Ever set a goal that looked great on paper but left you feeling frustrated, guilty, or just plain stuck? We've all been there. Too often, we chase "should" goals or tuck away "someday" goals—while the ones God is actually calling us toward remain buried.
This week on Nourished to Bloom, we're flipping the script and learning how to set Soul Goals—the kind that grow out of God's whispers, align with our gifts, and require His help to flourish.
Here's what we're digging into together:
✨ Why typical goal-setting leaves us empty — and how to stop chasing pressure-driven "shoulds" 🌱 The three kinds of goals: • Someday Goals — dreamy but always pushed to the backburner • Should Goals — fueled by comparison and outside voices • Soul Goals — birthed from prayer and rooted in God's unique call on our lives 🍞 The Loaves & Fishes model (Matthew 14:19): Jesus blesses, breaks, and shares—just like He does with our gifts and even our brokenness 💡 How to spot a Soul Goal: it excites you and scares you at the same time—holy boldness in action! 📝 A simple 5-step roadmap for setting goals with God instead of by yourself
And remember this: even what feels small or broken in your story can be multiplied in God's hands. 💛
📣 Ready for your next step? 👉 Download your FREE Middle Motherhood Planner 👉 Book a complimentary Life Audit & Clarity Session with Kara to uncover your unique Soul Goals
Let's step into courage together, offering our loaves, our fishes, and even our broken pieces—trusting that God will do more than we can imagine. 🌸
Join The Nourished to Bloom Community: www.community.karatrochta.com
Instagram: www.instagram.com/karatrochta
The Nourished to Bloom Podcast Show Notes: www.podcast.karatrochta.com/shownotes
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Let me ask you something. When was the last time you set a
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goal? Maybe it sounded something like this year I'm
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finally going to get organized or I'm going to work out
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three times a week or I'll be more intentional or productive with
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my time now that the kids are in school. Yep, we've all
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been there. Setting goals sounds really good on paper, but
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why do they always end up maybe fizzling out, leaving us either
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frustrated or guilty? Well, I think it's because so
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often our goals are driven by pressure, comparison,
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or what we think we should be doing instead of what
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God is actually calling us to. So today we're
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going to explore a different way. We're going to talk about
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setting soul goals, the kind that flow out of who
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God created us to be, that connects to our
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deepest desires and that only he can bless,
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multiply and use for his kingdom. Welcome
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to the Nourish to Bloom podcast where your faith meets your health.
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I'm your host, Kara Trochta, a registered dietitian and certified
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Catholic coach, and I'm here to help you cultivate a deeper connection with your
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body, your spirit, and the nourishment that sustains them both.
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In a world filled with noise and confusion about food,
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health and body image, this podcast offers truth and healing from
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a Christ centered perspective. Together, we'll untangle the deep
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roots of diet culture and discover what it means to truly
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care for ourselves through joyful nourishment of mind,
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body and soul. We're here to dive into the transformative power
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of intuitive eating coupled with the rich teachings of our Christian faith.
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With every episode, I'll be cheering you on, offering insights,
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inspiration and practical tools to help you heal your
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relationship with food and embrace the beauty of your body as
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a temple of the Holy Spirit with confidence and
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courage that can only be found in Christ.
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Join me as we journey together towards a more holistic approach to wellness,
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one that honors the wisdom of your body as God's creation,
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the teachings of our faith, and the unique purpose you're called to
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fulfill. You were made to bloom,
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to come into full beauty and health in order to bear good fruit
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for the Lord with your life. So if you're ready to nourish your body,
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feed your soul, and bloom into the best version of yourself, then
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you're in the right place. And I'm so happy you're here.
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Welcome to Nourish to Bloom, where every day is a sacred
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invitation to thrive. Hey there.
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Welcome back to the Nourish to Bloom podcast and we are in part
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three of our writing the next chapter in middle
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motherhood series. So, just a quick recap. In episode
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one, we asked, what's in your basket? And it was all about
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discovering our loaves and fishes, which is the
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gifts and the passions that God has already placed in our hands.
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And then in episode two, we talked about looking up and letting go.
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So really giving ourselves that permission to desire to
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dream, and then surrendering those dreams and desires
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and how that can help us shape our to
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be list, right? Who we want to be as
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beloved daughters of God. What are our characteristics, what are
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our attitudes, our spiritual dispositions,
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all of the things of who we want to be when
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we are really living our identity as a beloved daughter of God.
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And then today we're going to talk about how God takes what we've
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offered and makes it fruitful, how he
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blesses it, sometimes breaks it open,
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and then shares it, and being able to multiply it beyond what we
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could imagine today is all about goal setting with God and
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what that looks like, how we can really look at goals with
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a different perspective. And then really looking at scripture
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from Matthew 14:19 and how this
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relates to the ways in which we can set goals and
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work with God in. In discernment and in goal setting and
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eventually taking action. So we're going to go back and we're
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going to reflect on Matthew 14:19,
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taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to
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heaven. He gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he
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gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people.
