Measuring Success

June 21, 2025 Cathleen Zahradnik

“But my life is worth nothing to me unless I use it for finishing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus—the work of telling others the Good News about the wonderful grace of God. Acts of the Apostles 20:24 NLT

How do you measure success? That’s an important question as you review your goal progress. Your perspective can encourage or discourage you.

When you are discouraged, you will not be motivated to keep moving forward. If you measure success by check marks next to goals achieved, you may find yourself discouraged more often than not. Are you discouraging yourself?

When you set a goal, you want it to be specific and measurable. However, we often set goals that are outside our realm of experience. You don’t know what you don’t know. That means your goal may turn out to be idealistic. We should set completion dates for our goals, but our information and experience are sometimes not enough to help us set realistic timelines. That may lead to discouragement.

Encouragement is a propellant. It is the wind in your sails and the gas in your motor. Encouragement is the needed fuel for this journey. Goal setting is not an exact science and goal achievement requires flexibility. You need a perspective that allows for that to properly measure success.

Keep an eternal perspective. You need to remind yourself that any goal you set is temporal. It only matters if it has impact that lasts beyond you.

How to Review Your Goals

June 14, 2025 Cathleen Zahradnik

“I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me. No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.” Philippians 3:12-14 NLT

How are you doing on achieving the goals you’ve set? It’s time to find out. It’s time to review your progress.

Reviewing your goal progress is an opportunity to celebrate, not just your progress, but your growth. So, how do you approach review in a way that encourages growth?

It starts with that perspective. Remember, it’s about the growth, not the goals. So, here’s a brief overview of how to do a goal review.

Set aside time. Reviewing won’t happen naturally. Since you are someone who wants to achieve, your tendency will be to focus on forward, check off the completed tasks and keep going. Looking back, reviewing, takes intentionality.

Review and Celebrate

June 7, 2025 Cathleen Zahradnik

“I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me. No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.” Philippians 3:12-14 NLT

Goals are not set-and-forget. Part of the goal-setting and accomplishing process is review. It’s important to stop from time to time and recognize what you have done toward your goal. Even if you aren’t as far as you hoped you would be, it’s important to celebrate where you are.

Just as you set goals in the beginning of the year or season, schedule times to review and celebrate. It’s important to make this a regular rhythm. And here’s why.

Reviewing reveals progress. Throughout my book-writing process it’s been easy to get caught in the weeds. There are many, many details in any big project. Truthfully, I tend to get overwhelmed at the beginning of large undertakings. I see all the details at once and don’t know where to begin.

Then, as I find a place to focus and get started, I never lose the awareness that there is still so much left to do. Although, I am making headway, it’s hard to acknowledge because of what is yet undone.

Give Yourself Credit!

May 31, 2025 Cathleen Zahradnik

“I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me. No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.” Philippians 3:12-14 NLT

Writing a book has been on my goal list for a long time. Often it seemed like I was making no progress at all. Yet, I was. Truthfully, God was doing much in me to deepen the message before it was ready to write. I understood the concept I was writing about, saying yes to God is the secret to a satisfying and fulfilling life, but I needed to do more living before the message was “ripe.”

Now that I am in the home stretch, I am not saying I have achieved “perfection” when it comes to living out that message, but I know that God has released it into the long-planned book. Before the end of this summer the book will be published. It’s hard to believe.

Why am I sharing this with you? Like me, you may be experiencing discouragement along your goal-accomplishment journey. You may feel like you are not making progress. It was easy for me to feel like I was failing because there was no book to point to. No manuscript or cover design. Only an outline and a few chapters. I did not allow myself to celebrate what I had done. I felt like a failure because of what I had not done.

Dear friend, learn to celebrate what you accomplish, not how much. We can get bogged down in comparisons. We compare our accomplishments to someone else’s or to our expectations of ourselves. Is what you expect of yourself reasonable?

Here are some questions to help you evaluate your progress.

