Mrs. PIE

Aligning Goals with Purpose: Embracing Discipline and Faith for a Fruitful New Year

• Shelley Jeffcoat • Season 4 • Episode 92

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What if you could transform your life by simply aligning your goals with a higher purpose? Join me as I kick off the new year exploring the power of discipline through faith. I share my personal journey re-entering the corporate world, focusing on five critical areas—health, career, spiritual and personal growth, and finances—that set the stage for success. Together, we delve into the art of setting intentional goals, inspired by Proverbs 16:3, and learn how to commit our work to the Lord for guidance and fulfillment.

This episode is your invitation to embrace a mindset rooted in positivity and faith as we navigate the uncertainties of a new year. We tackle the importance of rejecting negativity and instead, focusing on God's abundant promises of favor and blessings. By planting seeds of discipline and aligning our daily actions with divine intentions, we set ourselves up for a truly fruitful year across all areas of life—career, family, finances, health, and spiritual growth. Discover how working smarter, rather than harder, and shielding ourselves from external negativity can amplify our personal and professional growth.

As the episode wraps up, I encourage you to dream big, with God as your guide. Let go of past doubts and fears and visualize not just personal success but generational prosperity. Through a transformative mindset shift in financial health, we learn to trust that God will guide our bold ambitions, shaping our path with His wisdom and timing. With heartfelt gratitude, I thank our global listeners, from Singapore to beyond, for joining this journey and extend an invitation to continue engaging with our content for more inspiration in the weeks to come.

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Speaker 1:

no-transcript, kind of slow walking it just a little bit. So this is again the first Thursday. Many of us have gone back to work today. Today is my first day back in the corporate girly world, but not my first day in working, because I posted out some things last Saturday, I believe. Yeah, I posted out some things ministry related, podcast related. Good morning, dr Tracy. Yes, dr Tracy. Podcast related. Good morning, Dr Tracy. Yes, dr Tracy. Grateful God is a keeper.

Speaker 1:

So we are kicking off this year of discipline and so we're starting this month of January talking about starting with God and trying to establish what discipline looks like. I love that. I hope you enjoyed that intro video y'all. I was trying to be at my best at showing some things. When we're talking about what discipline looks like, it's more about when we come into agreement with some of the success that we're asking for this year. I shared on Saturday the five areas that I'm going to be pressing into, and I believe that a lot of us are in the same space. So I talked about the five key areas. One of them was health. I talked about our career and professional development Again, that's whether you're working for yourself or you're working for someone else. I talked about our spiritual growth, our personal growth, I talked about our finances, and that those were some of the key areas that we wanted to find some success in this year, and something else I shared is that, regardless of what it is that you want to achieve this year y'all notice, I'm not saying anything about vision board or vision setting or anything like that. By the way, we have an event July 22nd is free and it's going to show us how to do goal setting right.

Speaker 1:

So we want to be very intentional about what we're trying to achieve, but regardless of wherever it is you want to achieve, and I want you know. I was sitting here this morning and I was like Lord, I'm grateful for what you did for me in 2022. I'm grateful for what you did in 2023. I'm super grateful for what you did in 2024, but I want my mind to be blown in 2025, watching your grace and your favor and asking God for bigger things. But even before you go to Lord and say, you know, lord, bless me you have to have an idea of what it is that you want. What do you want to achieve this year, y'all? And the foundation for us, for those of us who are, you know, christians, believers, early in your walk, you just found Jesus, whatever it is. But our foundation of discipline actually starts with God. It really starts with having a relationship and understanding, being able to listen and hear from him clearly about. You know what he wants for us. So I'm pulling up a scripture this morning and again we're going to lean into for the rest of the month of January. You know how we so.

