Monday, July 7, 2014

july things.

another july goal? continue photographing these crepe myrtles.

Let's be honest with one another here: I have been watching Pretty Little Liars all day. After a Saturday night of practically no sleep, I guess I'm still recovering today. That's ok though, because tomorrow is a new day. And today, though this post is going up late, I am going to share some goals for the month of July. But before I do that, let's review the outcome of my goals from June.

JUNE RESOLUTIONS

1. Continue focusing on managing stress in healthy ways. I'm happy to say that this has gone really well. Multiple times, when I was feeling stressed or anxious, I was able to realize that my shoulders were tensed. I let go of the tension, & the stressed feeling was eased. I felt a lot better in the month of June, & I hope that I can continue maintaining my health, both mentally & physically.
2. Blog every single day. I did it! I am so proud of myself, & I'm happy with how the results inspired me.
3. Rise early - 6:15 to be exact - maybe not every single day, but most days. Now this, I did not do, unfortunately. It has been difficult getting onto a certain schedule, but as you will see in my July Resolutions, I plan to keep trying. Hopefully next month, I'll be able to give you some good news - that I'm consistently rising early.
4. Work out every single day. I didn't do this, either. And more & more, I am realizing that you don't have to work out every single day to be healthy. In fact, sometimes working out too much can cause stress & injury. 
5. Get back into my reading schedule, for both the Bible & library books. I am happy to report that I am caught back up with my Bible reading plan. Falling behind on that was really upsetting to me, & it was something important that I needed to fix. However, I still need to get back into a good reading rhythm with library/other books. I miss reading! And in fact, my hold notice recently came through for Winter's Tale. I watched this movie with Justin & his mom a couple of weeks ago, & it really touched me. I think I'll put my reading of Emma on hold for a little while & dive into this particular story.

JULY RESOLUTIONS

1. Wake up at 6:15 a.m. every day from July 8 - July 31. Since I'm penning this edition of my monthly goals on the seventh, & I haven't been waking up at 6:15 so far this month [in fact, today I rose at the early hour of... 11:30], I am going to have to make the goal for the rest of the month. In addition to rising early, I also plan to make a to-do list each day & accomplish each of the things on that list. I know - isn't that the goal every day, really? Well, I am really focusing on it this month, let's say.
2. Move to Greenville. This is happening toward the end of the month, & I am really excited! Well, I'm both really excited & really sad. Excited, because I love our new place & I'm excited to start school, & sad because of the closing of our Wilmington chapter. It's hard to appreciate a time in your life while it's going on. I wrote a little bit about this here. Maybe I'll write some more about it in the future.
3. Continue eating healthy foods, drinking water, & taking care of myself. As I've mentioned multiple times in this space, on June 1, I embarked on some healthy living changes. At the end of this month, I'll be sharing more about that here on my blog. For now I'll say that things are going well, & I couldn't be happier about taking better care of myself.
4. Read three books. As you saw in my fifth resolution from June, I've been working to get more on par with my reading schedule. Reading three books this month will more than make up for my reading laziness as of late. And I know I'll feel a lot better if I'm reading more.
5. Write Morning Pages - & even more than that - every day from July 8 - July 31. I'm excited to start building a new morning routine, & I think this will be a great component to work in. And when you haven't been ink-&-paper writing for a while [like I haven't], you start feeling like you're missing something. Or, at least I do. And I'm ready to have that part of my life back in order.

Here's to a brand new month, even though it's already the seventh. It's never too late to make goals for the month & strive to achieve them. I'm ready to make July the best month of 2014 yet. What are your goals for the rest of this month?

Want to see my other things? They're all here.

The Nectar Collective

14 comments:

siddathornton said...

your goals sound wonderful! eat all the healthy things and do all the writing!

siddathornton said...

You make the best goals! :) Good luck this month.

siddathornton said...

Awesome goals! Good luck with your movie.

siddathornton said...

Love the concept of Morning Pages! <3

siddathornton said...

I try for working out 5x a week which gives me time to balance of being lazy a few days but still feeling that I am being healthy.

siddathornton said...

Good luck with your goals! Rising early can really suck at first but it sure is worth it in the end!!

siddathornton said...

Oh, how I adore crepe myrtles. How they're so pretty in the sweltering summer, I'll never know. :) Awesome to hear you caught up on your Bible reading plan. When I let that slip, a lot slips. Haha. And don't beat yourself up for not always waking up early. Granted, there is something precious about those quiet hours, but if you can still make good use of the rest of the day, I'd call that success!

siddathornton said...

You're right - as long as I'm up relatively early, I can still make it a good, productive day. I guess I have a sort of fixation around waking up as early as I can - probably because I feel like I wasted a lot of time in my younger years, sleeping until noon. And I agree - how do crepe myrtles stay so beautiful & lush in the muggy summer days? They are one of my favorites!

siddathornton said...

It really is worth it! I hate to say it, but I haven't been rising at 6:15 like I've been wanting to. I've been rising at 4:30 [why?!], going back to bed, & not waking up again until 8:30 or so. Totally bizarre. Maybe I'll just start getting out of bed at 4:30?

siddathornton said...

That's a good balance. That's around what I do, too.

siddathornton said...

I've been LOVING it. You should do it, too. It's a great way to get some "paper journaling" in :)

siddathornton said...

Thank you! :)

siddathornton said...

:):):):):) Thank you!

siddathornton said...

That's certainly the plan! Now, to do it!

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