The YES Adventure Framework for God-Centered Goal Setting

January 10, 2026 Cathleen Zahradnik

“I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.”’ Luke 1:38 NIV

What does 2026 hold for you? How intentional do you want to be in pursuing God’s purpose for your life? If you want to make progress towards fulfilling your divine potential, I want to offer you a resource.

My book, The YES Adventure: Transform Your Life with One Word, will encourage you and guide you through a God-centered goal-setting process: Ask, Aim, Act, Achieve.

You and I want Jesus to be the center of our lives. We want everything we do to honor Him and advance His kingdom. So, when you and I set goals, we want them to be goals that honor God and advance His kingdom. We want Him to be the center of every goal we set. This process helps us do that.

Here’s an overview.

ASK: Apart from Him we can do nothing. (John 15:5) Setting God-centered goals begins by asking God to guide you in the goals that are important to Him. It includes recognizing your unique gifts, personality, and passions to discover the clues that God has built into you so that you can do what He has made you to do.

AIM: Once you have explored how God has crafted you and asked Him to guide you, you take aim in the direction you discern Him to be leading. Setting God-centered goals is an act of faith. You are saying YES to God’s purposes for you.

ACT: This is where you work on those God-centered goals. After writing out all the goals that come to your mind, you focus on the top three that you want to reach for the year. Narrowing your focus makes you more likely to reach the goal you set. It takes perseverance to follow through. You may need to fine-tune or refine your goals along the way. The important thing is to keep taking steps in the direction of YES!

ACHIEVE: Once you reach the goals you and God have set together, you get to celebrate and begin the process again. Be sure to celebrate your progress, even if you didn’t reach your goals. You have gone further than you were. That is a victory. And once you have achieved your goal, ask God what is next. There is always another YES.

That’s where I am right now. My book, this idea that started decades ago and began to take shape in 2013, has finally been accomplished! I have learned so much along the way. I am certainly celebrating. Now, I get to ASK again. Then I get to AIM, ACT and ACHIEVE.

What is my next YES and where will my YES take me?

If you’d like to learn more, you can check out the book here. Please leave a review on Amazon! That will help other people find the book and receive guidance and encouragement in their God-centered goal setting.

If you’d like a partner to work through your process, schedule a complimentary 30-minute coaching session here. I’d be glad to walk with you through it.

One Last YES Lesson from Mary: Saying YES to the Unexpected

December 27, 2025 Cathleen Zahradnik

Mary demonstrates the YES life in one more way. She followed through to the end. Mary went through a lot in her lifetime, but we never get the sense that she strayed from her trust in God. The evidence of trust in the young girl who said, “Be it done to me according to your word” (Luke 1:38) remains until the last mention of Mary in Scripture, gathering with the first group of believers in Jerusalem, praying and waiting for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost (Acts 1:14). We can conclude that she was there and experienced the birth of the church with Peter and the others mentioned.

So, what would be the secret to her staying power? How did she live the YES life through the ups and downs of so much change and challenge? Since Joseph is not mentioned past the time when, at twelve, Jesus was found in the temple talking with the teachers, she likely lost her husband when she was young. She witnessed her son straying from the normal life path for people of her community, becoming an itinerant preacher who gained a large following and stirred up strong opposition, until eventually, she stood at the foot of the Cross and watched him die. And yet, if she was praying with the early believers, she must have also accepted and experienced the joy of His Resurrection. What was her secret? What can we learn from her about living the YES life?

In all these things, Mary learned to accept the unexpected. From the moment Gabriel showed up and announced the birth of Jesus, her life became a tangent from the expected trajectory of a young Jewish girl in ancient Israel. The truth is that she never knew what to expect and, although at times she may have settled into expecting the normal, it wasn’t too long before something reminded her not to get comfortable and instead, to be ready for the next twist in the road. To be ready for her next YES.

What about you and me? As I look back, I see lots of twists in my path. There have been times that I thought I was heading straight toward a certain destination, no obstacles, with victory in sight. I made good time with my eye on the summit, comfortable, even excited. Suddenly, my road made a hairpin curve. I totally lost sight of the victory I thought was mine. I was confused. Lost. Disappointed. Angry. You’ve been there, too. You know exactly what I mean.

