How Do You Know You're Making Progress on Your Homestead?
5 Simple Signs You're on the Right Path
Learn how to recognize homestead progress when growth doesn't always look like a finished project, a bigger garden, or a longer list of accomplishments.
Have you ever looked around your homestead and wondered, “Am I actually making progress?”
You're doing the things.
You're learning.
You're planning.
You're starting projects, changing routines, trying new skills, and working hard.
But somehow, you still don't feel like you're getting anywhere.
Maybe the garden isn't as productive as you hoped. The pantry isn't full yet. That project you started months ago still isn't finished. You keep learning new things, but instead of feeling more confident, you sometimes feel like there is even more you don't know.
And then you look at someone else's homestead.
They have the established garden.
The beautiful orchard.
The barn.
The livestock.
The overflowing pantry.
The systems that seem to run effortlessly.
And you wonder, “What am I doing wrong?”
But what if the problem isn't that you're not making progress?
What if you're simply looking for progress in the wrong places?
Progress on a homestead doesn't always look like something getting finished.
Sometimes progress looks like gaining clarity.
Sometimes it looks like learning what doesn't work.
Sometimes it looks like becoming more confident in your next decision.
And sometimes, progress looks so small that you almost miss it.
We Expect Progress to Look Like a Finished Homestead
It's easy to look at a well-established homestead and assume that this is what progress looks like.
You see the productive garden, the mature fruit trees, the livestock, the pantry shelves, the well-organized kitchen, the outbuildings, and all the systems working together.
And you think, “That's where I'm supposed to be going.”
And you are—but you're looking at the result of years of decisions.
You're not seeing all the seasons that came before it.
You're not seeing the failed crops, the projects that had to be redone, the animals that didn't work out, the plans that changed, the skills that had to be learned, or the years spent figuring out what actually fit that particular family and piece of land.
You're seeing the built-out version.
And then you're measuring your beginning—or your middle—against someone else's years of cultivation.
That isn't a fair measurement.
If you only measure progress by what you can see, you may completely miss the growth that's already happening.
There Is No Homesteading Report Card
One of the interesting things about homesteading is that there isn't really a universal finish line.
There isn't a report card that says:
Garden: 72% complete.
Food preservation: 45% complete.
Livestock: 30% complete.
Homestead: 61% complete.
And honestly, I'm glad there isn't.
Because every homestead is different.
Every family has different needs.
Every property has different resources and limitations.
Every woman has different capacity.
And every season asks something different of us.
One family may need to focus on growing food.
Another may need to spend a year repairing infrastructure.
Someone else may be learning how to cook from scratch.
Another woman may realize that what her family actually needs right now is to simplify rather than add another project.
So instead of asking,
“Am I as far along as I should be?”
a better question is:
“Am I faithfully moving in the direction God has called me?”
That's a very different way of looking at progress.
Look for Indicators Instead of Finish Lines
When you don't have a finish line, it helps to look for indicators.
An indicator is simply evidence that you're moving in the right direction.
You don't need dozens of measurements or a complicated tracking system.
You just need a few questions that help you recognize what growth looks like in the season you're actually in.
This is one of the reasons I love the Purposeful Growing Journey.
The five stages aren't simply a list of things you need to accomplish.
They represent different kinds of growth.
And each stage has its own question that can help you recognize whether you're moving forward.
Let's look at them.
1. AWAKENING: Do I Have More Clarity About Why I'm Doing This?
The Awakening stage is where the desire begins to take shape.
Maybe you've been thinking about homesteading for a while. Maybe you can't quite explain why, but you know you want to grow more of your own food, simplify your home, care for your land differently, or build a life that feels more aligned with your values.
At this stage, progress isn't necessarily a garden full of vegetables.
It may be clarity.
You may begin to understand why this matters to you.
You may become more aware of what God is drawing you toward.
You may stop worrying quite so much about what everyone else is doing.
You may finally be able to put words around what you're hoping to cultivate in your home and on your land.
That is progress.
Your indicator:
I understand my “why” more clearly than I did before.
You don't have to have the whole vision figured out.
You just need to be growing in clarity about the direction you're being called to explore.
