Helping People Live on Purpose Instead of By Accident: A Q&A with Lara Casey

Thank you so much for having me! I’m a mom to three–one through the gift of adoption, a grateful wife, and a believer in the impossible (we have quite the story!). I’m passionate about helping people get unstuck, unrushed, and living on purpose instead of by accident.

To help with those things, I created the PowerSheets™ grace-filled goal setting planner, the Write the Word™ journals, and I founded Southern Weddings a decade ago. You can read my story in Make It Happen: Surrender Your Fear, Take the Leap, Live On Purpose, and my new book, Cultivate: A Grace-Filled Guide to Growing an Intentional Life. I love the women I work alongside each day, the smell of magnolia blooms, getting my hands dirty in the garden, exploring local farms, and living in Chapel Hill, NC.

I get up at 5:30 to feed our three kiddos, and at 7:00 am we all go out for a walk in the neighborhood with our big jogging stroller. I also do weights at home 4 times a week. At 8:00, our wonderful caregiver arrives to help me get everyone ready for the day. I take a five-minute shower and throw some clothes on, eat breakfast, and start work at 9:00 once all the kids are settled. After that, my days are always different.

I love on the kids throughout the day between working on emails, writing tasks, and staff meetings. My husband, Ari, comes home around 6 and helps wrangle all the kiddos to bed. Somewhere in there I make a quick healthy dinner for everyone, which we usually finish eating after the babies go to sleep. At 8:30, Ari and I are in bed and read, pray, and talk till we fall asleep around 9!

Love on our kiddos! We love to explore the area together, play in the garden, and spend time with our church family and friends.

I suffered from anorexia in college, and spent many years fighting fear and self-imposed pressure to attain unattainable perfection. It took many years to learn this, but I now know that my value is not in earthly things: the way I look, what I do for a living, or how well I perform. When the feelings of chasing perfection try to surface, I remind myself that I am not in control. I pray and put it in God’s hands.

I always thought it was unattainable, this elusive thing called “balance.” But as I’ve observed my garden over the years, I have noticed something. In the seasons, we find balance. The seasons allow my garden to rest and grow at just the right times, and it’s the same with our lives. The seasons teach us how to do life well, revealing a life-giving rhythm: we flourish through intentional periods of stillness, growth, hard work, and rest. We need this rhythm in our days, in our weeks, and in our everything. In this season, that means giving myself the freedom to not do it all–to say no, to ask for help, and to be okay with imperfection. It’s so freeing!

My kids! I want to live a long and healthy life so I can shepherd their hearts well and love them on this earth as long as the Lord lets me. They keep me on my toes!

Learn. For me, knowledge about health and fitness is a huge motivator. Knowing that food is fuel and how it affects my body has changed everything. Knowing that good sleep helps me to be my best for everyone around me helps me to make it a priority. And knowing that moving my body gives me more energy keeps me moving!

We are releasing our 2018 collection, including the 2018 PowerSheets, soon. I’m also working on a children’s book about Gracie’s Garden that I’m excited about!