September 2016 Goals

August:

{Spiritual} Finish The New Rules of Love, Sex, and Dating and start a new relationship series. We finished The New Rules of Love, Sex, and Dating and had a lot of great conversations about it. We decided to go a different route and listed to an old series from Flatirons called Excuses after that. The routine of listening to one podcast and discussing each week has been great though.

{Financial} Use my envelopes 100% of the time. Fail. But I'd love to actually do this for an entire month and see what it feels like. I know it won't be easy but I know it will be worth it.

{Social} Meet with someone from Merge once a week during the hiatus. Unfortunately this just didn't happen. 

{Mental} Finish a book. So close. Dang it!

{Physical} Take 3 Pure Barre classes and 1 Platform class per week. Kind of, but not really.

{Personal} Give up dairy. Almost. I definitely need to be more restrictive with this because I feel better without dairy.

{Professional} Make serious headway with all of our awesome events coming up in the next few months. Success! I'm so excited for the stuff we have in store! The rest of the year is going to be so busy, but so fun!

September:

{Spiritual} Prepare to lead a small group. I'm not quite sure who is going to be in my group, but it's looking like I'm going to be leading a small group through the school year. That's a major step for me and not something I take lightly.

{Financial} Don't spend on my credit cards at all. I mean, self-explanatory, right?

{Social} Connect with 5 people I don't really know at the Young Adults Retreat. Merge is headed up to the mountains this month for a fall retreat and I'd love to come back with a few more friends than I left with.

{Mental} Start Sudoku again. After a reminder of how important it is to stay sharp, I realized how much I miss doing Sudoku all the time. I need to invest in a good book or something.

{Physical} Take 3 Pure Barre classes and 1 Platform class per week. I'd love to get into this habit and actually make it a habit.

{Personal} Don't buy breakfast. It's just cheaper, isn't it? Since I have to be at work so early, I'm in the habit of hitting up Starbucks in the morning. Instead, I should be having something healthier and cheaper at home (or at work). Plus, the return of Pumpkin-O's at Trader Joe's should be upon us soon!

{Professional} Finish the Front Desk Manual. Creating a training manual has been haunting me for ages. Instead, I want to make a more comprehensive Front Desk Manual. I made a lot of headway with it in August, but I need to finish it and somehow convince all the girls to read every last word!

Ten on Ten :: August 2016

I've been trying to be better about what I eat and one of the things that includes is trading my (iced) soy chai from Starbucks for English Breakfast tea with a splash of almond milk. Probably saves a few dollars too. 

Had to go to the bank, so I decided to walk since it's so close and I have the best view in the world.

Another thing I've been trying to be better at is snacking! Last week I packaged a bunch of healthy snacks into baggies of one serving size each. I've also been loving this rxbars. The coconut chocolate is my favorite. (So far!) 

No class for me today. Just observing.

Working on some exciting things for the studio, including launching our campus ambassador program 2.0! 

So remember that eating plan? Yeah, then this happened. I mean, at least it's a salad and small fries (that Sam and I split), right?

 Okay, then this happened. But at least it was a mini cup, right?

 When there's nothing left to photograph, just photograph the cat.

Writing down some prayers and some dreams. 

Sam and I went to Target earlier in the evening (between Chick-Fil-A and TCBY) and I picked this up since it's marked down at Target and I've been rereading my original copy for the umpteenth time. I just cannot get over the illustrations!

August 2010 | August 2012 | August 2013 | August 2014 | August 2015

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!

Ten on Ten :: July 2016

I actually did fun and exciting things for once, but I was too busy living in the moment to remember to take quality pictures. Or to even take a tenth picture.

July 2010 | July 2011 | July 2012 | July 2013 | July 2014 | July 2015

July 2016 Goals

June:

{Spiritual} Start my new prayer journal. Check! And I love it!

{Financial} Change my IRA account. Just need to sign a couple more documents, but then I'm good to go.

{Social} Try to adjust my attitude about some things that are bothering me in my social circle. I think this shift was able to take place and I'm feeling much better about things now.

{Mental} Read before bed instead of watch Netflix. Nope.

{Physical} Go to kickboxing at least once a week. Well, I went once. I wanted to make it a Monday night habit, but I just couldn't get into it.

{Personal} Spend less time on social media. I still have Twitter off my phone and I think I've been spending less time on Instagram and Facebook. At least, I've been less concerned with catching up to where I left off on Instagram in particular, but I'm spending more time on Snapchat than I ever have before.

{Professional} Start reviewing the front desk girls. I started this process! I had each of them fill out a self-evaluation. I just need to go over it with them.

July:

{Spiritual} Spend 30 minutes of uninterrupted time with God. At the last leader meeting with Merge, we talked about what small steps we could take to be better fulfilled by God. I'm pretty good about reading the Bible and journaling daily, but not without distractions.

{Financial} Don't use my credit cards all month. How can I eliminate my debt if I keep acquiring more?

{Social} Be better about checking in with people in my life. When I talk to my friends and family about what's going on with them, I want to to be better about following up about whatever we talked about. Whether that be wishing someone luck on an interview or at a new job or just following up with them about whatever they told me was going on with them.

{Mental} Read before bed instead of watch Netflix. I'll give this another shot because I REALLY need to break this habit.

{Physical} Go hiking at least once a week. I'm already on track for that, I just need to keep it up. I've hiked in Boulder the last two weeks, so it seems like a pretty reasonable expectation.

{Personal} Be better about thinking before I speak. I have a tendency to say things and immediately regret them, whether it be because of what I said, how I said it, or who I said it to. I need to reel it in a bit and consider how what I'm about to say might effect me or who I'm saying it to.

{Professional} Finally put together a training manual. This will make my life so much easier when I have to hire new girls for the front desk and it's something I've been putting off for basically the entire year I've been at my position.