Lessons I Learned in April and May Goals

Lessons I Learned in April and May Goals

by | Apr 30, 2018 | Personal Development

I’m not a naturally structured person, and I have a difficult time motivating myself. Doing these monthly goal recaps and planning posts really helps me think through what I really want to focus on in the coming month! I thought I’d share since I always love getting a peek into other people’s goals.

Lessons Learned in April

Starting a blog is a looooooot of work

I’ve spent countless hours each week researching + tweaking + writing + thinking + resolving + doubting + resolving again. I definitely tend to overthink + over-research (if there is such a thing) instead of taking action, so that’s something I’m going to work hard to fix in the coming month.

I need to stop multi-tasking

This last month (okay, my whole life…) I’ve been jumping from one task to another without focusing really well on any one thing, and often without completely finishing what I start. Now that I’m adding the blog to my daily rhythms, I’ve really been feeling scattered and unfocused as a result of so much multitasking. I’ve decided that a quick way to deal with this problem would be to block out my time and do certain types of tasks all at one time.

Mapping out the steps makes all the difference

Following along with the previous point, another issue I’ve run into this last month with blogging is not really knowing where I should focus. Mapping out the steps will really help me to stay focused and know exactly what needs to be done in order to make decent progress.

Only have one teacher

I read this recently on Natalie Bacon’s blog and thought it was some really great advice. When it comes to blogging especially, there are a lot of voices out there telling you what to do, and oftentimes they’re conflicting. Even if they’re not, at some point you have to stop gathering information and just start doing stuff. Listening to too many teachers makes it hard to get to the doing stuff part, not to mention that it’s confusing! This month I’m going to be a little more picky with who my teachers are and tune out all the other voices.

Last Month’s Goals

GET MY WEDDING DRESS CLEANED

I did not do this. Going on month 10. This month will be the month! I believe it!

CATCH UP ON READING

My goal was to start catching up in the Goodreads Reading Challenge. I didn’t catch up, but I didn’t get further behind either, so I’m counting this as a win.

CLEAN OUT OUR SPARE ROOM

I’m only halfway through this, to be honest. However, we did sell a bunch of belongings on Facebook Marketplace and made $285 in the process! We also made about $300 selling things on Amazon, so that was a definite win!

YOGA

I tend to be really hard on myself and don’t want to count this as a win because I didn’t complete all 30 days. But I did do 15 days of yoga, and that’s a win too.

WHOLE30

As I write this, we’re halfway through Day 29! I’d be shocked if we somehow ate non-whole30 compliant food in the next 36 hours, so this is for sure a win! Yay! We feel great, look great, and are happy to know that we’ve been nourishing our bodies well for the last 29 days.

CAMP NANOWRIMO

I did not reach my goal. I got about halfway, which is fine with me. The main purpose of the goal was to keep myself motivated to write blog posts. While I didn’t write as many as I hoped, I still published at least three a week, so that definitely feels like a win, even if I didn’t reach my word count goal!

May Goals

Get my wedding dress cleaned

This will be the month! I can feel it!

Clean out our spare room

I have plans to sell a bunch more stuff, give more stuff away, and organize the things that we already have. It’ll feel so good when it’s done!

Finish 30 Days of Yoga

I love Adriene’s videos. She’s so good at helping me pay attention to what’s going on in my body so I can start treating it better. Seriously, every time I finish a session, I let out this deep sigh of contentment and relief because my body feels so good and I’m so peaceful. So one of my goals is to finish 30 Days of Yoga series this month, and to keep doing yoga once I finish the series.

Finish 6 Books

This sounds like a lot for one month, but I’m fairly confident I can accomplish it. Especially if I squeeze in some audiobooks!

Use My Bullet Journal

I’ve been trying out a bullet journal for most of the year. To be honest, it’s not really my favorite. I like having the structure/accountability of pre-dated pages. But I also haven’t been very consistent in using the bullet journal. I’m going to be really consistent with it for the month of May before I decide whether to go back to a regular planner in journal.

Plan Our Trip to PA/DC

Charles and I have our flights booked for our trip out east this summer! We’re really excited! Now we just need to plan out what we want to do a little bit more. I can function fairly well flying by the seat of my pants, but I know that Charles would prefer a little more structure and we can better prioritize that way, so structure it is! Any recommendations for central Pennsylvania and/or DC?

