The Life of Bon: April + May goals

Sunday, May 04, 2014

April + May goals


I took this picture all by myself.
I've come a long way with my photography skills.
Be proud.

I know it's cliche, but freak, I can't believe April is over.  April and May are always the two months that speed by the fastest for me.  One second it's April Fool Days and the next moment I'm chaperoning graduation.  I think it's because I wait and wait and wait for spring and then when it's finally here, I'm just so dang excited that before I even realize what has happened it's gone already.

Today it's time to analyze some April goals.  This year, instead of making New Year's resolutions I set one main goal for each month.  The idea is that by focusing on one thing, I would be more successful.  The idea is more or less stolen from The Happiness Project. (Full post here.)  

Here's what I wrote about April's goals:

APRIL:  FOCUS ON FAITH
I try to make God a part of my daily life, but sometimes it all just gets so hustley and bustley that I feel like He about dang near gets crowded out completely.  In April I want to spend more time contemplating the spiritual and developing deeper connections with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.

Sub goals:
- 30 minutes of "quiet time" a day- time to read scriptures, ponder, and write down spiritual impressions.  Tell Greg my plan so he is not trying to distract me while I am working on this.
- Attend the temple every week in April.
- Deeper focus during prayers.
- Be patient and loving.  Pray for help throughout the day when I feel like I am lacking.

How I did:
In the overall category, I felt like I did well.  I spent more time "contemplating the spiritual" and I felt God helping me in so many ways.  This month I kind of felt like God just put all the pieces of my life together for me.  Not that he made everything perfect, but that He showed me again that He is there and I can stop stressing now.  He's in control.  So yah.  I consider the month a success.

As far as sub goals go, I was about half and half.  I did go to the temple every week in April.  It was pretty amazing for me to see that increased spirituality.  I feel closer to God in the temple than any other place and I needed that extra assurance and love from Him this month.  (See this post on temples.)  I did better with more focused prayers and with being more patient and loving.  (I adopted a motto from The Happiness Project:  "Act the way you want to feel."  I repeated it to myself when I felt frustrated or annoyed with a situation or a person and it seriously helped so much.)

The only thing I didn't do well on was the thirty minutes of "quiet time" a day.  I really didn't make it a priority and if I'm being honest I probably got anywhere from 5-10 minutes of quiet time a day.  Not enough.  I started the New Testament and read the book of Matthew and in to Mark as well as listened to lots of LDS general conference talks while I walked my dog, but it didn't have quite the same feel as sitting down and pondering the scriptures.  Something to work on for next time.  

And now, on to next month!

MAY:  SAVE
Greg and I will likely have some big expenses coming up (June's goal is to go to Europe! July's goal is to push a baby out of me!) so I want May to be a month of absolute loyalty to my bank account.  No spending other than what is absolutely necessary- gas, groceries, etc.  It's only for a month.  I can do it.

Confession:  I bought a maternity swimsuit on Saturday and already broke my "absolutely necessary" rule.  But come on, "absolutely necessary" is all so relative anyway, isn't it?  I only bought the top, I told myself I already had bottoms that would work, and I did get it 10% off because there was some make up on it.  I bought it at Target so it only ended up being $23.... given I am planning on pretty much living in the pool the next few months I'd say it was absolutely necessary.

But no more spending for the rest of the month!  I am a big enough dork that I strangely really get into it when I make myself not spend like this.  I can be a real freaking miser when I want to be.

Update on other goals:
January:  Grow my blog
February: Write a book
March: Be a better wife

I am working extra hard on my blog and have seen growth every month... I'm hoping to hit a major milestone in May and get 100,000 pageviews for the month.  In April I worked on my book less as I took over my classes again and went out of state twice.  There just wasn't any time!  But I attended a fabulous writer's conference and my new goal is to just write 15 minutes a day.  If I can do that then I can keep my momentum and keep the book alive. I am still working hard on the being a better wife thing... I try to be super supportive of Greg and always speak highly of him in public.  I also gave him a hot stone massage last week for no reason other than to show him I love him...  He was very doubtful when I pulled out the burning hot rocks, but then he loved it so that's a win!