Speaker 1:

Today we're talking about the foundation of discipline and starting with God. Next week we're going to talk about hearing his voice, hearing God's voice, the power of listening. Week three, we're going to talk about setting goals, setting godly goals and aligning our intentions with his purpose. That's also within the time frame that we're again hosting that incredible July, january 22nd event. So you know, taking your goals and aligning it with his purpose. And then, week four, we're going to focus on staying the course, really setting up disciplines for the long haul y'all, not for resolutions that we forget about in March. And then the last week in January, we're going to talk about our progress and celebrate our progress, and I think this is going to be a good idea then for us to look at how faithful God is right. Sometimes I don't know if it's like sometimes I have to take a pause and just look back at, like, how good God is, because that motivates and encourages me to keep going right. Amen, that's right, dr Tracy. His favor does surround us as a shield.

Speaker 1:

So, week one, scripture Proverbs 16, three, is what we're going to lean into. Commit your work to the Lord and your plans will be established. The Lord, as we even go further now, I ask that you will show us how to do that. How do we commit our work and our hands, everything that we desire in our hearts, whether it's a promotion on the job, maybe it's more business, maybe it's a new job, a new situation For those who are still looking for jobs. This year we're committing anything that our hands touch to be successful. I declare for us, lord God, including myself, that this is going to be a year of your favor, your supernatural favor and your grace on everything that we do.

Speaker 1:

Lord God, I thank you for all of the blessings to come for every person under the sound of my voice, lord, and as we commit our work to you, it means that we have to be disciplined in the way that we manage the portion that you give us the way that we manage our own behavior, our attitude, the way that we keep you connected. You keep me involved in everything, the way we treat the people around us. Lord, god, lord, we ask that now that we commit everything over to you Even this broadcast is committed over to you, lord, god we establish our plans and every plan that we have is established back to you so you get the glory. So we thank you, lord, for this awesome Thursday. Thank you, god, for everything. Amen. You know I can't do it without prayer, right? So we talk about committing your work.

Speaker 1:

So there's a couple of things I want to share with you. You know, and again, I am probably too transparent. Sometimes I'm like I think I tell y'all too much. I'm a very private person in real life, but I also have to be transparent with you because otherwise we're not going to learn and grow together, right? And I'm not a religious talking head, okay, I'm a Christian woman who's just sharing my journey with y'all, and God's been so good to partner with me, right? Not just use me, partner with me to grow his kingdom in this way. And one of the things that I want to share.

Speaker 1:

Just three teaching points for you. The first one is that every great plan or strategy begins with God. Every single great plan or strategy begins with God. Now, single great plan or strategy begins with God. Now, exactly, tracy, not my will. So when I say every great plan or strategy something that I want us to think about this year again, we're building up discipline. So remember, I talked about the different areas your health, your career, your professional, your spiritual, your finance, your personal. Personal growth means your health, your career, your professional, your spiritual, your finance, your personal. You know. Personal growth means your relationships, your mindset and how you take care of yourself, your self-care, right. So those five areas right. And every great plan that you're going to put in place, before you sit down and do a vision board or even start writing out your goals, it begins with asking the question of what do you want me to focus on this year, lord? Here are the desires of my heart.

Speaker 1:

There are certain things that I've done over the past few years that have led to me being very successful and, again, I know that my success comes because of his grace and his favor, but it's also because I've aligned myself with what his will is, not mine, my will isn't to be like on a podcast early on a Thursday morning. You know it's really not. But what has happened is I am a living witness and I said yes to this assignment. And because I did that, because I'm obedient to this assignment, there are other things that have played its way into it. Like in order for me to be blessed, there are things that I have to sacrifice in order to get that blessing right. Like in order for you to get the paycheck, you got to actually go to work In order for you to get the promotion. You almost have to do the work in that role before you even get recognized for promotion, right? That's just kind of the way it works.