Celebrating Small Step Victories

May 3, 2025 Cathleen Zahradnik

“I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me. No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.” Philippians 3:12-14 NLT

Are you a goal-oriented person? Maybe I am wrong about this, but it is my observation that goal-oriented people struggle to celebrate their progress. Do you?

If you are goal-oriented, you may be so focused on the end that you don’t recognize the milestones along the way. Here’s my advice: Learn to celebrate small steps.

Every forward step is a victory. That may be a big perspective shift for you, but it will be worth the effort. Recognizing forward steps as victories will serve to fuel your motivation. What happens when you’re motivated? You keep moving forward. Isn’t that what you really want?

Backward steps are still part of the journey. The overall goal is progress, not perfection. Backward steps are going to happen. Stumbling is part of being human. I don’t like it, and I’ll bet you don’t either. Accepting the limits of being human will ease some of your goal-oriented angst. Probably not all of it, but that’s okay. It’s helped me a lot. Why not give it a try?

Why Routines and Rhythms Help You Reach Your Goals

April 12, 2025 Cathleen Zahradnik

“So be careful how you live. Don’t live like fools, but like those who are wise. Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days. Don’t act thoughtlessly, but understand what the Lord wants you to do.” Ephesians 5:15-17 NLT

A morning cup of coffee is part of my daily routine. What about you? I don’t think about whether or not I will have a cup of coffee. I know that I will. I’ve already thought about it. That gives my brain space to just wake up and make other decisions.

That’s the importance of developing routines. I like to call them rhythms for growth. When you have already decided what is important and what you will do, your brain is free to be creative. I can’t quote science on it, but I’ve experienced it. Those rhythms are structures we have created unintentionally and intentionally that help us do the things that are important to us.

Structure guides growth and helps you achieve your goals. Why do you need structure to achieve your goals?

Structure keeps you in your lane. You know where you want to go. The structure of routines keeps you going in the right direction.

Have you ever thought about why there are lines on the road? They exist to help keep people safe. The white lines on the side of the road help drivers keep from drifting. The yellow lines in the middle help drivers remain on the correct side of the road but also give signals of what is safe or not in that area. Lined highways protect drivers from smashing into each other. I especially appreciate the dotted lines in turn lanes. Sometimes a lot of traffic is disorienting. Those lines guide me to turn into the correct lane amidst the busyness of an intersection.

Your personal rhythms, systems and routines can help you achieve your goals in the same way road lines help me make disorienting turns.

Rhythms for Growth: Planned Review

April 5, 2025 Cathleen Zahradnik

“Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.” I Corinthians 15:58 NKJV

Life takes a lot of our brain space. There are so many decisions to make every day. From what color socks to wear to how to pay your bills to how to wrangle that wayward child our brains are constantly occupied. That’s why planning to remind yourself of what you want to accomplish is so important.

If you don’t plan to remind yourself of the goals you have set, you will forget. It is human nature. Regularly scheduling a goal review helps you stay on track with what you believe God has called you to accomplish.

I’ve often found myself saying that I make a plan so that I don’t have to think about it. That isn’t accurate. When I make a plan, I have already thought about it. Since I have already made a decision, my brain is free to focus on other things. That is the value of a planned review. You have already thought about how to keep your goals in front of you. That frees your brain to be creative and develop plans for following through on those goals as you live your busy life.

Remember, it’s about the growth, not the goals. Regularly remembering your goals keeps you growing.

Why do you need to schedule regular goal reviews?

Life happens. We say it often, don’t we? Life happens. Life constantly reminds us of how little control we actually posses. So much is out of our control. Every week, every day, every moment things happen that we didn’t anticipate and need to adjust to.

Planned goal reviews are a recognition of that. Life happens and draws us away from our goals. Regularly reviewing your goals is a plan to stay on track.

How to Set God-Centered Goals — The Word and the Spirit

February 22, 2025 Cathleen Zahradnik

“The Spirit is God’s guarantee that he will give us the inheritance he promised and that he has purchased us to be his own people. He did this so we would praise and glorify him.” Ephesians 1:14 NLT

How do you set God-centered goals? If you are like me, you want your life to line up with God’s goals for you. You want to live for His glory. That means you want to set goals that honor Him and advance His Kingdom. A worthy desire! But how?

