Happy Work from Worth Wednesday!
By the time this blog publishes, I will be on my way to Hawaii for the very first time. The Freedom Movement team and I will be on the island of Kauai for two days of story work training with Cathy Loerzel and Christy Bauman, followed by two days of rest, play, and reflection as a team. What is this life?! Jesus, story work, snorkeling, sailing, kayaking, waterfalls, and experiencing it all with like-minded beautiful souls on mission to see people set free and living the abundant life God has created them for. I have goosebumps just writing those few sentences. How did I get here?
Writing the timeline examples of my formation goals these past few years brought interesting context for me as I prepare for this trip. I’ve been pausing and savoring the beauty of this invitation and the journey that brought me here. I am both anxiously overwhelmed and hopefully expectant. Hawaii holds a lot of meaning for me and this trip feels like a full circle moment of grace in my life… but I’ll save that story for next time. I’m sure I’ll have much to say when I return.
Becoming > Achieving
A few weeks back we began a conversation about goal setting. In the first post of this series we talked through questions like: How do I know if my sudden spurt of creative motivation is a trauma response? How do we approach the work we’re called to steward in our lives from worth rather than for it? You can read about that post here.
One of the biggest shifts in my approach to goal setting has been moving away from outcome-based goals. Instead, I focus on formation—who I’m becoming in the process.
Each goal is built around these key questions:
What would change in this area of my life if I lived more deeply centered in the love of God?
Which of my beliefs need to change to see these behaviors shift?
Who would I become in the process of pursuing this goal?
This approach is less about ticking boxes and more about transformation. It’s an invitation to align my heart, soul, mind, and strength with the love of God and see that love overflow into the people connected to me.
When love is the motivation, everything changes. Love invites us to pursue desire within our God-given design. Love untethered us from the places of shame the enemy has shacked us to. It reminds us that our worth isn’t tied to performance and that love, belonging, and safety are not on the line. This transformation allows us to step into the freedom of becoming who God created us to be—without striving, fear of failure, or the comparative motive to outperform others to secure a false sense of goodness.
Instead of asking, How quickly can I achieve this? How much of this can I do? Start asking, How faithfully can I walk this out over time? This shift has helped me embrace the journey rather than fixating on the destination. This long term settled approach allows my whole body to exhale deeply. I can soften into the process with presence and joy if the demand for the hardest thing the hardest way isn’t the focus.
I repeat, it’s not about how much you can do or how quickly you can do it—it’s about becoming more like Jesus throughout the journey of your life. Enjoying that journey is the highest form of worship you can offer.
MIND, BODY, & NEIGHBORS
I set goals in five categories at the start of each year based on the Mark 12:30-31 to love God with our heart, soul, mind, and strength (body) and to love our neighbor as yourself. We covered the first two of these five categories (heart and soul) in part 1 of this discussion. Today, let’s dive into the final three categories: mind, body, and neighbors.
3/5 Mind: Stewardship of Curiosity and Responsibility
This category is about stewarding my intellect, vocational responsibility, and creativity. It’s asking, How can I bring curiosity and creativity into the vocational responsibilities God has entrusted to me?
Questions related to this category:
What is growing my curiosity?
Where am I feeling inspired?
How can I steward my talents and gifts in new ways?
How can I expand my impact in the world around me through my gifts?
What does partnership with God look like in my vocational life?
What is cultivating energy? What is draining my energy?
MIND: Past Years Examples:
2020: Like many others, the world-wide trauma we faced in 2020 created an opportunity to reflect and make changes toward new possibilities. In the first half of this year I completed my first coaching certification through Transformational Leadership Coaching International. My “mind” goal for this year was to create and launch a podcast and begin learning about coaching. Being a communicator at heart, I knew audio content would be the easiest place for me to refine my gifting, gain clarity on my message, and network with other communicators, business leaders, and teachers. I joined a live podcast course for accountability at the start of the year, purchased a basic microphone, and published my first episode in May of 2020.
Desire: I want to grow as a communicator.
Goal: Create and Launch my first podcast by May 2020.
2021: After my life-altering experience at Freedom Academy in October of 2020, I was invited into a journey of healing from chronic overworking. A drastic change in my career wasn’t an option, my family relied on my income. But I knew that God was inviting me into something new. My mind goal for 2021 was to record and publish my first online course as an expansion to my podcast. Two beautiful friends of mine offered their resources and support to make this happen. We hosted the course as a live in-person training a few times with small groups to refine the content then I flew to California to record the videos together. I did a deep dive into Canva to create my first workbook and familiarized myself with Kajabi, learning their systems to host the course content and landing page. In hindsight, this “mind” goal was what paved the way to much of the work I do today. Looking back, I was so frustrated this year at how slow and clunky the process felt. It seemed like a waste of time because I wasn’t seeing a tangible return right away. But, without this gritty work in the secret place I wouldn’t have been prepared to say a confident yes to the opportunities God would bring my way in the years that followed.
