time management

January 12, 2022

Setting ROOTED Goals: Organically Growing Out of Your Context

Posted in Goal Setting, Lifestyle Planning, Mindset

Sustainable, Lasting, and Life-Giving Goals Are:

Rooted in your core calling
Organically growing out of your context
Outlined for clarity
Tailored to your lifestyle
Etched into your memory
Developed by Providence

Recap:

Last week, we talked about how to start uncovering the soil of your core calling. Core calling goals resonate deeply, compel you to follow-through on them, and start bearing fruit immediately. The soil of your core calling forms a rich environment for setting sustainable, healthy goals that actually energize you.

Other goal setting systems tell you to close your eyes and imagine where you want to be in 5-10 years—to dream big!—then to reverse-engineer and hustle and grind to make that dream come true.

This system grounds you in reality by helping you figure out the logical next right step for your real life. It starts by embracing your starting point as valid, and then helping you figure out the next right step to take to move you closer to where you’re trying to go.

Step 2 of the ROOTED system is all about setting goals that are ‘Organically Growing Out of Your Context.’

Our culture is obsessed with setting wild, untethered goals that introduce crazy amounts of tension between your desire for change and the realities of your day-to-day life. You may have big dreams. But you are not “behind” on anything. You’re right where God wants you to be to take the best next step to where you’re meant to go.

But if you’re anything like I was at the beginning of my goal-setting journey, you feel like the chasm between these ideals and real life is impassable. When you feel this tension, it’s time to start finding your next-right-step goal.

December 29, 2021

How ROOTED Goals Can Help You Thrive This Year

Posted by By Clari Mercier

Posted in Goal Setting, Lifestyle Planning, Mindset

January 1st is only days away. With it will come a massive wave of social pressure to sit down, dream big, map out your future, and then relentlessly hustle and bend every aspect of your life to make those goals happen.

But we’re not falling for that this year. We think there’s a better way.

Unrealistic, untethered, shame-motivated goals are a cultural epidemic. We ourselves know all too well what it’s like to put pen to paper, get our adrenaline pumping, cross our fingers with the hopes that somehow it’ll be different this time—and then have unforeseen higher priorities come in and wash away all of our wishful thinking.

We’re done with 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.

Time is too precious for that! As home-loving wives, mamas, and entrepreneurs, we needed a goal setting system that was mercifully realistic, embraced our other responsibilities as valid, and was deeply rooted in our broader life callings. The ROOTED Goal Setting System was the fruit of that quest.

For the past two years, we’ve been developing this system to help woman set lasting, sustainable, and life-giving goals. This is an entirely new way of thinking about goal setting (you may remember it was the topic of one of our podcast episodes this past fall).

December 15, 2021

Cultivating Peace Amidst Holiday To-Do’s

Posted by By Clari Mercier

Posted in Holiday Tips, Mindset, Planner Tips

Christmas in ten. days. away. If you’re feeling a crushing sense of overwhelm at everything left to do before now and then, take a deep breath. Grab something warm to drink, and cozy up for some words of encouragement and practical tips before you launch into frenzied action.

We could never outdo Isaiah 9:6-7 or Luke 1:46-55 in an attempt to explain how incredible the Incarnation has been to world history. It is fitting that a celebration of Christ’s birth is a day with so much focus every year. God with us. It’s a profound thought. A revolution. The Light entering the darkness of history and chasing away sin and death “far as the curse is found.” It’s phenomenal.

You want to stay focused on what matters most. But with a hundred things on the to-do list, it’s kind of difficult to transpose the message of “peace on earth” to “peace within.” Here are some tips you can utilize today to step out of your frazzled hurry and into stillness of spirit.