Speaker 1:

So starting with God for me means I have all of my desires and I, you know I'll, I'll um, sometimes I'll write them out or they're just in my head and I'll just present them to the Lord through prayer and just say these are all the things that I desire for my family, these are the things that I desire for myself, and it's just a conversation. So for those of y'all who have that amazing prayer closet or maybe your prayer closet is your car, it's like wherever you get some personal private space that's your prayer closet. But when you start talking to God, you start asking what do you want me to focus on? Why that's important is because you have to have some kind of focus and you have to prioritize where you're going to spend your time. So already in my health, he's shown me where I need to work on some things. In my finances, he's shown me how you know how to be a better steward of the blessings that he's given me.

Speaker 1:

Where I've got to say no with my time, you know looked at my schedule to say some of the things that I want to achieve this year. I want to learn these things, I want to grow in my career, I want to do the things right. But I had to go back and say is this in alignment with what you want? Because a lot of times, listen, god's going to give you the desires of your heart, but you have to be careful that you're in the right place at the right time so that he's also as you're asking and he's answering. Then he starts to send the resource to help you. You'll miss it if you're not listening, if you're not in alignment with what he's doing for you and also having the kind of mindset where you understand when it's God moving things, you're not going to be able to this year. We're not doing this this year, we're.

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When bad things happen, immediately we go oh, the devil cursed me. No, devil ain't got nothing on me, I'm protected by angels. You know what I'm saying? Like, you literally have to change the mindset that when you truly believe that all things are working together for your good, then there is nothing. I don't care. No incantation, no witchcraft, no, nothing. There is nothing, no scheme of man. There is nothing that's going to take me off the plan and the strategy that God had already willed. He'd already given that to me, right? No one. You know, people can't steal your gift, right? Because it's a gift from God. So they can try to copy it, but they can't steal it. So why is that important? It's because I want us to build up our trust in God, like when I take my plans, if you will, and my strategy to him and I hand it back to him and say okay, now, lord, you know, give me the desires of my heart. I want to align it to what your word? What do you want me to focus on? What do you want me to go. What do you want me to do? And then I'm obedient to when he's showing me that, right. So that is really important. And I'm also not in the mind of. You know.

Speaker 1:

There's again this is where it's so something when when podcasters and speakers, folks who get paid speaking fees they start to, you know, share some things and you can kind of preview where they're going to go, you know they start to look for the gap, if you will. They start to look for where they can, you know, build a business on, if you will. You know what I'm saying. So, all of a sudden, they start to share these things out and then come mid-year they'll have a conference that fills this gap. So you have to be wise enough to know when folks are saying some of these things, it has nothing to do with you, it's none of your business, right? So when someone posts something I saw this the same woman that posts how this was going to be a great year 2025, and now she's hearing from the Lord and it's going to be a year of blessing this same woman two days ago was saying, oh, but you know this is going to be a tough year and you know we've.

Speaker 1:

You know it's going to be a challenging year. Don't declare that for yourself. I only believe what God says about me. I only believe what's absolutely true about me, and if you believe that you're someone right, this is what I believe. I walk in his favor, I walk with his mercy, I've covered by God. Like all those things, the Holy Spirit is with me, right. The Lord is before me, behind me, I, you know, I have the victory, right. If you truly, honestly believe those things, then now is not the time for you to start listening to that kind of what I call noise when people start to say, oh, it's going to be a tough year.

Speaker 1:

No, this is going to be a smooth year. This is going to be a year of blessings. I mean, blessings are going to come from different places. I'm not even going to know where it comes from. My health is blessed, Like literally. These are the things that I start to speak into my own life, and I encourage you to do that too.

Speaker 1:

It's something that, if you take it to a very practical level, if you think about this like you play sports, you're not going to go into the new season already telling yourself what you're not going to do and how you're going to fail and how things are going to be rough. You're not going to make it Okay. So I want you to. I want you to you know we talk about our mindset. I want you, when we talk about a mindset of Christ and aligning with what God says. God doesn't say that you're going to fail Now.