Desire: I want to grow as a communicator and entrepreneur.
Goal: Create and launch my first online course.
2022: My degree is in Biblical Studies. So I’m educationally qualified to teach Sunday morning Bible school. Cool cool, lots of income opportunities there. But, in life and business experience, I had built multiple home-based incomes like selling handmade products in an Etsy shop for four years then building a multi-million dollar business through multi-level marketing. The beauty of investing in residual income for those seven years before this pivot was that it provided financial wiggle room to cultivate new interests without the impending doom of paying bills. But, at the same time, I was battling the pervasive fear that by “quitting” I was “failing.” This message was ingrained in me throughout my time in the network marketing industry and had unknowingly refined my understanding of both “quitting” and “failing.” I would be caught off guard by sudden panic that everything I had strived for in my life up to that point was being lost. So much unlearning was necessary in order to embrace this shift of my career that required new risk and trust. I needed to expand my horizons to learn skill sets that were adaptable, hirable, and applicable to what I desired to do — mentor and teach women to work from their worth rather than for it. I needed guidance and knowledge from a mentor to teach me the practicalities of this pivot process from a business perspective.
In 2022 a friend of mine connected me to a community called “Smart Business Mastermind.” Feeling like their approach was aligned with my values and what I desired to create, I invested all the money I made in my first online course the year before for this year-long business mentorship program. I earned while I learned, making back my original investment in the first three months of enrolling and quadrupling my investment in the first year. For the first time in a long time I felt inspired. My creative wheels were turning at high speed and the people I was serving were blessed by what they were learning. Toward the end of this year, I was approached by the Freedom Movement team to help them expand their training and programs online. Having been deeply impacted by Freedom Movement’s work, it was an easy yes. I was excited to pour what I was learning in my business mentorship community into a more established program, team, and curriculum.
Desire: I want to grow as a mentor and entrepreneur.
Goal: Build and launch my first group coaching program.
2023: Everything in our lives had shifted at the start of 2023. My husband came off the road after years of full-time touring with his band, his income was non-existent for this year, and we were learning to live life together as a “we” after almost a decade of “you” and “me” in our home and work life. Meanwhile, after three years of slow pivots away from my career in network marketing, I received the final release from God to fully pursue this new career in the coaching space.
Much of the practical elements were set on auto pilot this year. The real challenge I was faced with was what it meant to be a part of a team. The hyper-independent entrepreneur side of me felt it was right to invest all my effort into my personal group coaching offers. I wanted to scale, build financial security, and remain in control. But, every time I would come to God in prayer about it, I felt drawn toward the team dynamic I was adjusting to with the Freedom Movement. Although it seemed safer to be the leader, there was a relief and joy that I experienced being a part of a team.
This was risky territory. Would I stick with the safe and familiar road of “me, myself, and I?” Or would I trust God and others enough to integrate my work into something bigger than myself? Financially, this was limiting. Spiritually and relationally I knew this was expanding my authority into new territory. I didn’t expect to experience such grief in this transition, but I knew what God was asking me to do in every area of my life—transition from “me” to “we.” We were not created to live independently, but interdependently. Although this limits our control, it also welcomes greater impact, partnership, belonging, and support.
So, in the summer of this year I decided to bring my Work from Worth group coaching program under the cover of Freedom Movement, and collaborate with Karrie to lead the group together twice a year. It was freeing and clarifying to no longer be pulled in multiple directions.
Desire: I want to grow in humility and partnership in my leadership.
Goal: Integrate my personal group coaching program with Freedom Movement.
2024 - Now: I feel confident and settled into my role and the work I do with Freedom Movement but invited into greater depth of discipline as I grow in my personal gift of communication. This blog and my instagram are two vehicles for this. Moving away from the flashy trendy content online and offering less quantity and more quality content that is more heart-centered and aligned with my calling has brought huge growth these last two years. My 2025 goal is to grow in my discipline of writing in preparation for writing a book as a new way of stewarding these gifts. Thanks for being here to support this process and be along for the ride.
4/5 Strength: Stewardship of My Body
Our physical health isn’t just about fitness; it’s about honoring the body God gave us. For me, this often includes tracking changes in my body, focusing on nutrition, and creating rhythms that lead to long-term vitality.
Questions related to this category:
What does honoring my body look like in this season?
Where am I feeling challenged physically?