Practical Tips to Cultivate Peace This Week

Declutter your brain. You cannot expect to have the space to relax if your brain has a hundred tabs open and trying to load all at once. Get every single task and detail that’s weighing on your mind down on paper. And then sort them according to their priority. What absolutely has to happen? What is important, but not essential? What is fun, but not important? Having absolute clarity on the things that are most essential, will automatically bring a sense of peace to your to-do list.
Envision what you really want this Christmas. Be specific. It helps to journal this out in the flex space of your planner, incorporating and highlighting core value words in your description. Here are some ideas: reverent, calm, cozy, mindful, communion, delight, deep, warm, centered, focused, together, anticipation, hope.
Be willing to cut the nonessential. If your vision is a festive and delicious Christmas dinner—stressing yourself out to add variety to your cookie selection will minimally add to the warmth of togetherness. In fact, it could actually be counterproductive as you will struggle to have the presence of mind to relax and infuse peace into your family’s dinner with your own still spirit. The idea that the host has to be stressed out of her mind every Christmas as she slaves to make everything flawless is a LIE. Your family needs your joy more than they need a Pinterest-perfect dinner. Ruthlessly edit your to-do list so that you can show up for what’s truly essential this week.
Take stillness moments. When you feel your stress levels rising, don’t just push through. Take a deep breath and remember Who this week is all about! Jesus welcomed Mary to sit at His feet, even while Martha was running around like a chicken with her head cut off. It’s so tempting to say, “I’ll find my center in Christ after _____.” That doesn’t have to be your story this Christmas season. Christ came for you to lay down your burdens, too. He’s not worried if you forgot to order your Advent calendar in time, or if your kids have their matching pajamas clean on Christmas morning. So every time you feel your Martha coming on, choose a Mary moment. Take a long drink of water, settle the kids, and then take a moment by yourself to just Abide. Don’t get on Instagram, but instead set a timer for 5 minutes. Put on a playlist that ministers to you. Breathe deeply, keep your eyes closed, and lean into a conversation with God until the timer goes off. It doesn’t take much to recenter on what matters—but it does take intention.

Christmas is ten days away. That’s ten days to cultivate peace in your home. Ten days to knock out the essential things and let the rest fall away. Ten days to prepare to celebrate the greatest moment the world has ever known.

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Need a tool to help you plan the holiday season effectively? Our free day planner is a great way to help you get out of your head, sort your priorities, and let everything else fall away.

November 17, 2021

Planning While Postpartum – (Podcast Ep. 7)

Posted by By Clari Mercier

Posted in Lifestyle Planning, Planner Tips, Podcast Episodes

Listen on Apple Podcasts or Google Podcasts.

Planning while postpartum? At first glance it sounds over-the-top, almost an oxymoron. In the past we’ve even written about how the postpartum season can be an excellent time to take a break from your planner. So why did we choose to do an entire podcast episode on planning while postpartum?

You have to remember that when we say “planning”, we are talking about self-compassionate planning. And perhaps there is not a better time to practice self-compassion than when you are in a season of recovery like the postpartum season. When we say planning while postpartum, we aren’t talking about planning our biggest goals, or mapping our business’ trajectory for the next year; we are talking about the simple, but extremely useful, form of day-to-day planning that helps us get out of our heads, sort our priorities, and let the non-essentials fall away.

Postpartum should be a season of rest. One where we focus on healing and soaking in those newborn days that pass so quickly. It should be a season where family and friends rally around to bring meals, help with other children, and take over housework. And even when this ideal can’t happen, we can still choose how we will approach our season of recovery. We can choose to set expectations for ourselves a little lower so we are able to focus on what matters most.

But it’s incredibly hard to rest when you have a smattering of to-do’s rattling around in your brain. It’s hard to know what’s essential and what can be left for another day (or dropped completely), when you’re foggy from sleep deprivation. It’s hard to track how well you’re healing physically, mentally and emotionally, if you try to do it all in your head.

And that’s where a planner begins to make a lot of sense.

In this episode, we talk about the unique ways we (Clari & McCauley both had babies this past spring, so navigating the postpartum season is fresh!), and other mamas have used the planner while postpartum.

If you’re pregnant or in the postpartum season, give it a listen. We believe you’ll find it both encouraging, and also inspiring as you navigate the postpartum time. And if you have any friends who are in that season, we’d love it if you’d share it with them!

Listen on Apple Podcasts or Google Podcasts.