How Do You Intend to Achieve Your Goal?
Mar 02, 2026Summary
In this episode of the Arise, Women of God podcast, we dive into the arithmetic of heaven, exploring how God actively multiplies our smallest efforts. Our guest, Amanda Powell, shares expert advice on the "Baseline Principle," breaking down how taking an honest inventory of your "loaves and fishes" is the critical first step to witnessing a miracle. Whether you're a busy Christian woman looking to overcome the stress of scarcity or simply curious about how do you intend to achieve your goal, this episode is packed with valuable takeaways. Tamara K. Anderson also uncovers surprising insights about the power of community, discussing how a simple 6:45 AM walking buddy can increase your success rate to over 90 percent.
If you’ve ever wondered about how do you intend to achieve your goal and how it impacts your long-term spiritual momentum, you won’t want to miss this conversation. Plus, we share practical steps for habit stacking—making it easier than ever to apply these lessons in your own life and build structures that make quitting harder than continuing. Tune in for a thought-provoking discussion on how do you intend to achieve your goal, and don’t forget to subscribe for more expert insights on Christian goal setting, accountability, and spiritual growth!
Episode Takeaways
- The Baseline Principle: Just as Jesus needed to know how many loaves and fishes were available before feeding the 5,000, God asks you to present your current reality. You must know your starting point to truly recognize the magnitude of the miracle at the finish line.
- The Gathering Goal: Miracles often require a search and rescue mission for resources and people. Involving others (like the disciples gathering baskets or the boy sharing his lunch) isn't just helpful; it is often a prerequisite for divine multiplication.
- Accountability Arithmetic: Writing down a goal gives you a 42% chance of success, but adding an accountability partner (like a 6:45 AM walking buddy) skyrockets your success rate to over 90%.
- Habit Stacking: Intending to achieve a goal means creating an environment where success is the easiest option. Simple actions, like placing your gym bag in the car before work, build momentum.
Resources
Are you ready to bring your "loaves and fishes" to God and watch Him multiply your efforts? Download our FREE A Guide to Goal Setting for Christian Women to brainstorm the right goal with God, and join our Women Warriors of Light Accountability Group to find your 90% success buddy today. 👉 Download Here: https://www.womenwarriorsoflight.com/offers/WyaLn2gS/checkout
Need accountability? Check out our Women Warriors Accountability Group for free for two weeks! https://www.womenwarriorsoflight.com/join-now
Reflection Questions
- What is your current "baseline" (your loaves and fishes)? Are you willing to offer that small amount to God today instead of waiting until you have "enough"?
- Who can you invite into your goal journey to act as your accountability buddy and increase your chances of success to 90%?
- Look at your daily routine. What is one small habit you can "stack" today to make achieving your goal inevitable?
Transcript
Tamara K. Anderson
00:00:00.400 - 00:02:08.720
Have you ever looked at the massive goal in your heart and then looked at the tiny amount of time, energy, or money that you actually have and thought, there is no way these two things add up? Most of us wait until we have enough to start. But in God's kingdom, the miracle doesn't happen in the waiting, it happens in the offering.
Today, we're answering the tactical question, how do you intend to to achieve your goal?
And by the end of today's episode, you will understand the multiplication mindset and how to solve the pain of never having enough by learning to present your baseline to God. We're moving from the stress of scarcity to the peace of a provided mindset. Stay tuned. Ordinary women Extraordinary faith When God calls, we say yes.
The Arise Women of God Podcast hello, and welcome to another episode of the Arise Women of God podcast. I'm your host, Tamara K. Andersen.
And joining me today is the amazing Amanda Powell from our Women warriors of Light Advisory Board, who also happens to be an expert at goal setting. And today we are looking at the arithmetic of heaven.
First, we're going to define the baseline principle, why God needs you to count your loaves and fishes before he multiplies them. Second, we'll discuss the gathering goal, why involving others isn't just helpful, it's actually a prerequisite for a miracle sometimes.
Third, we're going to talk about the arithmetic of accountability and why having a 6:45am friend increases your success rate to over 90%. And finally, we're going to share how to return and report to God to ensure that your momentum never stops.
So let's kick it off with Amanda teaching us a little bit about the baseline principle.
Amanda Powell
00:02:09.040 - 00:04:15.540
So one thing that I love to teach is I love to teach where Christ feeds the 5,000 and with the loaves and the fishes. I love this story. And the reason I love it is it.
It really summarizes goals in such a way because first we have the loaves and the fishes, which is such an important part of the story. It's our baseline data. Okay, Think about that as baseline data. The story starts out with very few loaves and fishes. We have our data.
We actually, in Scripture, get the number. Okay, that's important for us to know. The reason that's important is because it allows us to see how God intends to.
