My “Cultivate Your Year Live” Experience

It’s no secret that I love all things Cultivate What Matters. This company has done a phenomenal job of producing practical goal-setting tools, beautiful and quality planner accessories, and meaningful faith journals. I have written a recent post about the 2022 goal planner, and prior posts about the Girls Goal Planner and their Write the Word Journals.

They have also fostered a supportive and positive community on Facebook. I’m a member of several Facebook groups, but the PowerSheets Facebook Group is by far one of my favorites. The members cheer one another on and I have yet to see drama emerge.

Each year, there is a live event, Cultivate Your Year Live (CYYL), where the Cultivate Team, and the PowerSheets creator, Lara Casey, will guide you through the prep work in the Goal-Setting Planner. Before 2020, these events took place in North Carolina. However, after group events became more difficult due to the virus, the event went virtual.

I was so grateful and humbled when the company reached out to see if I would be willing to be part of the Encouragement Team for this year’s online CYYL event. This provided me the opportunity to do help welcome folks to the event and share encouragement as we all worked on setting our 2022 goals.

Because of my job as an attorney, I rarely have time to participate in these kinds of experiences, which take place at the beginning of December (before I go on leave). This year, I was fortunate to have some leave time to devote to the event, which was only about a 6-hour commitment on Monday December 6th. So, this was my first time I was able to go!

This post is a less of a review and more of a description of my experience with this event. As it was my first time, I do not have much to compare it to, but my hope is that this post will give a little context to what you can expect if you consider purchasing a ticket next year.

(Disclaimer- I am not an employee or affiliate of Cultivate What Matters. I simply love this company and its products).

What is “Cultivate Your Year Live”?

To understand why you might need an event for a new planner, it might be helpful to read one of my prior posts and reviews of the PowerSheets Goal Setting Planners. The first one I wrote about the 2020 edition is at this link, the 2021 planner review is here, and I reviewed the 2022 planner here.

But, as a quick summary, PowerSheets are not your traditional planner. Although they now come with a monthly spread, there are no daily or weekly pages. Instead, there is a section of a little over 40 “prep” pages where you are guided through worksheets and journaling prompts that will help you to figure out which areas of your life you want to focus on. This will help you to identify things you want to accomplish, try, or achieve- your goals.

Once you have identified goals, the prep work provides additional work pages to help you break down those goals into action items- monthly, weekly, and daily tasks that will help you to achieve your goals. Instead of a traditional planner layouts, you get a monthly “Tending List,” which has monthly, weekly, and daily task/habit trackers to keep you focused and accountable.

Although the prep pages are not wall-to-wall text, they do require work. They can be intimidating, and some folks don’t know how to get started or how to keep going once they’ve written in the first few pages. This is where CYYL comes in.

The CYYL event is an opportunity to complete the majority of the initial goal setting prep work in your PowerSheets planner in less than a day. Rather than work on your own, you get the work done with Lara Casey and her team providing coaching and encouragement in real time.

CYYL, as I noted above, used to take place in person in North Carolina (the CWM company is headquartered in Chapel Hill, NC). But, this year’s event was entirely online. The event is only open to folks who purchased a PowerSheets Planner (if you receive the planner as a gift, the company ensures that you receive the benefits that accompany the planner).

The planner comes with an automatic subscription to “Goal School,” a website filled with resources for folks who own the planner including printable pages, videos, and articles to help you with goal-setting all year long. The CYYL event is hosted on Goal School.

My Experience at the 2021 “Cultivate Your Year Live”

Having always worked on my PowerSheets prep work during the vacation time I take around the holidays, I always felt I was a seasoned “Cultivator” and could go without the prep work. Let’s face it, I had to tell myself this as I didn’t have the time to attend. But, after participating in this year’s event, I may have to rethink my approach going forward. This was a joyful day, and I was so thrilled to be part of the encouragement team (something I love doing in general).

Here are the main highlights of the experience:

Atmosphere. You would think that sitting in your own house in front of a computer screen would not do much for atmosphere, no matter what you see on your screen. But, between the music and the bright interface, it created an energizing environment. (The music was so good, they sent out a playlist after the event).

Coaching. Lara Casey was the main coach at this year’s event. She is a bright, positive, and compassionate person. This comes through in all that she says and does. During CYYL, Lara went through the prep work by explaining the purpose of the work and encouraging folks not to overthink their answers. She also admitted that she might take additional time later to fill in more of the worksheets so she could mull them over a bit. Although there were time spans reserved for each section, the message I received was that it would be okay to go at my own pace.