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So I want to point out here that there's this holy
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rhythm in this scripture. Blessed,
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broken, shared. Blessed,
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broken and shared. And if we think
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about it, that could often be the rhythm of
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our own lives too, right? God blesses us
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with desires and dreams and gifts and talents.
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He allows some things to be broken open,
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like our comfort zones, our expectations, or
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even our plans, so that they can be reshaped and
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transformed. And then what we thought was only
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enough for us becomes multiplied to then bless
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others, to bless those around us in our
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communities, right? So blessed, broken and
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shared. We can take this and really think about
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how we can bring this into our own lives, our real lives,
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and look at it with the lens of how we're talking about the goals
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that we set. Because often what we do is
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we operate out of this place of someday goals
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and should goals. But God invites
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us into something deeper, something that in the middle,
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motherhood, mentorship, we call soul goals.
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So let's break this down. Someday goals are those
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Things that we say kind of with that sigh of like,
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someday I'll go back to school or, or someday I'll write that
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book. Someday I'll finally start my health
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journey. Or it's like, when this happens, then
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I'll do this. So these someday
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goals, they sound dreamy, but they often stay stuck
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in that someday because we never really give ourselves
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that permission to begin. We never give ourselves that
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permission that we talked about in the last episode to really explore
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that dream and that desire. We just kind of say someday
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and put it on the back burner. Like, oh, well, that would be
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nice, but not without the. Like. We don't actually have this
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belief that it's something that we could
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achieve, right? We, we think that that's just too much for us. It's too far
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out there, right? So what we can see is these someday goals.
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If we actually invite God into them, they can become our soul goals.
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And we'll talk about those in just a second. So we have our someday goals,
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right? That sound dreamy, but they often just stay stuck in that someday because
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we really don't give ourselves that permission to begin to explore,
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to do anything within. And then the other thing that we get
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stuck in are these should goals and
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should goals come from societal pressures,
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societal ideals, and comparison. There are
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things like, I should get a full time job now that the kids are in
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school. I should use the degree that I went to school for.
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I should be more disciplined about exercise because everyone
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else is. Or I should volunteer for that committee
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because it's the right thing to do, even though my heart's not
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really in it, right? So these should goals are things
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that maybe keep us busy. They're kind of like a to do
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list. They're just kind of busy
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work, busy goals. But the thing is, is that we are rarely
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fulfilled from them because they come from these
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outside voices. This pressure, this comparison of like,
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well, this is just what I should be doing because it's what everybody else is
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doing or it's what everybody else says I should be doing. So they're coming from
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these outside voices, not necessarily from God's
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voice. So what I am proposing, what I
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am offering up is soul goals.
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Soul goals are different. They come from
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a place of desire and surrender.
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They're those things that are kind of put on your heart and your mind and
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you keep coming back to them. They're an interest or a
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problem you want to help solve, or a group of people you
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want to help serve. It's like you try to put it off
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but your heart keeps coming back to it, your mind keeps coming back to it,
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and it just kind of pulls and tugs on your heartstrings.
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These are the goals that feel both terrifying and exciting.
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They're the ones that are like, I don't even know how to do this, but
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I feel like it's something that I really am called to do.
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And they're amazing because so much
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fruit can come from them.
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But they also help us to
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surrender and make us lean on God because we
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know that we can't do them alone. So some examples of
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soul goals might be things like, I feel called to mentor
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younger moms even though it scares me. Or
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I want to use my creative gifts,
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painting, writing, teaching, in ways that
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points back to God. I want to deepen my
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spiritual life and make prayer a non negotiable part of my day.
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Or maybe it's, I want to start or lead a Bible study or a ministry
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at my church. Soul
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goals are the things that stretch us, but they also are the
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things, the goals that align with who God created us to be. Our
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natural talents, our natural gifts, our natural
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desires. It creates this whole
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alignment in our life. We're not saying yes to something that
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is out of alignment. And these soul goals align
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with your to be listed who you're becoming as that beloved
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daughter of God. They require you to have courage
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and fortitude because they're not about what you can do
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on your own, but they're really about stepping out in what I
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like to call holy boldness and working with
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God, taking action. And it's about him
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working through you, right? It's about what God can do
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through you. So I want to take this idea of
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these someday goals and should goals and soul goals
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and connect them back to what we read in scripture
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and the story of the loaves and the fishes, that idea
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and that rhythm of blessed, broken and shared. So God
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blesses what we bring, even if it feels small.
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So think of a mom, maybe it's you who only
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has an hour, a day of margin. What would happen
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if you offer that time to God? He's going to bless it. And maybe that
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turns into a space for you to write a devotional to
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start a side business or simply invest in
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rest that makes you a better mom and wife.
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That leads into broken, right? God often breaks our plans
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and our expectations so that he can reshape them into something
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better. So maybe you thought your goal was to return
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to your old career, but in that breaking, in that
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breaking open, you realize he's calling you into something entirely new.
