider reprioritizing that goal in an upcoming quarter?
What goal(s) do I need to keep pursuing, even in the midst of this transition? What are the most essential (20%) tasks / attitudes I should focus on until things start to settle down after the transition?
What is my vision for graciously going through this transition? What goal(s) do I need to set in order to facilitate that vision?

A strong and intentional pivot will enable you to approach the rest of the quarter with hope, energy and motivation – even if in an entirely different way than how you imagined you would at the start of January.

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Our quarterly subscription box of Monthly booklets will open to new subscribers in just a few days! Join the waitlist to be among the first to know. Don’t miss the chance to build a strong planning (& pivoting) habit that will carry you through 2021 with intention towards the things that matter most to you.

February 10, 2021

How to Get Back on Track with Quarterly Goals

Posted by By Clari Mercier

Posted in Goal Setting

No matter how skilled we may be at developing solid rhythms, we all know what it’s like for life to get a little bit “off track.”

Whatever has thrown us off, we could all benefit from one key tip: set three focus goals for the rest of the quarter.

How exactly do quarterly goals help to get us back on track?

Imagine writing down your three main goals first thing in the morning, and then connecting with your motivating “why” for each one. You’ve just set up an accountability mechanism for yourself. You’ll start to become acutely aware of when you’re spending your time on non-essential things.

Then you’ll have a choice. Will you waste your discretionary time on every little distraction that comes your way? Or will you invest your time? In those quiet moments while the kids are still eating lunch, you could be making imperfect progress towards the completion of your essential focus goals. In that afternoon slump, you could be resting and recharging for your goals through meditation, prayer, journaling, playing, or exercise.

Studies show that we’re on average spending 8+ years of our lives just watching TV, and 6+ years of our lives on social media. But you don’t have to let 6-14 of the most productive, amazing years of your life slip away while you’re binging screens.

That’s a pretty motivating thought, isn’t it?

Here are three things to keep in mind when it comes to setting quarterly goals:

Make your 3 focus goals realistic. What are three things you can realistically do in the rest of this quarter? What do we mean by realistically? Well, if you had the goal to start your 5am habit when you’re just 6 weeks postpartum, you probably should reconsider and bench that during a season that needs rest. Chart out goals that are contextualized for the season you are in.
Make your 3 focus goals exciting. What things will REALLY move the needle forward in your life? What goals will really feel like they were worth the effort to craft an intentional lifestyle around making them happen? They don’t have to be exciting to anyone else but you. For instance, two of Shelby’s seasonal goals have to do with major home organization projects. Someone else might feel their eyes cross in boredom at the very thought of that. But Shelby has visualized what her life would be like if she mastered those areas of home organization. Her “why” for getting her digital and physical information organized is to replace the hours of time and frustration she spends every week hunting for files with writing peacefully with a cup of coffee in hand. Her “why” for getting her healthy kitchen streamlined is to cultivate an atmosphere of feasting and plenty at the family table.

Make your 3 focus goals easy to remember. The aim here is that these three overarching goals for the rest of your quarter will pop into your mind the moment you sit down to waste time on the mindless scroll. So you’ve got to make them super memorable. If your goal is to save $336.67 for a trip to the beach, round that puppy up to $340. Then when the thought, “save $340 by the end of the quarter” pops into your mind, you can take a few minutes to do some budgeting instead of spacing out and scrolling Facebook. If you have a benchmark for your business, make it really concrete so you know how you’re doing (i.e. instead of, “replace 3 days worth of income per week,”—bc, honestly, who can do financial math like that on the fly?!—say, “enroll 20 new students”). Then when you pull up Instagram, you can spend the next 20 minutes engaging with your ideal customer instead of stalking the cousin of that friend from high school.

Writing down your quarterly goals with bite-sized action steps below them on a weekly basis is a game-changer. (The flex space on our week spread is an amazing place to do this.) And our day spread has a research-based section for writing down your seasonal goals every single morning, and then connecting them to your “why.”

World Class leaders and influencers constantly trace their abilities to successfully execute high-level intentions to their daily ritual of revisiting their goals. This is pro-level stuff, guys.

A key to change is knowing what you want to do with those 6-14 amazing years you have hiding in the nooks and crannies of your day.

Envision your potential. Keep top of mind three quarterly goals that align with your core calling. Adopt a progress-over-perfection mindset about it all.

…then pull out that planner and make space to thrive.

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February 3, 2021

Reversing Limiting Beliefs

Posted by By Clari Mercier

Posted in Mindset

Last week, we saw how the Gospel has dealt a fatal blow to the legitimacy of the limiting beliefs holding you back from serious personal growth. Then, you were prompted to pull out your planner and make a bullet-point list in response to this question:

What are the limiting beliefs holding you back from getting serious about your core calling?

Today, we wanted to share with you the EXACT limiting beliefs journaling exercise that changed the Shelby and Kyle’s lives forever.

Limiting Beliefs Reversal Exercise

This exercise is incredibly simple. Grab your planner, and use some of the flex space to answer the following series of questions for each limiting belief you hold:

What is one limiting belief I hold?
Is it true?
How do I react when I believe the thought is true?
Who would I be without that thought?
What biblical principle backs this?
What is my new choice?

Here is an example from Kyle’s actual worksheet back in 2015 (shared with his permission, of course!):

What is one limiting belief you hold? I’ll never be financially successful.
Is it true? No
How do I react when I believe the thought is true? I get discouraged from working diligently to come up with viable solutions for income.
Who would I be without that thought? I would work confidently to build our income and savings.
What biblical principle backs this? Psalm 128:1-2, “Blessed is every one that feareth the LORD; that walketh in his ways. For thou shalt eat the labour of thine hands: happy shalt thou be, and it shall be well with thee.”
What is my new choice? To labor diligently and confidently steward the time, resources, and opportunities God has given me to increase our income and savings for the future, as well to help others and to leave an inheritance for our children.

