November 2016 Goals

October:

{Spiritual} Read 1 Proverb per day. Mission: Accomplished. I did this week Luke, but we rarely talked about them afterward and there were a handful of days when I had to play catch up. It wasn't really what I envisioned it being.

{Financial} Spend less money than I did in September. I did! At least $200 less.

{Social} Have at least two dates with Luke. Well, we did technically have 2 dates, but we watched the same movie over those two dates since he fell asleep halfway through Inception the first time. We gotta do better in November. Our list of things to watch is just too long to move at this pace!

{Mental} Start Sudoku again. Ugh.

{Physical} Take 10 classes toward the See Your Strong Challenge. I took 8. I was so busy with everything going on at the studio lately that I wasn't able to take the last 2 days of the month that I worked.

{Personal} Take 10,000 steps per day. I was killing it. I went from September 30th through October 13th with 10,000+ steps. On October 14th, I got home from work, Skyped with Luke for a bit, and then promptly fell asleep around 5:00PM. I woke up after midnight to discover I had only done 6,650 steps that day. I also fell short on October 26th when I only got 7,632 after a long day consisting of 2 meetings that kept me seated for a total of 3 hours. The last weekend of October, I was totally wiped out and had to give myself some grace. I logged 4,448 steps on October 29th and 5,389 steps on October 30th. If I hadn't come up short those other two days, I probably would have tried harder, but I really needed some rest.

{Professional} Finish the Front Desk Manual. I'm THIS close.

November:

{Spiritual} Set up a plan for K2 and put together the necessary materials. We start with our official meetings this month and I need to make sure we actually have structure.

{Financial} Get my credit card's outstanding balance under $1,000. Goodness, how refreshing would it be to see only a triple digit outstanding balance?

{Social} Do something nice for a friend. Whether this is buying coffee or lunch for someone, sending someone a card for no reason other than to say hello, or something else, I just want to do something nice for someone just because I love them.

{Mental} Finish a book. I just need to get back into the habit of reading. Too much Netflix.

{Physical} Finish the See Your Strong Challenge with 25 points. Our challenge ends on November 16th. The goal is to take 20 classes and get the 5 bonus points.

{Personal} Only get Starbucks once a week. It's too easy to run down there for a "quick breakfast" that costs me nearly $10. I have tea and oatmeal at work. I don't need to get Starbucks more than once a week, if that.

{Professional} Be at the desk 30 minutes before every class starts. I've fallen into the bad habit of hanging out in the office and not actually being at the desk when clients start to arrive. I need to set a better example.

October 2016 Goals

September:

{Spiritual} Prepare to lead a small group. Yes an no. I should be finding out about my small group soon, but I need to do more spiritual preparation, I think.

{Financial} Don't spend on my credit cards at all. Boom, roasted. I actually managed to do this!

{Social} Connect with 5 people I don't really know at the Young Adults Retreat. I'd say mission accomplished! I lead the breakout group for my cabin with seven girls I had never met and spent some quality time with other girls I didn't know very well throughout the weekend, in addition to growing closer with people I already know quite well.

{Mental} Start Sudoku again. Shoot! This is so easy and I didn't even do it once!

{Physical} Take 3 Pure Barre classes and 1 Platform class per week. Not even close. I've just been too busy at work.

{Personal} Don't buy breakfast. It was about halfway through the month, but I finally stocked up on oatmeal again. Then Trader Joe's released Pumpkin O's for the year, so I was pretty set.

{Professional} Finish the Front Desk Manual. Nope, I got too caught up with planning a number of other things.

October:

{Spiritual} Read 1 Proverb per day. Luke and I decided to do this together since there are 31 days in October and 31 Proverbs.

{Financial} Spend less money than I did in September. It wasn't by any means my highest spending month of the year, but it doesn't hurt to try to spend less and save more.

