July flew by. We had a couple weddings that we traveled for so that made for two 3 day work weeks. Before I knew it, July 31st was here. During months where there is more travel, I find it harder to remember the goals I’ve set. You’re out of routine and life is much more spontaneous – which is how it should be! But all that to say, there were some goals that stayed at the forefront of my mind and some that became less of a priority.
So, here’s a check in with July goals:
- Send two cards. whoops. I got caught up writing wedding thank you cards and some cards for wedding gifts, but no personal cards.
- Finalize blogging newsletter and clean up the blog side bar. The newsletter will be changing with some other blog changes but I learned to use the one I have for now AND cleaned up the side bar for now. Happy with that!
- Host people in our home twice for dinner. We had our friend Trey stay with us the first week of July for 10 days before he got married. I’m counting that since we ate dinner with Trey + Nicole at our apartment a few times. I also hosted a couple girlfriends. In retrospect, this goal was too ambitious, so I’ll say given the hosting – the intention was there.
- Do yoga 1x a week. I did yoga 2 times last month and actually got back into Barre3 which I’m loving. That felt good. I do the short 30 minute classes so this fit better into my life and schedule. I feel stretched out and my mind is calmer with both movements so I think I’m in a good place with Barre3.
- Sabbath hard. And by hard I mean zilch work on Sundays. Definitely improving on this! I do a little blog work on Sundays in the morning, but to me that is restful because I love doing the blog/business in my pjs with a never ending cup of coffee. Still a work in progress but we’re making headway 🙂
- Be more patient + full of grace. Oy. This is HARD because living in the city right now feels overwhelming. Let’s just say this is a never ending goal that I will forever be working on. There were some growing pains in July.
- No work or social media past 8pm. Way better! I’ll do some things if I want to and it’s not taking away from other things. Again, a work in progress.
- Pray for 10 minutes. I don’t check things off everyday so I can’t say I did this every single day, but my prayer life is far more consistent. I like to turn off music or podcasts and pray on my bike ride into work since I’m less distracted that way.
Now, onto August goals! I felt that I bit off way too much in July so I’m simplifying things a lot in August. We have some international travel at the end of the month, my mom comes next week to visit, and Cody goes on maternity leave which means there will be more on my plate with Nutshell which I’m excited about. Soooo August is all about managing what I already have going on.
MONTHLY GOALS
- Spend quality time with my momma. This will be the first time she’s visited since we’ve been married and I’m really looking forward to spending time with her.
- Redo the Nutshell Nutrition website –> I’m in the middle of restructuring how the practice is run and the services we offer. I’m excited about expanding and being able to provide better care! Also, when Cody comes back from maternity leave she will be with Nutshell full time vs part time so that is exciting. Super pumped about all this!
- Send ONE card. The biggest barrier for me was just actually remembering to do this. I wrote it down in my planner for this month so now this will happen!
WEEKLY GOALS
- Active rest on the weekends. I was listening to a podcast a couple weeks ago (I forget which one now) and he talked about active rest versus just numbing out to things like Netflix. Active rest such as walking outside and listening to a podcast, laying on the ground and deep breathing, or reading a good book actually refreshes us more than just watching television or scrolling through social media. I tend to get caught up in the internet or Netflix and that doesn’t leave me as refreshed as I orginally hoped.
- 3 hours of deep work on Saturday or Sunday mornings. Depending on which day we decide to take for full rest from work, I want to set aside 3 hours of deep work on the other day. I’m reading Cal Newport’s, Deep Work and it is completely changing the way I think about “working” — I want to maximize my cognitive and creative capacity and that takes minimizing distractions. I plan to write a blog post on this once I get into the swing if you’re reading this and thinking what is this chick talking about??
DAILY GOALS
- Be on time. Which includes giving myself 15 more minutes than I think I need. If you are a client of mine, you know I always start our session 5 minutes late. I literally do not know why this is SUCH a problem for me. Thankfully, clients know this about me and are super gracious 🙂 I also run late in much of my life which then leaves little margin for unexpected things (like the train being delayed or forgetting to lock the door) so I’m perpetually rushing. NOT GOOD. This will be the start of a really, really long growing process to start to change this. I will never be early. But being on time would be a nice change…
- Daily word to repeat repeat repeat. Breathe. I use the word gentleness often in my life and when I work with clients, but breathe resonates with me even more because it’s an action. It creates space for me to respond to things instead of react.
There’s August. I’m never striving for perfection, but rather some direction and intention.
Do you guys like these monthly posts? If so share some of your goals in the comments so we can cultivate some community!
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I love seeing other people’s goals! My main goal for this month is to go with the flow / not stress out while we’re on vacation. It will be our first big trip with our baby and I’m a littttle type A sometimes, so we’ll see how that goes….