When everything inside is screaming, “It wasn’t supposed to be like this,” we have a choice to make. Do we try to regain the anticipated life, or do we receive the life that God has mapped out? We can try to force things to work as we expected, or we can take a cue from Mary and accept the unexpected.

Mary had multiple opportunities to accept the unexpected, as do you and I. It’s part of the YES life. It’s part of achieving all that God has for us.

Excerpt from The YES Adventure: Transform Your Life with One Word by Cathleen Zahradnik. Check it out here. If you’ve read the book, please leave a review on Amazon to help other people find it!

A YES Lesson from Mary: Saying YES to Questions

December 13, 2025 Cathleen Zahradnik

Mary had lots of questions. But she knew YES was the next step in God’s plan for her. She said YES to God’s plan . . . and all the questions that came with it.

· What would Joseph say or do?

· How would her family respond?

· What would happen to her and her baby—God’s baby?

· How would this baby even happen?

There was no way to know how YES would change her life. But there was only one answer her heart could give: YES!

God’s plan for you may leave you full of questions right now. I get it. I have definitely been there. But in the end, my friend, every question is worth it. The uncertainty is worth it. Because, at the end of the day, what matters most is God’s glory. Your path to fulfilling your divine potential requires taking uncertain steps. Your direction may be clear, but, nevertheless, uncertainty remains. Clarity does not cancel questions.

Are you ready to lift your foot and put it down, uncertain of where it will fall? Take the next right step and just watch what appears beneath your feet!

A YES Lesson from Mary: Accepting the Risk of YES

December 6, 2025 Cathleen Zahradnik

Mary’s YES allowed her to participate in the purposes of God. Her no would have excluded her from God’s purposes. She knew that there was a risk involved. She had questions that were not answered in a concrete way. All she knew was that God was asking something of her. God had given her a mission: to bear his Son. How could she turn him down? So, Mary’s YES adventure began. She gave God her YES. He did the rest.

What is God asking of you? As you recognize Him at work, calling you, there is really only one thing to do if you want to live this adventure of a YES life. Say YES and leave the rest to him. Mary will tell you that, although it is scary, God can be trusted and it’s worth the risk.

Give God your YES. Trust Him with the rest.

What is God asking of you that will involve risk and requires your YES? Decide how you will respond today. Don’t put it off any longer.

A YES Lesson From Mary: Saying YES to God’s Plans and Adjusting Yours

November 29, 2025 Cathleen Zahradnik

Mary is a good model. Think about it. She had a plan: To marry Joseph and have a family, to do all the things a normal Jewish girl would have done in her culture. But God had another plan. He chose her and Joseph because their hearts were already given to Him. He knew they would roll with His new plan. And they did.

Having a plan is only a starting place. We make our plans. He directs our steps (Proverbs 16:9).

The bottom line, my friend, is to remember that with God, nothing is impossible. That’s what the angel Gabriel told Mary (Luke 1:37). Gabriel told Mary that there was no way she would make God’s new plan happen. All she had to do was to say YES. God Himself would make it happen. Her part was to cooperate with His plan.

Are you ready to cooperate with His plan? Are you ready to let Him adjust your plan? But first, are you ready to make a plan? Yes? Great! Just remember, you can do this!

A YES Lesson from Mary: Saying YES to Mystery

November 22, 2025 Cathleen Zahradnik

Confused.

I imagine Mary felt that way as she watched Jesus carry the crossbeam of his own torture through the streets of Jerusalem on a day that should have been preparation for celebrating the Passover. I wonder what kind of conversation she was having with God as she watched her angel-announced child bleeding from being beaten and scourged. How she must have cringed as insults were hurled at the child she had carried through promise and uncertainty and as she remembered the stable-turned-inn where she gave birth and received the visit of excited shepherds, or the small-home arrival of wise men with palace gifts. What were her questions? She must have felt so much confusion. “God, what are you doing? I don’t get it!”