2. ROOTING: Am I Becoming More Confident in What Fits Our Family?
Once you begin to understand why you're pursuing this life, you have to start figuring out what actually fits.
This is where Rooting becomes important.
Because there is a lot of advice available to homesteaders.
A lot.
Plant this.
Raise that.
Preserve everything.
Don't buy this.
Build that.
Compost this way.
Do it exactly like this.
And if you're not careful, you can spend your entire homesteading journey trying to follow everyone else's version of the “right” way.
Rooting is where you begin developing your own discernment.
You start asking:
Does this actually fit our family?
Does this work for our property?
Do we have the resources for this?
Is this something we need in this season?
And perhaps most importantly:
Do I actually believe this is something we're called to cultivate?
You may still be learning.
You may still change your mind.
But you're becoming less dependent on someone else's blueprint.
Your indicator:
I'm becoming more confident in making decisions based on our family, property, and season.
That confidence is progress.
3. PLANNING: Do I Know What Matters Now?
Eventually, knowing what you want isn't enough.
You have to decide what matters now.
This is where Planning comes in.
Maybe you have twenty ideas.
But you can only work on three.
Maybe you know exactly what you'd love to build someday, but this season requires something else.
Maybe you've finally learned that saying yes to every good idea leaves you with no capacity for the things that matter most.
Progress in this stage may look like having fewer priorities.
It may look like a clearer plan.
It may look like finally being able to say no without feeling like you're giving up.
It may look like creating rhythms that actually fit your life instead of building an ideal schedule that falls apart within a week.
Your indicator:
I know my priorities and can identify my next faithful step.
You don't need to know every step.
You need to know the next one.
That is often enough.
4. CULTIVATING: Are the Systems I'm Building Actually Helping?
Cultivating is where the work gets lived out.
You plant.
You build.
You preserve.
You cook.
You care for animals.
You develop skills.
You put systems into practice.
And then you discover something important:
The plan isn't always going to work exactly as you imagined.
That's not failure.
That's cultivation.
You try something.
You observe what happens.
You make an adjustment.
You try again.
Maybe a routine that looked great on paper doesn't work with your family's actual schedule.
Maybe your garden layout needs to change.
Maybe a project takes twice as long as you thought.
Maybe you discover that something you thought you needed isn't actually necessary.
Maybe you finally find a system that makes one part of your life noticeably easier.
All of those things are evidence of growth.
Your indicator:
I'm learning what works for us and adjusting when it doesn't.
This is one reason I believe reflection is such an important part of homesteading.
You aren't simply trying to get things done.
You're learning how to cultivate a life that works.
And sometimes the progress is in realizing that something needs to change.
5. ABIDING: Am I Learning to Walk With God in the Work?
Then there is the kind of progress that may be hardest to measure at all.
Abiding.
Because eventually, the question isn't only what you're growing.
It's also who you're becoming while you grow it.
Are you learning to notice God in the ordinary work?
Are you becoming less controlled by the need to make everything happen?
Are you learning to receive the small things as gifts?
Are you making room for rest?
Are you learning to trust God's provision instead of believing everything depends on you?
Are you finding purpose even in the repetitive work that nobody else sees?
This kind of growth may never show up in a photograph of your garden.
But that doesn't make it less important.
Your indicator:
I'm learning to remain connected to God while I cultivate what He has entrusted to me.
That is progress too.
And I would argue that it may be some of the most important progress you'll make.
What If Your Progress Feels Really Small?
Maybe you're reading these indicators and thinking,
That's it?
Maybe your progress this year isn't a finished greenhouse or a full pantry.
Maybe it's finally knowing what you actually want to grow.
Maybe it's successfully growing your first crop.
Maybe you learned how your soil behaves.
Maybe you created one system that makes your mornings easier.
Maybe you realized you don't need chickens yet.
Maybe you finally admitted that a particular project isn't right for your family.
Maybe you're learning how to rest without feeling guilty.
Those things may not look impressive on Instagram.
But they're evidence of growth.
Small evidence of growth is still evidence of growth.
We have a tendency to celebrate the visible accomplishments and overlook the internal ones.