Pacing. As I noted above, the event was meant to help you get the PowerSheets prep work completed in one day. Lara Casey walked us through each of the pages and gave us set amounts of time to work on our own to complete the work. There was a timer on the screen and Lara would often pop back in to provide a little more explanation or encouragement. Now, I’ll admit that I originally thought I would finish nearly every page (not the vision board, of course) between page 1 and the January tab. However, I learned that CYYL was designed to get you through about page 32 of the prep work. I have to say, this makes sense to me. The pages that follow 33 are the Goal Action Plan pages. While there are 8, two-page spreads, not everyone will necessarily have 8 goals. So, it could take you just a few minutes to fill out these pages if you are only focusing on a couple of goals. Or it might take longer to fill in all 8. With a group as large as the one attending this event, it would have been impossible to lead the attendees through all of those Action Plan pages, particularly since the format has changed and we now have the opportunity to decide on how to structure the pages (using wild cards found in the Goal School resource site).

The Chat. One of the things that let you know you were not alone in this virtual room was the chat messaging that went on during the entire event. While you had the option to enlarge the screen and only see the presentation, the chat was a place where women from around the world cheered one another on as everyone worked on setting their goals. Of course, with over 1500 attendees, the chat would sometimes feel like you were watching movie credits at the speed of light. That would usually happen when Lara asked a question and everyone would excitedly start typing at once. But, for the most part, the attendees read the messages and even individually responded to one another as we carried on with the prep work.

The Cultivate and Encouragement Teams. When I have purchased products from CWM, the one thing I have noticed is the personal attention I have always received from this company. Whether it be using the chat feature when shopping to address a problem with the website, or contacting customer service about an issue with my order, they are so prompt and responsive in handling whatever problem I have. This same attentiveness was present during CYYL. Being on the encouragement team showed me that this company cares so much about the attendees having a good experience that they invited me and several other women to the event to cheer on folks as they went through the work by using the chat. We also logged on early to welcome folks to the program. The Cultivate Team was also there, answering questions, ensuring the livestream went smoothly, and providing constant support. I was so impressed by how personalized, intentional, and well-organized it all felt.

Reflections on the Day

So, if you are someone who finds filling out worksheets and journaling intimidating, or this is your first time using PowerSheets, I highly recommend attending this event. I completely enjoyed it and, thanks to the wonderful atmosphere fostered in that virtual space, I really got into the spirit of the day (more than I thought I would). I also loved having so much of my prep work done.

Taking nearly a whole day off of work to attend this event felt like self-care. I made time for myself and my goals, rather than trying to fit all the prep work into the time I have off with my family during the holidays. It also meant I could do them at one time, instead of the piecemeal, a few pages here, a few pages there way I normally do them.

Leading up to the event, the PowerSheets Facebook Group had tons of posts where women shared how they were preparing for the day– setting up their work space, having beverages and snacks on hand, and planning out which comfy outfit they would wear. This further fostered a sense of community that I took into the virtual event.

Working on my PowerSheets as part of a group helped provide motivation and momentum. Even though I could only see the Lara or the Cultivate Team member who was providing coaching, it was energizing to know that 1500 other people were working in their books right alongside me. And, since I couldn’t see these folks or look at their pages, I wasn’t tempted to compare my pace, handwriting, or page decorating skills with anyone else’s. It was a total win-win for me.

I know that in-person events have some real advantages over virtual ones, but I can say that this is one of the best virtual events I have ever attended. For me, the convenience of doing it from whatever location I chose (home, the office, or even at a hotel, like some ladies did to ensure their “me time”) made it much more doable.

I saw some feedback in the chat and later in the PowerSheets Facebook Group where some folks felt the pace was too quick. Although Lara Casey said that we could come back to certain pages afterwards, I could see folks wanting to finish the day with all the pages complete. If that sounds like you, consider cracking open your PowerSheets prior to CYYL. While I don’t think you need to start writing things out, I think just familiarizing yourself with the questions and prompts may get the goal-setting ideas. I believe part of why I finished with the prep pages during the time allotted during CYYL is because I’ve been thinking about my goals and I’m already familiar with the format of most of the PowerSheets prep pages.

2022 will be my 5th year of using a PowerSheets Goal-Setting Planner, and I have always done my prep work on my own. But after having attended CYYL, I will likely sign up to attend the event next year, particularly if I can do it remotely.

What has your experience been with CYYL? Have you ever attended? Did you go to the live event or just the recent virtual ones? I’d love to hear your takeaways from these events in the comments!

* As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. If you click a link and make any purchase on Amazon, I may receive a small commission at no charge to you which will help me maintain this website. 

**Image credits-images on graphics and in article are originals by Vidalia Patterson.

© Plan On The Sunrise, Vidalia Patterson, 2021. No part (including, but not limited to articles, photographs, and graphics) of this site, PlanOnTheSunrise.com, may not be reproduced in whole or in part in any manner without the express permission of the copyright owner. Please see the Privacy Policy page for contact information.