I’d love to hear from you! What did you learn last month? What are you hoping for in May? Leave a comment and let me know!

5 Things I Learned in February

5 Things I Learned in February

by | Mar 1, 2018 | Personal Development

Kelsey Smythe | What I Learned | kelseysmythe.com
It’s easy to glide through life without stopping to consider where I’ve been or where I’m going. The Lord teaches me things all the time, and like the Israelites who wandered through the desert and forgot what God showed them months after He parted the Red Sea, I tend to forget what He’s showed me too. Remembering what He’s taught us doesn’t always have to be anything fancy. Sometimes it’s just a little list on the internet of things I learned.

5 Things I learned in February

About Facebook

I took a break from Facebook… and I learned that I don’t really miss it. I was considering giving up Facebook for Lent, but the more I thought about it, the more it just sounded really nice to give up Facebook for 6 weeks. That didn’t really sound like the type of thing I should give up as a sacrifice to remind me of my need for Jesus, but I still didn’t want to be on Facebook for at least 6 weeks. So I went ahead and deactivated my account.

Did you know that Facebook gives you a guilt trip when you deactivate the account? It showed me pictures of several people (most of whom were family) who would “miss me” while I was gone. Fortunately I was able to push past the guilt trip and so far I have no regrets, even though my sister texted me and said I missed out on something funny.

About Working from Home

Oklahoma weather was pretty exciting toward the end of the month. Due to lots of freezing rain, I had a couple afternoons and one full day working from home… and I learned that I loved it as much as I thought I would. It’s this homebody’s new favorite way to work. I feel like this is an important thing to know about myself. The key to a successful day working from home is to eliminate distractions before your willpower is weak and always have cozy drinks on hand.

About Buying a Vacuum

Charles and I received a hand-me-down vacuum from my sister when we got married. We didn’t really want to spend the money on a new one and they had recently upgraded from their thirteen-year-old vacuum, so they generously gave it to us. It smelled kind of funny from the pounds and pounds of dirt and pet hair it had sucked up in its lifetime, so Charles and I gave it a good cleaning that took a couple hours. We were careful to let everything dry for a whole week before we put it back together and tried it out. It worked! The smell was 100x better. But then I bumped it against the bookshelf (tell me, have you ever not run into things when vacuuming?) and it cracked in half.

It cracked in half. I hopefully suggested duct tape to Charles, who pointed out that the poor vacuum was past the point of duct tape, so I did several hours of intense research looked into purchasing a new vacuum  and we ended up buying a used version of this one:

What I learned was that buying a vacuum as an adult is incredibly exciting. I was giddy when the UPS guy dropped it off at our door. Unfortunately, when it arrived there were a couple plastic pieces broken, so we had to return it. Fortunately, my runner up was a vacuum from Target, and we still had a couple gift cards from our wedding. To my surprise and delight, the one we wanted was on sale! Double win! So we ended up going with this vacuum instead. I haven’t tested it out yet, but I know I’m going to love it.

About New Clothes

One of my goals this year is to work on my professional development now that I’ve graduated college. Part of being professional is looking professional (and, admit it, that’s the most fun part). I haven’t been dressing sloppy at work, but I knew I could step it up. I’ve been thinking a lot about buying quality pieces instead of getting my things at Old Navy when they only last for one or two years. Enter Thred Up. I was able to get quite a few new pieces that were great brands and great quality, and I didn’t have to invest a ton of money into them. Some of the things included a wool coat, a blouse, and a pair of nice high heels. If you use this link, it’ll give you $10 to spend at Thred Up, and I’ll get $10 too.

About Being Alone

I learned about coming home to myself

Introverting feeds my soul. Anyone who knows me could have told me that. It’s an obvious one. But the last couple years have been a real busy season for me and I haven’t given myself a lot of downtime. I didn’t realize it, but it kind of feels like I’m suffocating my soul. When I let myself read and think and listen and be still, it feels like food and air and nourishment for my heart. When I listened to this podcast, it clicked. Reading and writing and thinking feels a little bit like coming home to myself. I plan to give myself much more alone time in the coming season.

 

Now tell me, what did you learn in February?

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