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.

This Summer!

May 24, 2025 Cathleen Zahradnik

Final edits and formatting are in process!

Thanks for your patience. I can’t wait to share it with you!

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?

How Others Help You Reach Your Goals

April 26, 2025 Cathleen Zahradnik

“So encourage each other and build each other up, just as you are already doing.”1 Thessalonians 5:11 NLT

Who helps you grow, my friend? Is there anyone in your life that you trust enough to tell you the truth?

I have a few friends that I know will tell me the truth about myself. They have invested in me, and I in them. We have spent enough time with each other to know each other well. We have gone through challenges and celebrations together. I am grateful for friends like that, but I have learned that those kinds of relationships are not just a blessing. They are essential.

None of us can truly accomplish anything on our own. Even though we may think we do. We need other people to help us become the person God designed us to be. He made us that way. We are created to need each other. Achieving your goals requires other people.

You need a teacher. A teacher shows you what to do. It may be someone with a free YouTube channel, or you may pay for a particular course of action. It may be a friend who is a few steps ahead on the journey or a skilled neighbor who invites you to shadow them and learn. You don’t know what you don’t know until you begin to learn. That’s been my experience.

I’m grateful for all the people who have made their knowledge available through the Internet. But I am most grateful for people who’ve been willing to share their knowledge and experience. Those relationships have been a treasure. We may not have become close friends, but they have deeply impacted me and guided me with their skill. I will always think of them and smile.

You need an encourager. There are several people who have continued to encourage me in my writing journey. They have believed in me and voiced their excitement or commented on things I have written.

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 Know What God Wants

March 15, 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

I like setting goals. I have gotten in the habit of setting them at the beginning of every year. What I have learned most from this practice is that some goals are my ideas, and some align with God’s goals for me. As the year goes on, I can tell by the progress I make and how I am learning and growing in the process. I want to set those kinds of goals from the start. But how do I narrow down my goals to focus on God’s goals for me? How do I know what God wants?

This is a tough one. There are many plans in my heart and yours. So many things you and I want to do. How do we know which ones to focus on? How do we narrow our goals down to the ones that God has for us?

Here are a few steps.

Pray. This may seem obvious, but it is an easy step to skip. Even when we are working for the Lord it can be easy to leave Him out of the process. We make our plans and work hard, convincing ourselves that we are doing it for God, but it’s very possible that we’ve never talked to Him about it.

This became clear to me when I was working as a full-time pastor. All day, every day I was working for God, but I realized I was losing my connection to Him, and I didn’t want that. I began to pray regularly as I sat down to my desk, Lord, help me do this with You, not just for You. It’s a prayer I still pray, but. more often than not, it’s a prayer I need to remind myself to pray because I just dive into the work. Perhaps you identify with that.

Praying over my goals regularly helps me remember that I can’t accomplish them on my own and that my goals are not about me. They are about His honor and glory. That helps me tweak or abandon goals as necessary. But it also keeps me motivated to persevere in the goals that become clearly His.

Read. God’s goals will always line up with His Word. The best way to recognize God’s goals for you is to know what His word says. Again, this may seem obvious, but it is easy to skip.

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.

God-Centered Goal Setting: Love is the Motivator

January 25, 2025 Cathleen Zahradnik

“O my son, give me your heart. May your eyes take delight in following my ways.” Proverbs 23:26 NLT

It’s still early in the year. Have you set some goals yet? If so, did you include God in your goal-setting process? Loving God is about making Him the center of all we do. You and I know that. But do we let our love for Him dictate how we approach setting goals?

Essentially, there are two ways to approach including God in the process. The first is to set goals based on what you want and what you think is best. You may pray and believe these goals are the ones God is speaking to you, which is good. The final step in that process is to ask God to bless your efforts and help you achieve those goals.

There is nothing inherently wrong with that approach. Your desire is to honor God and that is wonderful! However, let me propose a better way.

In the second approach, you put God at the center from the beginning. You ask God what He is doing and how He wants you to participate. You ask Him to guide you in setting goals that achieve His purpose. I grow in my love for God when I focus my goal-setting process on hearing His heart and bringing Him glory. Here’s some perspective.

God-centered goals focus on what He is doing around me. Loving Him and listening to His heart means my eyes are more open to what is happening around me. I recognize when He is at work in a situation. I notice when He wants to move at a slower pace than I prefer. I hear another person’s words through the filter of what He wants to accomplish in and for them.

When I am more aware of what God is doing and wanting to do than my own desires, I can set goals that align with His. There is nothing more satisfying!

God-centered goals reveal what He wants me to do to achieve His goals. When I see and hear what He is doing around me my question becomes, “God, how do you want me to fit into Your plan and purpose here and now?”