I like seeing people’s goals, especially the followup of how things turned out with them!
I just got a new little planner/agenda for my birthday, so I’m hoping that will help me keep track of my goals a bit better!
I love putting paper to pen
happy weekend!
Love goal posts! Think the card idea is great. i just sent one to my dad and he loved it. Also, I need to be on time more– at least for work related things. Anything fun and Im early hah
hahaha good point with fun things vs work 🙂
I love these types of posts! It’s a great way to see what goals others have, and maybe add ones that might be a good fit for my life as well. My goal for August is to finish studying for my third CPA exam while not letting it stress me out to a point of feeling overwhelmed. These next few months will be filled with exams and a new job in a new city so I’d like to start learning how to not let stress overwhelm me. I also want to be better about praying. I say thoughts in my head to God throughout the day, but I want to take a few minutes to actually pray out loud in a more intentional way.
those CPA exams are no easy task – cheering for you!
love all these intentions Reid xo
I love to see the goal posts, too! Very motivating. My goals for this month are to take 5 yoga classes, do 3 hours of CPE (I have to get 60 hours in 2 years, and I always leave it for the last month! Not this time!), and walk at least 1 mile each day. We’re traveling a lot this month, so I also want to focus on being here now. It’s a big trip, visiting a lot of different family, so I want to be sure and appreciate our time together.
Love all these Becky! Yoga is always a good idea I think 🙂
I love praying while exercising, and the idea of praying while you’re biking is such a good one. And the goal of being more patient in a city would have to be one of my goals even living in the country because there are situations every day that test my patience.
Active rest is so good, and it really quiets my mind and heart. I’m not always good at it, but I love walks, laying on the ground outside and listening to something, or doing something quiet.
You are right…life will always give us something to not be patient about.
Love these Robyn! I just set some semester goals for myself. I will be taking the MCAT in January, so my biggest goal is to replace stress with gratitude. I also want to get up one blog post per week! Have a great weekend 🙂
love that! gratitude >> stress
good luck studying! you’ll be great!
I actually love that you’re perpetually late, lol! Me, too! We are ALL busy individuals and I think it’s important that we start recognizing one another as being human. This expectation of so much priority being placed on “being on time” for things really bugs me. I’m sure EVERYONE has been late for something at some point in their lives. Yet, we’re ready to shake our finger at someone when they’re not on time for us. I’ve also learned to just prioritize. Yes, it makes sense to be on time for things where it’s a big deal – a job for instance. But I have learned to give myself a break if I’m later for dinner, a date with a friend or for a party or something. If these people love me and want to see me, then they’ll not want the stressed out version of me that was panicking to make it somewhere at an arbitrary time. P.S. I love these posts!
haha I can so relate to the lateness – it’s so hard!!!
I loove these posts, they actually inspired me to start doing my own on the blog! My goals for August are inspired by your July goals-I want to shabbat hard af because I find myself exhausted constantly, want to practice inversions 2-3x/week, connect with one new and one old friend, and be more present day-to-day. These are all a work in progress but I definitely think goals give us guidance, whether they are reached or not isn’t so important as long as we’re working towards bettering ourselves 🙂
i’m so glad! “shabbat hard af” –> love that 🙂
love all these!
Yes! Love this. My goals this month are 1) go to yoga once a week (it’s so good for my brain) and 2) go out to “fast food” once a week. I’m the only that emailed you and am re-categorizing our budget. My husband said “really? that’s all you needed was a different category and that makes it easier to go out?” Yup! That and Robyn’s virtual support. 🙂
Happy August!
glad to hear from you here India! so glad the tip was helpful 🙂
I love these! I did a post at the beginning of the year on my blog about my “intentions” for my Year of 30 (turned 30 just before 2017 hit) and I think I may need to start breaking these down to smaller attainable goals each month. I am such a planner and love being able to have goals to work toward and I like that you have a minimal list that you can focus on instead of focusing on doing ALL the things 🙂 One of the goals for my husband and I is to host people in our home too! We moved a few months ago and want to be more intentional about having at least one dinner per month where we bring different groups of people together that we love in our home to show them hospitality. Excited about this!
I’m all about small, actionable goals to guide the bigger picture – love the idea of intentions
And yes to hosting! Hope you are settling in well!
I enjoy reading these posts. Some bloggers write extensive lists of goals, but don’t really follow up with them, so I appreciate that you share your self-reflection with us.
I’ve also been inspired by your intention to send out cards… I’m not always great at talking on the phone or responding to text messages, but I love writing letters- plus I love the idea of sending someone unexpected fun mail and how it will (hopefully) bring some positivity into their day.
Love this post! The idea of active rest is exactly what I need in my life right now, as I’m finding myself not feeling refreshed when I take down time to watch YouTube or Netflix. Thank you for the gentle reminder <3