Here’s an example of how he worked through a limiting belief that was true.

What is one limiting belief you hold? I don’t trust God’s providence in uncertain times
Is it true? Yes
Is it absolutely true? This is my usual reaction.
How do I react when I believe the thought is true? I become despondent and fearful, and cannot think straight because of paralysis.
Who would I be without that thought? I would confidently trust in God’s providence through troubling times.
What biblical principle backs this? Psalm 37:25, “I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.” Psalm 94:14, “For the LORD will not cast off his people, neither will he forsake his inheritance.”
What is my new choice? To rejoice in the future, confident that God owns the future and is directing our steps. Our duty is to obey Him and work diligently with our hands, prudently.

What were the life-changing results of this journaling exercise for Kyle and Shelby? It honestly marked a turning point in their thought lives. Instead of allowing limiting beliefs to run amok and paralyze all attempts at progress, they became very intentional to reverse these thoughts and make healthier choices with their brain power. It laid the foundations for Kyle and Shelby to go from broke and barely making it, to steadily building real wealth (instead of debt) and diversifying their streams of income. It made space for the abundance mindset and personal growth they needed to provide real value in the marketplace, strategize solutions, and trust God with the rest.

If you feel stuck, this exercise is a powerful starting point for arresting a negative thoughts and emotional patterns and reversing it with intention. Out of the heart flow the springs of life. We love that our planner system gives us a very practical way to guard our hearts with all diligence.

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Are you ready to launch into an entirely new way of planning? We created the Evergreen Planner System because we felt continually limited by each planner we tried. The Getting Started Kit is the perfect way to try two of our core products – the Annual and the Monthly. Don’t wait until we launch our next subscription box – get the tools you need today!

January 27, 2021

Confronting Limiting Beliefs

Posted by By Clari Mercier

Posted in Mindset

Have you ever heard of the phrase, “limiting beliefs?”

The first time Shelby heard that phrase, she thought it was a little bit woo-woo. But then her husband did a limiting beliefs exercise back in November 2015, and—get this—it literally changed their lives.

Here’s why: Limiting beliefs are, well, limiting. They hedge in the brain from considering certain possibilities altogether.

Limiting beliefs are not always harmful. For instance: one limiting belief you may have is that, if you jump off your roof, you won’t be able to fly. That’s a sound limiting belief. You’re legitimately not equipped to fly, and to consider jumping off of your roof without a good gameplan for landing on the ground is actually pretty dangerous. That limiting belief was encoded into your brain through hundreds of experiments with jumping off of various objects when you were a kid, and then finding that the force of gravity was a constant that you’d have to grapple with for the rest of your life.

But some limiting beliefs are not based on unchangeable realities, such as the force of gravity. Some limiting beliefs are present because of fear, guilt, or doctrinal error (and usually a mixture of the three).

Learning from the Wright Brothers

Before the advent of airplanes, many people believed that humans shouldn’t fly. That is an example of an unhealthy limiting belief. Fear said that any attempts to build flying machines were far too dangerous, guilt said humans don’t deserve that kind of freedom, and doctrinal error said that if God wanted humans to fly, He would’ve attached wings to their body!

Confidence studied the flying power God endowed to the birds, knowing we are worth more to God than the sparrow.

A clean conscience considered the wildly abundant possibilities of progress.

Bravery calculated risks and found ways to overcome barriers.

The Wright Brothers were deeply impacted by the Word of God, professed Christ from a young age, and reportedly lived out a Christian ethic. They did not let limiting beliefs hedge their brains in from considering the possibilities of controlled, sustained flight. They seemed to have a laser focus on their core calling, diligently studying God’s creative solutions for endowing birds with flight, humbly dividing labor according to their individual strengths, patiently moving forward, and ultimately overcoming every obstacle between themselves and the skies.

They pioneered a technology that surpassed all of the expectations of their contemporaries, revolutionized global transportation and industry, laid the foundations for future generations of engineers, and ultimately have been used to spread the Gospel in unreached communities as well as rescue and radically improve countless lives.

It’s true that the secondary agents of progress are not always seeking the glory of God. Yet an even more profound truth is that since Christ took charge of this planet, it’s a whole new world that’s burgeoning with hope, and rapidly advancing.

And if you’re a child of God, truly, there are no limits on your personal growth. Your heart to serve others by making positive change in their lives was put there by the God of the Universe. He has zealously undertaken to fill up every deficit within you with the overflow of His grace, so that your work can be sacred and effectual in more ways than you can imagine. Sanctification has serious practical implications. So when it comes to redeeming the time and making an impact, what are you waiting for?

Next week, we’ll be sharing the exact Limiting Beliefs Reversal journaling exercise that Kyle did that marked a turning point in the Shepherds’ lives. Since then, Shelby has done this same exercise at pivotal moments in her life, when she needed radical clarity so she could boldly move forward in the things that mattered most.

In preparation for that, take time to pull out your planner and jot down a bullet-point list in response to this question: What are the limiting beliefs holding you back from getting serious about your core calling?

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How to Intentionally Pivot

How exactly do quarterly goals help to get us back on track?

Here are three things to keep in mind when it comes to setting quarterly goals:

Limiting Beliefs Reversal Exercise

Here is an example from Kyle’s actual worksheet back in 2015 (shared with his permission, of course!):

Here’s an example of how he worked through a limiting belief that was true.​

Learning from the Wright Brothers

Here’s an example of how he worked through a limiting belief that was true.