How can I steward my health in new ways?
How can greater stewardship in my health benefit other areas of my life?
What do I need to do less of / more to honor my body in this season?
BODY: Past Years Examples:
2021-2022: These were the formative years of healing from chronic overachieving. In the years prior I had unknowingly bound myself to physical performance to bypass fear and grief that lied just beneath the surface of my life. The motivation behind my excessive diet and exercise challenges was not delight, but demand. After realizing this sort of behavior was a trauma response, I was invited into deeper rhythms of rest and renewal. Stewardship this year looked like more rest and play and less pounding the pavement to prove something to nobody. I decided these would be years of no health challenges of any sort. I want sustainable habits of movement and nutrition.
The thing was, although I was changing some of my approach to these things, I often found myself swept back into familiar patterns of behavior. Much of my income at this time was attached to my fitness and I still didn’t know how to really honor my limits. Memorial Day 2021, I went a little too hard in our MURPH workout at the gym and found myself in the hospital with rhabdo. As I was healing from my injury I canceled my gym membership, put away my scale for the rest of the year, and learned to enjoy light workouts and walks at home. Eventually, I left my part time job as a fitness instructor at the end of 2022 to make room for other areas of stewardship in my life.
Desire: I want to live free from chronic overachieving.
Goal: No health challenges of any sort.
2023: This was a year of softening. A continuation of the two years before. No diets, more rest, intentional movement. My body softened as a result - literally and figuratively. My pant size grew and so did my capacity for peace. This was the year I committed to the practice of weekly sabbath, something I had never done intentionally or consistently before.
Desire: I want to be a more restful person
Goal: No diets, no fitness challenges, and weekly sabbath practice.
2024-now: This year’s focus was renewed faithfulness. I knew it was time for more intentional faithfulness in my diet and exercise again. Instead of committing to a familiar short term challenge I set a “body” goal to workout 260 days out to the year — 5 days a week. I also incorporated new information I was learning about my hormones and intermittent fasting. I was inspired by Mindy Pelz’s book “Fast Like A Girl” and her approach to carb cycling and fasting connected to the menstrual cycle. This approach to my diet and a greater awareness of my God-given design as a woman was incredible and I felt amazing. Then, everything shifted when I got pregnant in May of 2024, lost the baby in July, and did not have a period for the rest of the year until December. I suffered from UTIs every month post miscarriage that ultimately led me to a functional medicine practitioner for a gut map and hormone test. Turns out there is more beneath the surface that needs care. Now in 2025, I’m following a protocol from my doctor that requires a completely gluten-free diet and less stressful forms of exercise to support the healing of my gut and hormones. God only reveals so He can heal. Without a healthy body, we can’t live purposeful lives. No one can encounter our eternal soul on this side of heaven apart from our physical body. As I’m growing older, my gratitude for my amazing, miraculous, gift of my body deepens. With that deeper gratitude comes a deeper desire to steward that gift with gentleness, care, and love.
Desire: I desire to steward my body with gentle faithfulness.
Goal: Follow my doctor’s guidance for healing my gut and hormones.
5/5 Neighbors: Stewardship of Ministry for Others
The last category focuses on loving others well, whether that’s through ministry, service, or simply being more intentional about showing up for those in my community. It’s about asking, How can I reflect God’s love and truth in how I serve others?
Questions related to this category:
How can I love people in my community more intentionally?
How can my presence offer comfort or support to others in need?
How can I offer my gifts and talents to my church and community?
What gaps/ needs in my church or community am I noticing? How can I be a part of the solution?
How can I live more generously to see the needs of others met?
Who can I empower in their calling to multiply God’s purposes in my community
This post is getting long, so I won’t offer examples for this one. Instead I will remind you that as you grow more into the image of God’s love, the natural overflow of your life will be to love others with the love you have been given.
Start simple.
Who can you love with your story?
Who’s suffering can you hold with understanding?
Who can you treat to coffee and offer a listening ear?
Can you set up chairs at church?
Cook a meal?
Serve a few hours a month at a local charity or non-profit?
I think we often overthink the commitment level and fear burnout when it comes to serving others, but as you are formed into the image of God’s love you will grow a greater love for others around you. Follow the thread of inspiration and notice when demand and resentment resurfaces. When it does, bring it to God and a trusted safe community to process what is coming up for you, what needs to change, and how you can remain faithful in this area without overextending yourself. Love and connection with others is an overflow of intimacy with God and yourself first.
Curious if you have taken any of these questions and examples to apply them to your own life. If you have, I would love to hear if you have set a formation goal so far this year and how your process is going. What are you learning? How are you growing?
For Eternity and Until,
Tori
Share this post