Welcome August

Hey there and welcome to August.

How do you feel about officially being in the 8th month of the year?! Personally, I felt a little anxiety as July came to an end. Although my children and I had a great summer, I feel like the time went by really fast and that I didn’t get done all that I wanted to get done. Now sometimes I do overschedule myself and have to accept the fact that I can’t do everything all at once.

However, there are some things that I did want to have accomplished by the end of the summer like getting my passport, taking a trip, losing weight, and officially launching my holistic health course. Honestly - I feel really bad about not having those things accomplished by my due date. I also know that all I can do about this feeling is to learn from it and transmute it into a lesson the drives me forward. That bad feeling lets me know that I have neglected something that matters to me. It says that I need to get a better balance going.

If you can relate to this feeling and want to know how to get back on track right now, I am going to show you what I do that helps me. Now is the perfect time to reassess your plan. You can still get what you want this year!

All you will need is a journal and a calendar.

Let’s go.

Reflection

Reflect on how you spent the previous month. In this case it would be July. What did you actually get done? What were you doing? What went well? What did not?

For me - I spent July very busy with work, preparing for my daughters’ dance recitals, and going out to meet new people. I think I did well with honoring my work and family commitments and meeting new people. However - I got very burned out with so much going on. Even though I enjoyed spending time with my kids and they had a great recital - I was worn out. The whole June and July was work and dance. I loved having new friends, but they wanted to hang out, text, talk all the time. I missed my bed time and struggled to get up early and work out. I found myself spending my free time doom scrolling in my bed . I must have spent hours reading reddit posts, scrolling X and tiktok.

Set some goals.

What do you hope to accomplish by the end of the month? Do you want to lose a certain amount of weight? Do you want to launch an awesome workshop that helps people live healthier lives? Do you need to get your passport? Think about specific things you want and write those down.

Plan ahead!

Plan how you intend to spend August. Get out a calendar and fill it in with important information. This will vary by person. But the main point is to spend time planning the next 4 weeks. I organize my calendar into the following categories.

• Finances

  • I include pay days. This helps me stay on budget.

  • All bills that are expected to be paid. I include utilities, mortgage, phone, internet, subscriptions, everything.

• Work/Visitation schedule

  • I include all the days Im opening or closing at work

  • I have shared custody with my children’s father so I mark down my weeks and anything they have coming up. Right now they go back to school on the 12th - so I know I will be very busy getting them back into the swing of things. Pray for me!

• Self -Care/ Home care

  • I add hair and nail appointments

  • Household chores - like mowing the lawn, laundry or organizing the garage

• Goal related

  • I put in dates where I expect to be at a certain point in my goal. For example - I expect to be a certain weight by a certain date.

  • Include days/time blocks where you will spend writing, crafting, creating and posting. For example - I am launching a workshop on the 17th and 31. So I need to include all the planning time into my schedule.

Hard no’s!

These are the things that we wont do and should not do. These are the behaviors that get in the way of our goals. I get these items from the reflection part of this exercise. For example - I listed that I dooms scrolled a lot this summer and wasted valuable time that I felt bad about later. Therefore, I’m going to plan to be more proactive about these behaviors moving forward. I will write myself reminders about what NOT to be doing. You should try it to! Put them in your journal or put them on sticky notes and place them where you will see them.

• Examples

  • Putting limits on when I hang with friends is going to be necessary for me. I love my friends but when I go to dinner with them, I must promptly excuse myself at a reasonable time and get home so I can either get to bed or work on something. Or if they want to go out too late or on a day where I have something planned - I have to get good at saying not this time. Perhaps you can relate?

  • Must do a morning and night time routine! I noticed that I roam around a lot in the morning and night. So now I put in that I must lay my clothes out the night before and I must wake up and journal, meditate and work out first thig in the morning

  • Lastly - no doom scrolling! This month my goal is to get on social media to post rather than consume.

  • Add any that matters to you.

That brings this exercise to a close. Even though it is short and simple it is very effective. This exercise is meant to increase awareness. Awareness of where we are spending our time and energy is crucial to accomplishing our goals successfully.

Give it a try and let me know how it goes.