I would love to hear about any goals you are working on.  Share with me so that I don't feel like the only loser who doesn't quite follow through on all of mine!

Oh, P.S. totally irrelevant to any goal "topic" but still something that I am working on- I have set a new rule for myself that I can't be on my phone after 10:00 pm on weeknights.  I have been annoyed lately with how late I've been going to bed and how much time I have wasted on my phone.  I go to bed around 10:30 or so, but then I realized I just fart around on my phone for an hour.  It takes away from scripture reading time or snuggling time with Greg or even just reading my favorite book.  So no more phone for me after 10:00.  I'll let you know how it goes!

I'm also working on responding to emails within 48 hours... we'll see how that goes.

13 comments:

  1. i'll make sure to avoid phone communication with you after 10:00:) i probably need some sort of goal like that, but i just can't. my main goal for the whole year is balance. i'm failing miserably!

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  2. This post was very inspiring! I especially enjoyed reading about your spiritual goals for April!

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  3. Anonymous6:58 AM

    Great small goal for the phone. Not to nerd out on you too much but the lights from electronics can actually mess up your sleep cycle...anyway lol. I also agree with the being a miser once I set my mind to somethin. Good luck with you goals!

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  4. I love your goals! I am a Lutheran and was having a rough time around Thanksgiving, knowing I couldn't make it home to my family for Christmas because we lived in WA around that time and they lived in WI. One of my friends encouraged me to tithe to bring good things into my life, and wouldn't you know it, a couple weeks after I gave a donation we got a job offer that brought us home. I've been thinking a lot about that lately, and I need to really take more time to give thanks. I should start doing what you are doing. I read a quote a while ago that said, what if you woke up today with only the things you thanked God for yesterday? That really spoke to me because I would probably wake up with nothing! I don't give enough gratitude for what I have.

    I can tell you're really putting forth more effort on the blog lately, it really shows. I blog mostly about beauty stuff as an outlet, but am looking to post more about my life. As our lives change, what we need to write about expands and grows and I feel like I'm leaving a huge part of my human experience out of my blog that would really help me to get out. I found that taking the blog life ecourse on abeautifulmess.com has really helped me learn what I need to do to improve!

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  5. My husband and I have a rule, no phones/ipads/tablets after 9:00. We realized too how much time it was wasting! Hopefully that helps you reach some of your goals better!

    And maternity swimsuit top is a necessity for someone who is going to be pregnant during the summer! So don't knock yourself for that one!

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  6. I think I'll start setting myself monthly goals and sub goals, you make it look so easily achieved Bon!
    guesswhathollie.blogspot.co.uk

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  7. These are great! I'd love to hear more about how you are growing your blog as that is a continuing goal of mine…..anything I'm missing besides sponsoring and commenting and social media love and such? Also, I have been NOT shopping for a month and it has gone surprisingly well, I was surprised by how much I didn't really NEED stuff. (Though I am NOT pregnant and don't need clothes for that reason, so I think that's a great reason for you!)

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  8. I like your phone goal. I think I may try that one this month.

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  9. Anonymous6:04 PM

    I'd say that with summer coming up and your plan to go to Europe, your maternity swimsuit top is necessary. I mean, as long as you're going to get use out of it, and you already said you would be. While it may have been a small splurge, it's not unnecessary :)

    I like the goal of saving money. I'm trying to do the same. I have a trip to California (my home state - will be my first time there in 5 years!) next month and I'm trying to save money to treat myself while I'm there.

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  10. You did better than me I suck at sticking to things and achieving goals I ty but than forget about it and end up doing nothing oh well such is life

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  11. I love the no phone after 10pm thing, totally going to adopt that one!

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  12. Great goals! Umm... I never keep my goals! UGH! I have been trying to lose weight for 2 years now... :)

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