Even for the woman who received a life-altering, history-making promise from a heavenly visitor, confusion was part of her experience. Modern culture tries to explain everything! You can find an article on the internet by “experts” in every field the mind can imagine. Every expert tries to explain anything that doesn’t make sense to humans. Sometimes those explanations are valid, and sometimes they are just weird!

A YES Lesson from Mary: Trust God with Your YES

November 15, 2025 Cathleen Zahradnik

The YES Adventure is a life of saying YES to God. One of the best biblical examples of someone living the YES adventure is Mary, the mother of Jesus.

The Scriptures tell us a lot about Mary, especially in the book of Luke. Luke refers to “eyewitnesses” and “careful investigation,” and some scholars believe there is a good chance that Mary was a primary source for his gospel narrative. That would make the account of the birth of Jesus that many people read every Christmas Eve an accurate description of the events. If she was a primary source, then much of what we read about Mary in Luke can be considered firsthand information.

In Luke 1:38, Mary gives the answer that begins her YES adventure. She says, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” (ESV). Other translations say, “as you said” or “may your word to me be fulfilled.” Your YES adventure and mine begin the same way. We put ourselves completely in God’s hands and say “God, do what You want with me.”

We all know the story of the angel Gabriel coming to tell Mary that she had been chosen, out of the thousands of young Jewish women in Israel at that time, to become the mother of God’s Son. Put yourself in her shoes for a minute. This young Jewish girl, doing her best to follow God, living according to the cultural norms of her day, betrothed by her father’s plan, doing the things that were expected of her.

Suddenly, she experiences an event way outside the norm. An angel visits her. An angel! She recognizes God at work but is most likely shocked at what the angel proposes. A baby?

Opportunities to Explore

November 8, 2025 Cathleen Zahradnik

Sometimes God closes doors so that we consider options we never expected. When things don’t work out as planned or our chosen opportunities don’t open, our brains keep trying to “solve the problem.” That’s often when our creativity kicks in. We may discover a solution that we never considered before.

As I write this, an opportunity is not working out as planned, and I am considering options I had not before. What is my next YES, and where will it take me?

Pursuing Faithfulness

November 1, 2025 Cathleen Zahradnik

Whatever else God may be calling you to do, my friend, above all, He calls you to be faithful. To be faithful is to be consistent. Be someone others can count on; someone God can count on. Count on yourself to show up for your calling. Commit to fulfilling the dream God put in your heart, no matter what.

How faithful have you been in your daily time with God? Fulfilling God’s purpose for you is about being His, remember? Being His means being faithful to make your time with Him a priority.

Have you been faithful listening to His voice through His word and His Spirit? Faithful listening means taking time to discern if you are hearing Him, or your own heart.

In Your Hand

October 25, 2025 Cathleen Zahradnik

In Your Hand

Moses is one of the greats of faith. Revered by Jews and Christians. Spoken of by unbelievers. Moses. Moses. Moses.

Moses talked back to God and basically said, “Find someone else for the job.” (Exodus 3) He gave all kinds of excuses to try to talk God out of sending him to Pharaoh. But God, being God, would not relent. He chose Moses, and Moses it was going to be.

When Moses finally got on board with God and said, “Okay! Okay! I’ll go” he asked God for a sign to prove to the Israelites, and to Pharaoh, that God had sent him. I don’t know what Moses was expecting, but God’s response was, “What’s in your hand?”

What was in Moses’ hand? His shepherd’s staff. God said He would use that. God took something ordinary Moses had used every day for years and made it extraordinary.

That staff eventually turned into a serpent before Pharaoh and his magicians. That staff, dipped into the Nile, turned the river to blood. That staff was lifted above the Red Sea and prompted it to part. Two million souls, with their animals and belongings, walked across the sea on dry ground.

What was in Moses’ hand? Nothing special. Just his old familiar tool. Just the thing he’d used for years. Just the thing he would never have expected God to use. But God did use it and delivered His people from 400 years of bondage. God used what was in Moses’ hand to accomplish His mighty purposes.