I’ve heard of Lara Casey though out the years and even looked at her Powersheets with my friend Alicia but I actually started following her for the most ridiculous reason that has nothing to do with either of our successes: Gardening.

See I always want to have a garden and one year my sister and I even got really ambitious and planted 5 types of tomatoes and a bunch of herbs. Rarely did these get watered and we ended up with about 20 teeny tiny ones and one giant yellow one which I then tried to turn into tomato sauce and failed. It was a rough summer.Since then I have managed to keep my succulent alive and leave the other plants to Scott. Thankfully his grandma keeps us supplied in fresh tomatoes and cucumbers. She has an amazing garden and tries to give me tips but they haven’t stuck yet.

Still every spring I get the desire to garden. Mostly a vegetable garden because you just can’t beat the taste. But every year I never actually know where to start. So when Lara first posted about gardening on Facebook I clicked subscribe so I could actually find out if I could grow something this year (I have my eye on peppers…).

And that is the long version of why I started to follow Lara’s blog. Little did I know she had so much more to share than gardening tips!

A few months ago she was the guest on the Goal Digger podcast and as I listened to it in the car so much struck me. She is an expert when it comes to setting goals and so even though we are a third of the way into the year, it’s never too late to set or reevaluate your yearly goals! So today I wanted to some up some of her best tips!

1. Start with a good reason why. If you don’t have a purpose or aim then your goals will just not happen. If you don’t have a drive behind them they will fizzle out quickly.

2. Don’t just set work goals. Think through Personal. Faith. Marriage. What is your life outside of your business?

3. Remember goals don’t have to be forever! Can be for just a season. You don’t have to pick something you will try to do for the rest of your life or even the rest of the year! Pick something just for the month or the next few!

4. Goals are born out of grace, not guilt. Set goals you can accomplish and want to – not just because you feel you need to. How will they improve your life or serve others? If neither of those is true you probably don’t need to have them on your list. Think about the big picture. How will these get you to end goal (or your why)! An easy way to do this is to think about what your life will look like at 80 – does this goal help you get there or take away from that? What are you growing now that will outlast you?

5. Edit your goals. Think through them with a critical eye. Do you really need to do that? Or are you just adding unnecessary burdens?

6. Lastly, look at what’s not going well and learn from it and change. Every month I sit down and see how things are going and where I’m at. The past has valuable things to teach us. Don’t beat yourself up though if you didn’t reach a goal – learn from it, adjust, and move on! Again, grace not guilt.

Through all the goals and busyness and chaos of life though I want you to remember: “My worth is not my work. You don’t have to be perfect to live a meaningful life. What if your numbers on Social Media were actually people in your living room and hearts you were given to reach. How would those numbers change?” (Lara Casey – loosely quoted :)