To help the Savior accomplish his goal of feeding 5,000. Okay, so we have the baseline. This is what we have. But what do we need? He needs a lot more, right? He needs so much more.
And so it allows us once we see the miracle that not only were the 5000 Fed, but what was left over. Right. We had leftovers. It wasn't even that. We just fed and they left. Right. Everybody got enough? No, everybody went away full and there was leftovers.
Okay. That shows you the scope of what we can accomplish when we align with God. He is showing us, where's your baseline? Where are you starting at?
What do you need to get there? And let me help you right now. The Savior had to do some things, right? The Savior had to activate that power, right? He had to do some things.
There was a prayer, There was a go gather, right? There was those daily little things that he did to make sure that God's power would be seen.
And that's the beauty of a baseline, because when we partner, God's going to provide the miracle, and it's going to be incredible. But we got to know where we're starting from, or will we even recognize the miracle if the baseline was left out of that story?
Okay, let's say the baseline's left completely out. We have no idea. There's loaves, there's fishes. We just know the Savior wants to feed. And so he activates that. Right? And he feeds.
And there's so much left over. Is the miracle as big without knowing the baseline? Right. So I think that's really important.
Tamara K. Anderson
00:04:16.260 - 00:09:48.140
You have to know your starting point to appreciate the finish line. If you don't acknowledge the five loaves, you'll think the full baskets just happened by accident.
But please notice that Jesus didn't do this on alone. First, he asked his disciples to go and find out what was available.
Achieving a big goal sometimes requires a search and rescue mission for resources and people. I love that part of this story involves other people. There was this big goal to feed these hungry people before they went home.
After listening to Jesus speak and he says, go and find out what we have to start with. Like you were saying, the baseline. So he's involving others in a search. Could he have snapped his fingers and had it done? Absolutely.
But sometimes when you're working with a group of people, involving them in the process of achieving a goal has miracles in. In those little parts as well. Think of the. The boy who. Who shared his food and the person who shared their loaves.
They were a part of the miracle, and maybe they needed to see what God could do with the little that they had to share. Right? But also think of the faith of the disciples. They were like, what is he doing? They could gather baskets, how many, you know, and.
And so they went out and gathered baskets. There were people who got involved, who had baskets as, and they shared their empty baskets. Great.
And so sometimes when we want to achieve a goal, I think one of the lessons from this story is involving different people. And what they have to contribute might not be something big, but it will be a contribution that is needed. Right?
And so involving people in our goal setting can often help us move forward towards something bigger than we would have imagined on our own. Your small offering is the seed for a massive harvest. But let's get practical here.
Once you've gathered your disciples and your baskets, how do you keep them moving when it's cold, dark or difficult? That's where the 90% rule of accountability kicks in.
I have always been huge on accountability and it, if you write down a goal, you're like 42% more likely to achieve it. If you have accountability, it moves into the 80 to 90% much more likely to achieve it because you're reporting back to someone.
And if you're doing it alongside with someone, that it just makes it so much better. For example, I have a friend I walk with at 6:45 in the morning.
And in the wintertime it is really dark here at 6:45 in the morning and it's cold because we're in the wintertime, you know. But let me tell you, getting out of bed and getting over to walk with her is so much more appealing than getting out and doing it on my own.
How much more likely am I going to be to do it if she's there and I'm like, oh, I can't, I can't stay in my warm little bed.
She's waiting for me, you know, I am so much more likely to go and do it because I know she's going to meet me there five days a week, you know what I mean?
So just that component of intending to bringing someone in, finding someone, finding the right someone too, because you might try a few friends out and that that didn't work, you know what I mean? So that's an important component.
So my friends find the right someone to wait for you at the finish line, or better yet, find someone to walk the race with you. Intending to achieve a goal means building the right structure where it's harder to quit than it is to keep going.
Sometimes using little tips like habit stacking can really help.
If you want to go to the gym after work, be sure to put your bag with your workout clothes and your bottle of water in the car so that right after work you can just swing by and get that done because you have made a plan to succeed. As we wrap up today, remember that intending to do a goal isn't a one time decision.
It's a daily conversation with God who provides all the multiplication and the miracles. So how do you intend to achieve your goal? By offering God your baseline and inviting others to help you with your basket.
You do not have to provide the whole feast, you just have to provide the five loaves. If you're ready to find your baseline and start your multiplication miracle, go download our free A Guide to Goal Setting for Christian Women.
It will help you make sure that you're brainstorming the right goal to set with God, which you can then ask him to help you multiply.
And if you're looking for the right someone to hold you accountable, join our Community of Women warriors of Light Accountability Group will help you fill your baskets until there are leftovers with God's help. The links are in the description below. Go offer your tiny gift to the big God today and until next time. May you arise. Do it God's way. God's strong.