Speaker 1:

The word says that we're going to have afflictions, afflictions, afflictions of the righteous right, but it doesn't mean that you start coming into agreement with. It's going to be a tough year. I bind that up real quick. I'm not coming into anything that is counter to what the Lord is showing me his favor, his mercy, his grace, his goodness right. The word says that everything good and acceptable and pure comes from God. So I go back to him Now this is what I'm talking about, starting with God, and I say you know, father, hear the desires of my heart and I believe that everything good and acceptable and pure is my portion. The same way, I believe that you know, jesus, you are my portion right. So I start to speak now.

Speaker 1:

Here we are, january 2nd. I start to develop a discipline of how I speak into my own life so that when you start to hear all of these noise and all the things y'all happening that you don't fall into that, right, you need to be able to do that now. It's not by accident nothing's by accident that here we are the first day of many of us going back into the work field and into our jobs. Right, because it's the day after New Year's and a lot of us didn't have to work yesterday. But it's not by accident that you get to start your work year on this Thursday, listening to this broadcast telling you that we need to start with Jesus and change our mindset. We need to be very mindful, if you will, very careful and intentional, about what we're speaking into our lives, because what we say sets the foundation for where we're going this year. And it's okay if you don't say much. I won't be saying a lot this year about what I'm doing.

Speaker 1:

I'm in a seed planting season, right, this is the third year of this. Come out of the wilderness ministry. This is a seed planting season, but I know that I have to plant seeds. I share the things right In the five areas. So, because this is a seed planting season, as I'm tilling the ground, as you will, as the Lord is tilling the ground in me as I'm tilling the ground, as you will, as the Lord is tilling the ground in me. Right, I'm the ground. He's tilling me as he's doing that. It's his seeds that I'm planting. I have the desires, but it's his seeds that I'm planting into my life so that the harvest is truly his. So I have to start with him.

Speaker 1:

I have to think about if I want success in my career, about, you know, if I want success in my career, what does that look like? What does that look like? Right, I don't, you know, I don't want to guess what my future should be. Father, here are the desires of my heart. Here's what I want for my family this year. Here's what I want to see in my finances this year. Here's what I want in my health this year. Right, lord, help me, you know, help me to have the kind of discipline If I start, if I go to the doctor and he puts me on a dietary restriction, y'all. If he tells some of y'all, I got to stop eating the fried foods, right, that, give me the discipline so that I can stay on that path. Right, there is a, there is something about having that kind of discipline.

Speaker 1:

We also talk about spiritual growth and the discipline of just spending time with God and, you know, even reading your Bible more and just developing that discipline. Maybe your discipline is that you want to learn something new every day, or you want to learn a new recipe, or you want to, you know, have a better relationship with your kids. You know, maybe your discipline is going to come from how you work with people. I work with some I work with. I work with really great people, but I also work with some very troubled people, but that doesn't, that can't, impact me. I can't take that into 2025, right, I cannot. I have to work smarter, not harder, because I worked harder and it didn't pay out. You know what I'm saying.

Speaker 1:

So these are some of the things that I'm bringing before the Lord to say you know, here's my desire, here's what I want for me and my family, and I want, I want the goodness, I want all of everything that is good and acceptable and pure to come to me this year, and I'm standing in agreement with that. This is not going to be a tough year. This is going to be a year that is filled with blessings, that you're going to bless me in every single area that I'm presenting to you, god, that I'm going to hear from you. These are things that I declare like I'm going to hear from you, god. There's not going to be a season where I'm going to feel like I'm alone, because you're going to send divine help. I myself am going to be a helper that you send out into the field, a worker in the field, right, all of these things.

Speaker 1:

Right, there's going to be a lot of folks that are going to go through some things this year. So stop falling into those, you know, I call hyper prophecies, where people just you know, people just throw stuff out. I hear the Lord say you're going to be rich. Listen, all of us aren't going to be rich and there are going to be people that are going to go through some things this year. But a lot of us who are being blessed we are meant to be the folks that are blessing them, right? So I want you to be in that mindset where everything you know, just take the next couple of days, y'all, and really think about what do you want to achieve in each area of your life this year. Write that down in your prayer journal, write it down on a piece of paper. Write it down, make it plain, write it down as for a reason. Okay, so write that down and then present that back as the desires.