But becoming more discerning matters.
Becoming more confident matters.
Learning from failure matters.
Growing in faithfulness matters.
Knowing what not to do matters.
Sometimes the most important thing you accomplish in a season is not building something new.
It's becoming the woman who is ready to build it well later.
Why These Indicators Matter
Without some way to recognize progress, it's easy to fall into comparison.
You see someone else's garden and decide yours isn't good enough.
You see someone else's pantry and think you're behind.
You read about someone else's homestead project and suddenly abandon your own plan because theirs sounds better.
Or you keep starting new things because you don't feel like you're making progress on the things you already began.
That's exhausting.
But when you understand what progress looks like in your current stage, you can begin to recognize growth for what it is.
You don't need to see the entire path.
You don't need to have the finished homestead.
You don't even need to know exactly where you'll be five years from now.
You need to know whether you're faithfully moving in the direction God is leading you today.
Your Job Is Faithfulness. God's Job Is the Growth.
This is where homesteading and faith intersect so beautifully for me.
We live in a culture that wants measurable results.
How much did you produce?
How much did you accomplish?
How much did you grow?
How quickly did you get there?
But Scripture gives us a different picture of growth.
Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 3:6:
“I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow.”
We plant.
We water.
We tend.
We steward.
But we don't control the growth.
That's true in the garden, and I think it's true in us too.
God isn't asking you to produce a finished homestead overnight.
He's asking you to faithfully steward what He has placed in front of you.
So perhaps the better question isn't simply:
“How much did I accomplish?”
Perhaps it's also:
“How faithfully did I steward what God gave me today?”
That changes the way we see progress.
Because sometimes faithfulness looks like planting.
Sometimes it looks like pruning.
Sometimes it looks like learning.
Sometimes it looks like waiting.
And sometimes it looks like letting something go.
All of those can be part of growth.
You May Be Further Along Than You Think
So let's go back to the question we started with:
“Am I actually making progress?”
Maybe you aren't behind.
Maybe you're simply measuring the wrong thing.
If you're clearer than you were six months ago, that's progress.
If you're more confident than you were last spring, that's progress.
If you're learning from what didn't work instead of simply calling it failure, that's progress.
If you're making decisions with greater intention, that's progress.
If you're becoming more faithful in the small things, that's progress.
If you're learning to recognize God's presence in the ordinary work, that's progress.
You may not have the finished homestead you imagined.
But that doesn't mean nothing is happening.
You are growing.
And sometimes the quietest growth is the growth that matters most.
Your Simple Next Step
Take a few minutes this week to identify where you are in the Purposeful Growing Journey.
Then ask the question connected to that stage.
Awakening:
Do I have more clarity about why I'm doing this?
Rooting:
Am I becoming more confident in what fits our family?
Planning:
Do I know what matters now?
Cultivating:
Are the systems I'm building actually helping?
Abiding:
Am I learning to walk with God in the work?
Then ask one more question:
What is one small indicator that would show me I'm growing in this stage?
Maybe, for example, you're in Planning.
Your answer might be:
“I'll know I'm growing when I can identify my three priorities without feeling like everything is urgent.”
That's something you can actually watch for.
And when you notice it happening, don't dismiss it because you didn't finish a big project.
Celebrate the evidence that you're becoming more clear, more intentional, and more faithful in your journey.
That is progress.
You Don't Have to Grow Everything at Once
The Purposeful Growing Journey isn't about racing through five stages until you've finally “arrived.”
It's about recognizing where you are, understanding what this season is asking of you, and taking the next faithful step.
If you're not sure what stage you're in—or you're struggling to figure out what your next step should be—that's exactly why I created the Purposeful Growing Journey.
The Purposeful Growing Journey Assessment can help you identify your current stage and understand what kind of growth may be happening in your life right now.
And if you want to go deeper, the Purposeful Growing Journey Journal gives you a place to slow down, reflect, and begin cultivating your homestead with greater purpose and intention.
You don't need to have the whole path figured out.
You just need to recognize where God has you today.
Then take the next faithful step.
Have a blessed day,
Crystal
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