The Beauty of 90-Day Goals

It’s that time of year for many when, despite success or failure, thoughts of resolutions are swirling in the head. In our culture, we want to do better and be better with every year that passes and that means setting GOALS. In the Lord, we want to bear more fruit and grow as individuals. I am GREAT at setting goals. I am GREAT at coming up with a PLAN for those goals. I am not, however, so great at accomplishing all that I set out to do. Enter the beauty of 90-day Goals.

In times past, I would set all my goals for the entire year and… fail.

I am, by nature, an idealist and visionary. This means that I can envision BIG things and in their ultimate state of “perfection”. Can you see my problem??? It has been VERY common through the years for me to bite off more than I can chew! I am learning that I need to take my big ideas and scale them back a bit and break my goals down as much as possible into realistic bite-sized portions without compromising the vision I have.

Setting 90-Day Goals has been the key for me in accomplishing what I feel God is calling me to.

But I also don’t want to stop moving forward on some of the goals I set in motion this past year. So, I am evaluating and assessing what will be a good pace at which to continue moving toward those goals.

The sheer BEAUTY of setting 90-Day Goals is that I do not have to set myself up for failure for the entire year- I actually give myself a greater chance of success.

Setting 90-Day Goals allows me a flexible margin in which I can assess, tweak, and change any goal process that is not working out for me. I’m not locked into a long-term commitment this way.

The other thing I love about setting goals in a 90-day margin is that it gives me a workable timetable in which to accomplish the tasks that will move me toward the ultimate outcome I am shooting for by the end of the year. If after 90 days I feel like I am not moving closer to that outcome, I do not feel as much of a loss as I would have had I been working on this goal for an entire year!

So, here’s how I set my 90-day Goals:

I print out my 90-Day Goals Worksheet for each area of my life and I set aside time to pray about each core area in my life according to my priorities.

For me, the areas of priority are: My relationship with the Lord and Caring for my Temple, My relationship with my husband, My relationship with my children, Duties at Home, Homeschooling, and Ministry.

When I have direction and focus on what I need to accomplish for the coming year, I write those down on the sheets I printed for EACH CORE PRIORITY. There are two pages per category with a possible 6 Ultimate Outcome Goals. I usually stick to 3-4 goals (OR LESS) per priority for each 90-day margin because 6 is usually pushing beyond what is reasonable for me. For example:

In the above image, you can see that I have 90-day goals for my relationship with the Lord. This year, I want to see more fruit of the Spirit developed in my life and I want to become more sensitive to the Spirit’s leading.

That’s the Ultimate Outcome I am believing God for, that is my end-goal, that I would like to see come to pass in my life. The ACTION STEPS to reach the ultimate outcome goal that I can start to take over the next few weeks will be to pay more attention to the Holy Spirit’s leading and to make sure that I am studying the scriptures about that subject and about the fruits of the Spirit.

In the last section, “To-DO tasks”, this is where I write out my DAILY plan to get there. I could just say that I am going to ‘devote time to study’ but that is not specific enough in order to reach my Ultimate Goal. So instead, I have written that I am going to devote time EACH DAY… BEFORE I do anything else… to my study and prayer time.

Do you see the difference?

I have now committed that nothing else will take the place of my time with the Lord and the subject I am feeling led to cultivating in my life during this season. I will also dedicate a journal to recording all that I learn in this season so that I keep it fresh in my mind. The third thing I am committing to by ACTION is that any time I sense the Lord leading me, I am going to stop and adjust myself to living according to His Spirit.

The Beauty of 90-Day Goals- It’s a do-able plan

NOW I have a DOABLE plan that I can practice and actively follow to get closer to my goal. And I do this for EVERY area of my life. When I am determining my health goals, I will print out two pages of the 90-Days goals pack and record my goals there.

Same with marriage, children, home-keeping and homeschooling, and finally with the ministry. For example, I really want to focus on regular date nights with my husband this year, we let a lot of things get in the way this past year and we need to nurture “us” again.

So, That will be one of my top priorities for our marriage. For my kiddos, I want to pray WITH them more and not just FOR them. This will be recorded on my pages for Relationship with Children.

All those pages will then go into my Master Household Notebook (CLICK HERE to learn more about my 50-page Master Household Notebook & learn how I manage our large household and keep track of our crazy schedules!) and I will review them weekly to make sure that I am keeping up on my goals.

As I approach the 90-day mark, I reassess and start the process all over again. Some goals, I may decide to just continue with if I am doing very well, others I may change completely, and for those I accomplish, I add new goals to continue working on throughout the year- but the point is I am working toward the desired outcomes. The one I shared with you above, will most likely be a year-long study for me, but, I have the flexibility to change it if the Lord leads otherwise.

Setting goals are only worth it if you achieve them, amen?

I am always looking for ways to improve each area of my life and become more fruitful as a woman of God. The bottom line is that reaching goals is ultimately on ME, but I have found that I am much more successful when I set realistic goals and in the 90-day time frame.

I’ve created a new FREE 3-page printable to go in my Master Household Notebook so that I start each year with the right focus and stay on track with all that I want to accomplish and today, I’m offering it to you!

Wanna try 90-Day Goal Setting yourself? Subscribe today for my FREE printable! Yay for free! I pray you have a blessed and fruitful year!