Episode 54: Structure That Holds Your Season Of Growth

We share a simple way to navigate seasons of change with clarity: pair quarterly goals with a living calendar that reveals your true priorities. Through a personal story, we show how structure can hold new opportunities without burnout or chaos.

• why quarterly goals beat yearly plans for real life
• how a living calendar turns intention into action
• scheduling everything that matters, including rest and thinking time
• protecting pauses for clarity, prayer, and processing
• adapting structure each quarter to match your season
• aligning opportunities with purpose without losing momentum

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This is Delay the Binge™, formerly The Plus One Theory Podcast

Delay the Binge™ is a trademark of TPKK Concepts LLC.
© 2025 Pam Dwyer. All rights reserved.
Learn more: DelayTheBinge.com

Storytelling that transforms. Healing that lasts.
From bestselling author Pam Dwyer (PJ Hamilton).
Books + speaking: PamDwyer.com

Chapters

• 0:10 Welcome And Community Invite
• 0:46 Defining Change And Intentionality
• 2:27 An Unexpected Path To Podcast Editing
• 4:16 Why Quarterly Beats Yearly Goals
• 5:30 Structure As Your Support System
• 7:34 Four Steps To Build Your Calendar
• 9:37 Services For Authors And Teasers

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:10

Welcome back to the Delay the Binge Podcast. I'm your host, Pam Dwyer, and before we get started today, I want to invite you into something that will support you all year long. Join our community at delaythebinge.com. If you're craving encouragement, practical tools, honest stories, and steady reminders to pause before reacting. That's where you're going to find them. It's free, it's supportive, and it's the place where we grow intentionally, one shift at a time. Now, let's talk about change, shall we? Today I want to talk to you about something every season of growth demands. Change. Change that stretches you, change that surprises you, change that feels awkward and uncomfortable at first, but ends up being exactly what you needed. Because here's the truth, change can be good, powerful, and life giving, but only when you stay intentional about it. Whether it's about your health, your work, your habits, or your identity, when things shift, you have to shift with them. Not in chaos, not in starting everything over mode, but with clarity, structure, and devotion. Because when you stay intentional, change becomes an ally instead of an interruption. You might be in a season of change right now. Something feels different, something feels unsettled, or maybe something new is calling you forward, an opportunity, a desire, or a revelation. And you're trying to navigate it without losing your progress or losing yourself. If that's you, you're in exactly the right place. Today we're talking about clarity, intentionality, change, and why quarterly goals may be the secret to staying grounded in a shifting season. But first, let me tell you how change showed up in my life recently. I stumbled into something this year that I did not expect. Something that wasn't planned, and it wasn't on my list, and it wasn't part of my strategy. If you've followed my journey, you know I've been editing and producing the Delay the Bench podcast myself for the past year. And I truly love it. The creativity, the storytelling, the technical side, the intimacy of voice, the way audio forces you to be intentional with every breath and every word. But never once did I think, Pam, you're gonna turn this into an actual service. Never. And then, as he often does, God whispered through circumstance, my publisher reached out. Her podcast editor had to step away suddenly due to health issues. She needed help. She needed someone just that she trusted. And without hesitation, I said, I can help. And that one yes, that single act of support became a brand new branch of TPKK concepts. A perfect niche I never chased because it chased me. I had been looking for a part-time job to support my book publishing and speaking work. And instead, something aligned, purposeful, and meaningful dropped right into my hands. Sometimes you think you're searching for a job, but God is redirecting you toward your purpose. And that brings me back to the heart of today's episode. Change is only as good as the structure you build around it. Change without intention equals chaos. Change with intention equals clarity. And today I learned something that made everything click. Quarterly goals work better than yearly goals. And let's talk about why. Yearly goals sound great, but they're too big, too vague, and too disconnected from the reality of life. Life changes too quickly for a twelve month plan. You end up pushing too hard or giving up too early or losing clarity by March. But quarterly goals, they build in one of the most powerful tools you have. The pause. Every ninety days, you get a natural reset, a structured moment to evaluate is this still aligned? Is it really working for me? What needs to be adjusted and what needs more devotion? Or what needs to be released? Quarterly goals honor your humanity and your growth, and they leave room for divine interruption. Now I want to talk about something essential if you want to navigate change well. Structure. Not rigidity, not perfection, but structure, the kind that supports your life instead of suffocating it. Let me tell you something I've learned the hard way. Your calendar tells the truth, even when your mouth doesn't. You can say your health matters, but if your calendar doesn't show time carved out for it, it doesn't matter yet. You can say you're ready to grow, build a business, write a book, start a project. But if someone looked at your weekly schedule and can't see a single commitment toward that goal, there's your answer. Your calendar is the mirror you cannot lie to. When new opportunities arrive, when a yes becomes a calling, when your life shifts in a direction you didn't see coming, you need something strong enough to hold the newness. That something is structure. Structure creates clarity. Clarity reduces overwhelm. Reduced overwhelm creates momentum. That's why quarterly goals pair beautifully with structure. They allow you to rebuild your calendar every ninety days based on your season. Your calendar should reveal your vision. Listen closely. If someone else opened your calendar, they should be able to see your vision without you saying a word. Your calendar should be a blueprint of your priorities, values, goals, devotion, identity, calling. It should show what matters to you, not hide it. When you fill your calendar with intentional choices, you turn your schedule into your advocate. Your calendar starts working for you instead of drowning you. Here's how to structure your life during change. Number one, schedule everything that matters, not just meetings. Schedule thinking time, writing, podcasting, workouts, rest, devotions, planning, family, creativity, white space. If it's not on your calendar, it's not happening consistently. And number two, build your ninety-day priorities directly into your schedule. Your calendar should match your mouth. And number three, protect your pauses, your thinking time, your praying time, your processing time. These are not optional. They are your internal alignments. And number four, allow structure to evolve every quarter. A rigid calendar is a prison. A living calendar is a compass. Most people try to fit new change into their old unstructured life. You cannot do that. New life requires new structure. New purpose requires new calendars. New opportunities need new boundaries. If you use your old systems for your new season, you will burn out. Remember that quiet depletion we keep talking about? Well, there you go. Structure protects your purpose. So if you're in a season of change right now or you feel change coming, remember you are allowed to pause and you are allowed to evaluate. Quarterly goals give you that permission. Structure gives you the strength. And speaking of intentional change, if you are an author or publisher and you've been wanting to start a podcast, but the technology overwhelms you or the editing stresses you out, or you don't know where to even begin, look no further. Nobody understands an author's voice like another author. Nobody protects a story like someone who has lived one. If you want help editing, publishing, or producing your podcast, I would be honored to support you with the same intention I pour into my own. Just reach out. Let's create something beautiful together. And before we wrap up today, here's a little sneak peek at what's coming next week. I will be joined by Michelle Phillips. She is the host of Write Your Own Outcome Podcast. Michelle blends neuroscience, habits, energy, and joy to help people create focus and momentum without burnout or perfectionism. Our conversation is going to be powerful, uplifting, and full of practical insights. And I'm thrilled to share that I will also be a guest on the MicroJoy Method with Victoria Minch. We'll talk about choosing joy in small steady moments and how the pause and the plus one theory help you live with clarity, resilience, and self-kindness. Make sure you're subscribed so you don't miss either conversation. Thank you for being here. Thank you for growing with me. And remember, you don't have to change everything. Just choose the next right shift. One powerful pause at a time. See you next week.