{Social} Have at least two dates with Luke. Since we're long distance, our dates are pretty different than normal. We watch movies together on Skype, but we haven't done that since before he visited a month ago. There are probably some other things we could do, but sometimes it's just nice to plan a block of time to spend together, even if we're just talking.

{Mental} Start Sudoku again. Let's try this again.

{Physical} Take 10 classes toward the See Your Strong Challenge. We're starting a nationwide challenge on October 17th to take 20 classes in 31 days. So by October 31st, I'd like to be halfway through the challenge.

{Personal} Take 10,000 steps per day. Maybe that's physical too, but that's another goal I would really like to stick to this month..

{Professional} Finish the Front Desk Manual. Let's try this again.

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!

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!

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.

June 2016 Goals

May:

{Spiritual} Break down my Bible study more. Nope. I wasn't even as on top of it this month as I have been. I partially blame my trip to England and everything I had to do to prepare for it.

{Financial} Don't use my credit card at all for 31 days. I think I only used it twice, but one of them was for quite a large purchase.

{Social} Meet with people outside of Merge at least once a week during the hiatus. Kind of, yes. But not in a way I originally intended, so no.

{Mental} Practice typography and learn new fonts. Yes!

  

{Physical} Go to kickboxing at least five times. Not even once. I ALMOST went last night, but I have a horrible cramp in my calf so I didn't want to push it.

{Personal} Don't weigh myself for a full month. I actually did it.

{Professional} Be diligent about completing the daily tasks list every day. This was a crazy month at the studio, so there were a couple of days when I didn't finish everything because of meetings, but compared to how I used to be, it's been much better.

June:

{Spiritual} Start my new prayer journal. I finished my prayer journal on May 31st (I started on March 1, 2015), so I got a new journal to use. I want to change a few things about it, so I'm excited to start a whole new book!

{Financial} Change my IRA account. Upon closer examination, I'm probably not making most of my options in regards to savings. I need to restructure my IRA account to better benefit me.

{Social} Try to adjust my attitude about some things that are bothering me in my social circle. Without going into too much detail, there have been quite a few things that have been bugging me lately. Quite honestly, it makes me not want to be social and hang out with my friends. That's definitely not a path I want to continue down.

{Mental} Read before bed instead of watch Netflix. I should have started doing this after I got home from England and was already in the habit of not falling asleep with Netflix playing (albeit on a black screen) six inches from my face.

{Physical} Go to kickboxing at least once a week. I already paid for a ton of classes, I need to use them.

{Personal} Spend less time on social media. This is going to be tough. It's also going to be tough to measure this. I have a tendency to scroll through Instagram every chance I get. I've been spending more and more time on Snapchat, and even more time on Facebook lately. I deleted Twitter from my phone and rarely post, but I definitely need to cut back on the other three.

{Professional} Start reviewing the front desk girls. This has been in the back of my mind for a few months now, so it's probably time to start. I need to check in with everyone and make sure everyone is on the same page.

May 2016 Goals

April:

{Spiritual} Focus on my daily Bible reading. I'm still on track, but lately it's been a little tough to focus on the Old Testament stuff. It seems like the last week or so has just been lists of people or land.

{Financial} Don't use my credit cards at all for 30 days. Nope, and I actually used one quite a bit in the last week.

{Social} Successfully host my fourth annual Game of Thrones viewing party. Well, I hosted. I guess you could call it successful. I didn't really take any pictures though.

{Mental} Read a book. Nope.

  

{Physical} Start doing yoga again. Nope.

{Personal} Only eat carbs, dairy, and/or sugar at one meal. Nope.

{Professional} Begin work on the barre displays. Nope.

May:

{Spiritual} Break down my Bible study more. I've been doing a Bible study through Merge. My friend and I meet once a week to go over the week's homework and we just decided to start another study by Jen Wilkin to do concurrently. I've been in the habit of doing it all on one day, but it's actually designed to be done in smaller segments every day. I'd like to be doing that instead, especially with doing two at once.

{Financial} Don't use my credit card at all for 31 days. I'm going to try it again this month. So far, so good.