Speaker 1:

Father, these are the desires of my heart, and I'm not starting this year in agreement with anything without you and father, I declare so. I declare, lord, god, that this is a year of ease, this is a year of victory, this is a year of blessings, this is a year of grace and favor in incredible ways, but you're just going to blow our minds because of your mercy, because of your goodness, because you love us, not because of anything that we have done. It's only because of you, lord Jesus, that you're our high priest, because our relationships will be closer. You are our high priest because our relationships will be closer. We want it, we want. You are our portion, we want to hear from you, we want to see you, we want to encounter you more and everything that our hands touch.

Speaker 1:

Or God, I pray to God that you'll bless every person under the sound of my voice, that let this be, let this be sustainable in our spirits. Or God, that we don't just get hyper and excited about the new year on New Year's Day, but we have this kind of excitement, looking forward to what you're going to accomplish in us and through us, and by us, through our hands, every single day, and that every day this year, our minds are going to be blown with just how amazing you are, lord, and how you're going to send help in the right time and a lot of times we're going to be the right people in the right places. That you're going to use us to bless our generations coming behind us. And no matter what is happening around us this year, on the job or with people going crazy or nothing, anything none of that will touch us, Nothing will take us off track. We will see nothing but good and acceptable things and things that are pure and things that are aligned to you, lord Jesus, we won't lose sight of you.

Speaker 1:

I bless every person in business. That you'll give them the wisdom, lord God, to lead and the understanding so that they know how to work alongside the people. Empathy, lord God. I ask that you bless every leader, every pastor, every minister, any person who is in charge of others, who manages other people, that you'll give them a heart posture to serve. That they are a servant leader, lord God. That you remove any sort of ego-driven or selfishness, lord God.

Speaker 1:

If there's anyone in this community, lord God, who's standing in need of a job or an opportunity, or they're asking for new projects or expansion, their new business, where, god, that is aligned with your will and that they know to start with you, because with you all things are possible. I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me. Everything, I can do everything through him. So you don't have a reason to have any fear or doubt this year, and I'm believing that the foundation where we start y'all, we have to start with God. We have to start with him, and I promise you that if you do, if you put him first, the word says let me not be put to shame. He will never let me be put to shame, ever. Right, and I tell you, I'm a living witness. I can't tell you about his goodness in his favor if I'm not experiencing it myself. Right, that's something I learned a while back when I asked God to show his goodness and mercy and favor to y'all and I say glorify yourself through me and demonstrate the power of your Holy Spirit through me. Glory. He does that so that y'all see him, not me, so that when you see my life, you see that he's for real. You see, that he will use this busted up chip vessel and if he can bless me, surely he can bless you. Surely it is true, right? So I pray that this year, for those of us who are the busted up and chip vessels, that he's going to use us and surely he's going to bless you and he's going to bless your hands so that you can bless others. It's not just for us. Y'all, the kind of blessings I'm asking for is not just for us. So, as much as I want to slow time down and just be like come on, lord, I'm not ready, he's already ahead. He's already in August, you know, and I'm in January. We're just going to catch up to his grace and his goodness. So I hope that blessed y'all.

Speaker 1:

I know I shared a lot this morning about the foundation, discipline and starting with God, and I really hope, if you miss anything, go back and listen. Y'all. Go back and slow this thing down, because I don't want us to miss anything and we are going to keep this thing going. We're going to keep pushing forward for the month of January. We're going to focus on what I call the foundation. We have to have an established understanding of what discipline looks like. Right.

