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Goals are tricky. It is so easy to want to set them and to want to be a goal-oriented type person, but for most of my life that’s as far as it went for me. I would make a list of things I wanted to do, or the kind of person I wanted to be at the beginning of each year. And then, within a week, I’d forgotten all about those goals. Or, if I did think of them, it was with a nice little flash of guilt about how worthless I was. (Too much honesty? Whoops.)

And then I learned about this nice little tool called Powersheets. I learned that I had been doing goal setting all wrong. Not only was I not setting intentional goals (check out my blog post on Intentional Goals vs Arbitrary Goals!), but I also wasn’t breaking the goals down into actionable steps that I could use to actually reach those goals. Crazy, right? Thank goodness for my Powersheets.

What are Powersheets?

Powersheets are an intentional goal-planner. They help you determine what goals you should set, and how you can break them down so they’re achievable. I’ve been using them since 2018 and each year the Cultivate What Matters team makes them even better. And the 2021 Powersheets had some MAJOR changes this year. Which is why I created a video to walk you through the difference between the the 2020 and 2021 versions.

Grab Your Own Powersheets for 2021 Here!

2020 Powersheets vs 2021 Powersheets

Outer Differences of the 2020 and 2021 Powersheets

First things first, the outside of the 2020 and 2021 Powersheets. The actual size is the same between the two, but the 2021 Powersheets are actually slimmer. I’m pretty sure the paper has stayed the same, which means they’ve simplified and streamlined the inner workings and you know I’m here for that.

More things that stayed the same from last years’ version: they’re still rocking the hard cover and the golden coil. However, there are two small but exciting changes this year — rounded corners (no more pokes when you reach into your purse! Just me? Oh.), and bigger pockets! Maybe this year I’ll actually use the pocket to store things.

The Inner Differences of the 2020 and 2021 Powersheets

Things have changed a little bit inside the prep work of the Powersheets, but not much at all. There are definitely some stylistic differences inside of the two versions. For example, the lifestyle evaluation page.

Same, Same but Different.

Honestly, the rest of the changes inside of the prep work just seem to be streamlining of the process. I don’t see anything glaringly missing or anything that’s really “new”.

The biggest changes come when you get to the actual goal setting work.

First Up: New instructions and guidance page. “How to Set Goals the Cultivate Way”

I think this page is going to make a lot of difference in how people use these this year. It’s a small step that goes a long way to translating how to take what you did in the prep work and use it for goal setting. Previously, it felt a bit disjointed between the two — especially if you weren’t using any of their videos as you worked through your prep work.

The Big Change: 90 Day Goal Setting

In previous versions of Powersheets, you would set your goals for the entire year. They’d encourage you not to do them at all once, but that’s the way they were set up and geared towards goal setting — for the whole year, and then broken into quarterly, monthly and yearly.

In the 2021 Powersheets, you’re now encouraged to focus on just one quarter at a time. I love this because this is exactly how I set goals in 2020 and now they’ve geared the Powersheets to this style. For me, it’s way easier to have a vague idea of the year as a whole, and then set goals and plans for just the next 90 days. After that, things start to feel fuzzy. How am I supposed to know what I’ll want in 3 months? Hopefully everything has changed!

Quarterly and Monthly Changes

After you do all of the prep work, and you actually set your goals and do the goal setting prep, it’s time to move into the new quarterly and monthly work. This is where you’re going to roll up your sleeves and dig into your goals. So let’s chat about what changes you can look forward to here.

First: How to make a tending list guidance page.

This page is similar to the how to set goals guidance page, and does a great job bridging that gap from goals to tending list. It’s only printed inside of January, and I feel like the placement could have been better, but I’m really glad it’s there.

Second: No changes to the actual tending list page.

Not that I think they needed any, but for those of you that are experienced Powersheet buyers, I thought I should mention that.

Third: They got rid of the “Spring, Summer, Fall” tabs with quarterly refresh inside.

The quarterly refresh is now within the first month of the new quarter (so, April, July, October). And, in accordance with the new 90-days-at-a-time setup, the refresh has been drastically changed. What used to be just a fun seasonal item, a new lifestyle evaluation, and a place to re-list out your goals, is now a full-on prep work refresh.

It’s not everything from the beginning, but a nice and streamlined version to help you focus on what matters and set those new or refreshed goals for the next quarter. My favorite part? There’s more breakdown pages in here! Those used to only be at the beginning for when you originally set goals, and in 2020 it was really frustrating trying to set new goals each quarter without those specific pages. I’m really glad they added these in!

And that’s a wrap! For a more detailed look inside the Powersheets, be sure to watch the video at the beginning of this post. I hope you enjoyed being taken through the Powersheets and shown a comparison of the 2020 and 2021 versions!

Wanting to grab your own set of 2021 Powersheets and start setting and achieving intentional goals for yourself? I know you do. Click here! I would love to know — what’s one goal you’re setting for 2021 that you’ll use your Powersheets to help you achieve?