{Social} Meet with people outside of Merge at least once a week during the hiatus. Merge is on a break in May before starting up again in the summer. I'd like to keep that night of socializing with people, since I've made a lot of great new friends in the last few months.

{Mental} Practice typography and learn new fonts. Chalkboard art is something I've started doing at work and I finally got around to writing on the chalkboard that's been blank in my room for months. I love it and I'd love to learn more fonts and maybe even start writing with different pens and all that fun stuff.

  

{Physical} Go to kickboxing at least five times. I tried kickboxing last month, but have been too busy to go to back since. I bought quite a few classes, so I need to start going at least once a week, if not more.

{Personal} Don't weigh myself for a full month. My friend wrote an awesome blog post about weighing yourself and how you shouldn't do it, especially every day (here). I've been weighing myself every day since March of 2011 and it's become a really bad habit for me to have. If it's too high, it can literally ruin my mood for the rest of the day. It's an obsession and I don't want to obsess over it anymore.

{Professional} Be diligent about completing the daily tasks list every day. Last week I redid our list of daily tasks and expect the girls to initial every task after they complete it. This means I need to hold myself to the same standards and also stay on top of the cleaning to set a good example by going first and to help carry my weight.

April 2016 Goals

March:

{Spiritual} Be more intentional about prayer. Honestly and unfortunately, I haven't noticed any changes from any other month.

{Financial} Raise at least 50% of the cost of my England trip. I'm $70 short of being at exactly 50%. I wish I had sent my letters out earlier because my trip is in 6 weeks and it's starting to stress me out.

{Social} Spend one night a week out with friends. Nailed it. After getting into a habit of staying in every night, I actually got out and socialized. I think I also met my previous goal of meeting with at least one person per week outside of Merge.

{Mental} Read a book. Ugh, no. I have to start reading again!

  

{Physical} Complete the 21 classes in 31 days challenge at Pure Barre Boulder. Close, but no cigar. One week I totally slacked off and only took one class all week. I would have made it otherwise.

{Personal} Don't drink alcohol. This lasted literally two days. I forgot about it on March 3rd and got a glass of wine with a friend. It was all downhill from there. In fact, I feel like I drank more in March than in the last few months.

{Professional} Get back to my bubbly self. I'd say yes. I'm definitely feeling more like myself again, which is great.

April:

{Spiritual} Focus on my daily Bible reading. I've gotten into the habit of listening to my daily Bible reading on my way home from work, but I don't always do a great job of paying attention.

{Financial} Don't use my credit cards at all for 30 days. Obviously when you're trying to eliminate your credit card debt, it's not smart to continue to spend on your credit cards. It's frustrating to think how many times over I would have paid off my credit card debt if I wasn't incurring so much more debt every month. I need some discipline here.

{Social} Successfully host my fourth annual Game of Thrones viewing party. It's tradition now, so let the brainstorming begin! We've got to come up with some more great ideas to top last year's party.

{Mental} Read a book. Back it again with the lofty goal to read one book.

  

{Physical} Start doing yoga again. I used to do yoga 2-3 times a week back in 2009. I can't remember another time when I felt so great about myself. It would take me approximately 2 minutes to get to class, so I'm not quite sure what's stopping me, especially since I've been thinking about it for a while now.

{Personal} Only eat carbs, dairy, and/or sugar at one meal. One time my mom and my sister decided not to eat carbs after 11:00AM. I'm not sure I could commit to that, but I think I could commit to only eating carbs, dairy, and/or sugar once a day. So if I have eggs over my sweet potato hash for breakfast, I can have pasta for dinner. But if I have oatmeal for breakfast, the rest of the day is meat, vegetables, and fruit. That seems doable.

{Professional} Begin work on the barre displays. We have 100, 300, 500, and 1000 Club barres that our clients can sign when they take that many classes. I've had plans to work on this for months, but I just haven't gotten started yet. I need to make it a priority and finally get those done!