Speaker 1:

There's a thing that says, if you do something three times, you start to create a habit. So we're going to start creating a habit by aligning, first of all, starting with God. Take your desires, take everything and you know again, keep between you and Jesus and go to him and say these are all the desires of my heart. I want to align, I want, I want to see you in this or you will send help. I start to you know, when I just say this, and then I'm going to close this out, I start to visual.

Speaker 1:

I didn't used to do this before because a long, for a long time visual. I didn't use to do this before because for a long time I will say this those of y'all who experienced this will know what I'm saying where I stopped dreaming, I stopped dreaming like sleep, dream, rem dream. I stopped dreaming in that sense. But I also stopped dreaming as in my hopes and desires for myself. I would have big dreams for other people, but I didn't have any dreams really for myself because, quite frankly, I would daydream sometimes and it never worked out. So I literally, and I realized after a while that that was a lie, that that was something that the enemy did to take my dreams away. It was just. It was like cause, the dreams that I have are so humongous and crazy and big that it was like I also realized. I started to tell myself that that would never happen for me because I didn't see it happening around for other people around me. Then I started to understand that.

Speaker 1:

Once I started to understand that that is an absolute lie, I started to allow myself to dream again, and I mean dream big. Y'all Dream huge, dream big. And then I start y'all to place myself. Then I start y'all to place myself. Now this is stuff that, like people who do visualization and manifestation this way, this is where they got it from. But honestly, it's really about the Lord giving you, meeting you in that desire. I want what I desire to be aligned. So I'm not dreaming of like I, I want to just be rich. I'm dreaming of generational wealth, which is very different. If I'm rich, I'll get some cash and I'll spend it at the store because I love my luxury things Right. But the wealth I'm talking about requires a mindset change in my relationship with money and I was afraid to put myself in that position because of what I saw other people do and I just didn't. I just so.

Speaker 1:

This year I'm like no one of the tenants. One of the five is finance. So I've got to now allow myself to even visualize myself healthy in finance right, having a healthy financial situation, if you will. And I start to visualize what are the things that I want to see. I want to see my family going out to dinner more. I want us to travel more. I want to do the things, but I just want to encourage those of y'all.

Speaker 1:

Maybe you feel like you've had your dream stolen or you didn't allow yourself to dream anymore. It's okay to do that. You know what's so crazy is that, because I know that I'm his favorite, I say this we're all his favorite. Because I know Jesus says I'm his favorite, we're all his favorite, that there isn't anything that I'm going to do. If it's going to cause me great harm. I already asked him. If it's going to cause me great harm or take me outside of your will, then I don't want it. If it's not from you, I don't want it. But what I'm not going to do is to start telling no into my blessings, lord. Oh well, if Jesus don't do it, I'm not doing that. I'm actually believing that everything my heart's desire, no matter how big and crazy he's, even going to multiply beyond that so that he gets the glory. So when people see my success they will know that ain't Shelly, that's God. That's the kind of dreaming that I'm doing this year and I encourage you to again.

Speaker 1:

You can't do this without starting with God. You can't do that. I had to take all my desires, all my hopes and my dreams and sit down and say, abba, this is what I want, and as long as this align back to your word, this is what I want. Then I was in Proverbs 16, three commit my work to the Lord and my plans will be established Proverbs 16, three. Then I could pray that prayer into my plans and then allow him to make the changes shifts. He's going to change the season, he's going to change the people, he's going to change the opportunities. He's going to send help your way. But all of those things are because I committed my work into his hands. So that's what I wanted to leave you with.

Speaker 1:

I hope this blessed y'all. Thank you so much for those of y'all who woke up with me this morning. A shout out to those who listened to us on the audio version. Shout out to my friends in Singapore and I can't believe we have people in Singapore that watch. So shout out to my friends around the world. God is so good. Remember this is Thursday, so we also have this being the day that is our phone line day StreamYard change, so for some reason our ticker isn't showing, but again you know where to reach us on our, on our phone line. So I pray that this is going to bless y'all. Have an amazing rest of your day and I will see y'all next week. Take care.