The key to lining up your goals with God’s goals for you is to know what His goals are, right? But how do you know what His goals are? He has provided all that you need. His Word and His Spirit.

The Word. If you want to set God-centered goals you must immerse yourself in the Word of God. His goal for your life will always line up with His Word. His word is one story from beginning to end. His Word helps you understand the big picture of God’s love for humanity and His plan for their redemption. God-centered goals fit into that big picture.

To know God’s goal for you, you must know His Word. You understand His desires as You understand Him through His Word. Jesus is the Living Word. God-centered goals glorify Jesus and always point to Him.

The Spirit. The Spirit is God present with us here and now. He is the guarantee that our lives belong to God, that we have a part in the inheritance He has planned for His family. What an awesome thought!

ASK: What Do You Want Most?

February 15, 2025 Cathleen Zahradnik

“But my life is worth nothing to me unless I use it for finishing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus—the work of telling others the Good News about the wonderful grace of God.” Acts 20:24 NLT

What is the result of God-centered goal setting? God’s glory. Is that what you want most? That’s a question I must often ask myself. If I want to stay on track with God’s purpose for my life, then His glory has to be the driver for my choices. But it often isn’t. What about you?

The key to setting God-centered goals is to seek God’s glory above all else. Much of the internet and print teaching you find about setting goals has to do with self-fulfillment and reaching your full potential. There is nothing inherently wrong with that, but it lacks the aspect of fulfilling divine potential, becoming all that God designed you to be.

So, Dear Friend, ask yourself what you really want. Is it self-fulfillment or fulfilling God’s dream for your life?

When I seek God’s glory, my desires become submitted to His. The thing about God’s glory is that it’s about God, not me. Do you start setting goals by asking what you want to do? Even if you start with asking who you want to be it leaves God out of the picture.

Goal-Setting Step 1: Ask - Listen for the Unexpected

January 11, 2025 Cathleen Zahradnik

“I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my loving eye on you. Do not be like the horse or the mule, which have no understanding but must be controlled by bit and bridle or they will not come to you.” Psalms 32:8-9 NIV

Tom and I like to begin the year with a season of prayer and fasting. Why? We want our relationship with God to set the tone for the year. What characteristics does He want to build in us? What weaknesses will we work on? What does God want me to know about Him this year? What goals does God want me to set to help me grow toward the person He designed me to be?

Setting God-centered goals starts with asking God what He wants. This goal-setting process begins in the final quarter of the previous year. That is when I begin praying, listening, and looking to discover my word for the next year. That word becomes a guide as I enter the fasting and prayer season. This process of praying and waiting is about staying open. By removing distractions, like sweet treats, social media, or mindless games on my phone, I make space for God to speak. And He does.

God-centered goals often lead us in unexpected ways to unexpected places with unexpected people. Last year one of my goals was to finally finish writing and publish the book that has been in process for a decade, The YES Adventure. That goal led me to apply for an aspiring author’s cohort with a well-known writer and speaker…and I was accepted! I received one one-on-one input from a woman whose ministry I have admired for several years. Her guidance helped me finally see a clear structure for my book. Not only that, but I also received meaningful personal ministry from her at a conference several years ago and was able to tell her how much she had impacted me. After the online meeting she called to tell me she had left that conference discouraged and wondering if she had connected with anyone. I said, “You did! With me!”

I didn’t know about that cohort in January. If I had not recognized God’s nudge to make the book a priority I would never have applied for the group, received clarity on structure, or had the opportunity to encourage my mentor. The goal wasn’t just about the task, but the people who became part of helping me complete the task. Developing tenacity, learning techniques, and influencing people have all been a part of the book project. It’s so much more than achieving a goal. It’s about the growth, more than the goal.

God-centered goals are about God’s plan for my growth.