August 2016 Goals

July:

{Spiritual} Spend 30 minutes of uninterrupted time with God. This turned out to be much more difficult than I expected. I found the hardest part was not interrupting myself. Even if I was intentional about unplugging and finding a quiet space, it was hard to stay focused. I think this is something that will forever be a work in progress.

{Financial} Don't use my credit cards all month. Close, but no cigar. I was really good about not using them, except for when I booked a flight and a hotel with them.

{Social} Be better about checking in with people in my life. There's always room for improvement here, right? But early in the month at a meeting, a friend had to leave because of an emergency with another friend and when I saw her the other day, I asked her about it. The amount of gratitude she expressed to me about my remembering was awesome. I want to recreate that moment all the time!

{Mental} Read before bed instead of watch Netflix. I've done it! Well, at least made progress. It used to be that every single night of the month I would fall asleep with Netflix on my laptop, which would sit open on my bed all night. In July, I only had 13 nights like that, most of which were at the beginning. Most recently, I don't even remember one second of the episode of Friends I started playing before I fell asleep, so really all it's doing is running my computer needlessly. Although I also invested (by that, I mean spent $17) on a laptop tray to keep it off my mattress and blankets since I did just buy a brand new battery. So anyway, that's better than the previous six months. Victory!

{Physical} Go hiking at least once a week. Nope. 

{Personal} Be better about thinking before I speak. This is another one that will always be a work in progress. And to be honest, I'm not sure I even made any progress this last month. Something has been bothering me that I said and immediately wished I could take back. That is not a great feeling, especially a lingering feeling.

{Professional} Finally put together a training manual. Nope. And the clock is ticking since I'm training two new girls in August!

August:

{Spiritual} Finish The New Rules of Love, Sex, and Dating and start a new relationship series. I feel like more often than not, pastors preach about marriage, parenting, etc. I enjoy those sermons, but more in a way where I think, "Okay, great, I'll file that away for way down the road." I really enjoy a good series on dating and Andy Stanley's Love, Sex, and Dating has been recommended to me more than once. Next on the list: probably Steven Furtick's Meant to Be or even Rewired from Flatirons.

{Financial} Use my envelopes 100% of the time. That's the point, right? Too often I fall into using my card intermittently, even though I've carefully budgeted for each section of spending. That's not a good habit to have!

{Social} Meet with someone from Merge once a week during the hiatus. Merge is on summer break until the fall semester. It's always nice to have a break from routine, but I always feel more connected to the community when I continue to hang out with people throughout the breaks.

{Mental} Finish a book. I started reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone again. I used to reread the whole series every summer and I could usually knock out the first three books in a weekend. I kid you not. I just got the new illustrated version and I'm already ten chapters in. Should be a piece of cake. Baby steps, right?

{Physical} Take 3 Pure Barre classes and 1 Platform class per week. My boss, Shalisa, recommended this routine to me as part of my eating plan. She made a valid point. I'm here five days a week already, so why not?

{Personal} Give up dairy. I just want to try it and see what happens.

{Professional} Make serious headway with all of our awesome events coming up in the next few months. We're planning some cool events through the end of the year, starting with the Pure Barre Olympics this month. That one was kind of last minute, but the others have been in the works for ages already and I'm really excited to see them through!