Lagom, Planning, and Holy Hustle

For the last several years I have chosen to pick a “word of the year” instead of making resolutions I’m sure to give up on. Honestly, I can resolve as hard as I’d like to drink more water and go to bed earlier, but the reality is I just won’t do it. Choosing a word – and a corresponding Scripture – has given me a filter to run ALL the things through during the year…and it’s often changed my heart and my relationship with God.

After everything that last year brought, along with trying to launch a book during a pandemic/election year/Amazon Prime sale (UGH), I was pretty content to not have a word for the year. I wasn’t feeling very motivated to do anything creative, I was frustrated with constantly trying to pivot, I felt sad about the underwhelming book launch, and I was ready to snuggle into my cozy oversized hoodie and new Christmas slippers and just…go through the motions, I guess?

Oh except I had this “Holy Hustle” planner coming out, so burying myself under the covers and binge-watching The Great Pottery Throwdown wasn’t an option. So I continued to ignore the “word of the year” thoughts and pushed forward because this planner? I have been praying for this project to get into your hands.

 

 

It’s been over two years in the making, and something I dreamed about when I first put the concept of “Holy Hustle” out to my agent. It’s this beautiful, simple, intentional resource that I pray brings women joy but also draws you deeper into your relationship with God and your community. It’s designed for those of us who are planners and love all the room for all the details, and it’s designed for those of us who like the flexibility to occasionally leave our planner in a bag and pick it up two weeks later (it’s undated, so you can use it however you’d like).

But most importantly, it’s for YOU. To encourage, inspire, equip, and sustain you in your pursuit of keeping your hustle holy, with lots of little weekly surprises, built in resources, and space for you to plan with open hands before the Lord.

• When “Holy Hustle” came out it was an invitation to freedom and joy with a life of both/and.
• When “Quieting the Shout of Should” came out it was an invitation to peace and contentment with a less is more lifestyle.

That word of the year I kept avoiding found me one day on Instagram – this perfect combination of both of those concepts, plus my heart for planning. Lagom is a Swedish word that is a lifestyle of not too much and not too little. To me it means prioritizing the right things, making God more and myself less, finding contentment with not only what I have but what I can do in this season, and staying in that sweet spot of Holy Hustle that is neither striving nor lazy.

Actually, I don’t have a sense of needing anything personally. I’ve learned by now to be quite content whatever my circumstances. I’m just as happy with little as with much, with much as with little. I’ve found the recipe for being happy whether full or hungry, hands full or hands empty. Whatever I have, wherever I am, I can make it through anything in the One who makes me who I am. -Philippians 4:11-13

So now there are two books that pair beautifully together, a planner that I am so in love with, three YouVersion reading plans, and a new “word of the year.” I don’t know what God has next for this ministry of mine, but I will continue to pursue His plans over mine…and probably buy some super cute stickers for that planner ?

 

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This is a guest post from our friend, Crystal Stine. Crystal is the author of three self-published books, a Bible study, and the Holy Hustle Planner.