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Maybe he's calling you into using those same skills in
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ministry, in nonprofit, in volunteer work,
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in coaching, in ways that reach people you
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never expected. But you have these gifts and these talents that you know
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could help people in a very unique way.
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And then shared. So what you bring doesn't stay
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with you. It multiplies. Maybe the story
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of your struggles with body image or
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anxiety becomes the very testimony that gives another woman
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hope. Maybe that broken season of
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transition and transformation you've walked through becomes the
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gift that you share by leading others through their
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own healing journey.
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So blessed, broken and shared. It's not just the
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story about bread, but it's really, if you think about it, it's a way that
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God works with us. So how can we take
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this, this scripture and this story about the loaves and the
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fishes and this bread being blessed and
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broken and shared. How do we take this and apply it to
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our everyday lives? So there's five steps, and these
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five steps are what I walk women through in the middle. Motherhood,
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mentorship. And it all starts with that your to be list,
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right? Who do you desire to be? And then letting your goals
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flow out of that identity. Number two,
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praying over your desires and that permission to dream and
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desire and asking the Lord which of these are
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from you, Lord, Presenting them to him and
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letting him refine those. And then number three,
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name one soul goal, right? I think
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that's another thing is that we put all these quote unquote goals on
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our list and that's kind of where that someday or those should goals come
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into play. It just becomes this never ending to do list, right? But when
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we're focused on the sole goal, it's one, it allows us to
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really focus our time and our
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energy and our talent on that one thing. Instead of
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all these thousands of goals that spread us too thin
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so that again, that soul goal creates that alignment. So
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choose one that maybe feels both scary and
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exciting to you. Something that again, maybe you've
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always someday wanted to do. And now is the chance for you
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to take that to, to be broken open, right?
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To, to
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take this next step on this as, as an opportunity.
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Man, my words are stumbling me here, right? But name one
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soul goal and then choose it that is exciting
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to you. Something that, gosh, you could just see yourself,
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you know, working and moving and, and being in,
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in that goal. And it's one that you can't do without him.
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And then number four, commit it to him. Proverbs
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16:3 says, Commit your work to the Lord. And your plans will be
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established. This is so important, right?
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Committing it to him, taking this
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goal, committing to doing the work for this goal,
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but then releasing the outcome, letting the Lord
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transform it, letting the Lord multiply it so it can bear
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much fruit. And then number five. And this is what we're really
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going to talk about in next week's podcast episode. But taking one
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small step, taking action,
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right? I think we can set these goals, we can have these dreams in this
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desire, and then we just freeze when it comes to taking
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action. So taking one small step,
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not all the steps, not even needing to know all the steps,
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right? Just the next one. And God's gonna reveal
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that path as you walk it, right? Let him
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be the lamp to your feet,
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y'. All. Your basket doesn't need to be perfect, right? What feels
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small, what you have to offer may feel small. It may feel
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ordinary, it may feel broken. But just know that it can be
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multiplied in God's hands. And he's put this dream and he's put this
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desire and he's put this tal and this gift within
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you because he wants to bless it, break
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it open and share it, and he wants to do it with you. When
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you set these soul goals with him, you're not striving,
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you're co creating, right? You're collaborating with God,
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the ultimate, like, team player, with the one
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who again blesses, breaks it, and shares what you're offering, what
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you're bringing to the table. So
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remember, next week we're going to talk all about taking action and
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living in the fruitfulness, the impact and the legacy of
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this next chapter that you are writing. Until
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then, take some time to really think about what that sole goal might
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be. Offer your loaves and your fishes, offer the
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broken pieces and just know that God is going to do so
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much more with it than you can even imagine. I am a true
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testament to that. If you think about just my entire journey and
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how I started with my own personal struggles with body
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image and the dieting culture,
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and how that has led to this whole transformation of helping
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other women heal their relationship with food and their body, how my
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journey with motherhood and feeling lost
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and not really knowing what the Lord was calling me to, how that has also
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led me to create a mentorship program to
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help other women in this transitional season of life
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really discover and uncover what the Lord is calling them to.
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So with that said, don't forget that we are. I'm
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offering those free life audit and clarity
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sessions. If you are that mom or that woman who is in a transition. If
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you are feeling a little bit lost about what the Lord is calling you to
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next one Grab that free Middle Motherhood
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Planner. The link for that is in the show notes. And two grab that free
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session. I would love to share
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some of the tools from the Middle Motherhood Mentorship with you to help you gain
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some clarity and some confidence to again
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step out in that holy boldness and really
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find and discover and embody what the Lord is
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calling you to too. Thanks again for joining me here this week.
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Remember, beauty held is the seed, beauty shared is the flower. It is
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your time to bloom. I'll see you right back here next week. I
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hope you have a beautiful and blessed week. We'll talk soon. Bye.