September Goals 2019

September Goals 2019

by | Sep 6, 2019 | Personal Development

Happy September, friends! August was one part whirlwind and one part slow + steady enjoyment of life. We made some new friends at church and from Charles’ program, went on a short hike and enjoyed some nature nearby, read a lot of books (me for fun, Charles for school), rearranged our living room, bought a couple of new plants, and watched our cats play for hours and hours. Ah, this is what dreams are made of. Now on to September goals.

A little slice of nature in Arlington, VA - Charles leading the way on our much-needed nature hike

A little slice of nature in Arlington, VA

Fun Things Happening in September

  • Charles starts his 3rd semester of grad school
  • I turn 30!
  • Charles also has a birthday
  • We’ll have visitors from Missouri and Texas
  • The 1st day of fall is September 23rd

September Theme: Hope

The word ‘hope’ has been standing out to me in my daily Bible reading lately and I feel like I’m supposed to spend some time thinking about it. To be honest, I don’t think of ‘hope’ as being that integral to a Christian’s daily life or walk with God. It seems like a fluffy, feel-good emotion that lacks weight and importance to me, similar to all those cheesy sayings you see on signs at Hobby Lobby. But I suspect I’m probably wrong on this. If God felt it worth mentioning repeatedly in the Bible, it’s probably pretty important. So this month I’m going to think on and keep my eyes open for hope.

August Goals Recap – 6 out of 8 completed

  1. Use my Write the Word journal every day – I only missed a handful of days so I’m counting this as a win. I enjoyed this exercise even more than I anticipated.
  2. Cull 2014-2015 iPhone photos – Done!
  3. Trade-in our old iPhones – this is technically halfway done as I haven’t gotten our phones in the mail yet, but I should get to that today so I’m going to count it as a win.
  4. Order wedding pictures to hang in our home – They arrived a couple of days ago! Now just to hang them 😉
  5. Schedule a dentist appointment for us both – Did not do
  6. Plant some grass in a pot for our cats, because I’m that type of cat mom! – I did, and our cats love it! Technically Charles and I could eat the wheatgrass too, but I think we’ll get our greens in other forms.
  7. Gather information to renew our passports – I know what steps I need to take, now I just need to take them! Honestly, renewing passports is much easier than getting a passport for the first time.
  8. Finish my summer reading list – Out of 15, I’ve finished 5 and am currently reading 5 (I know! So many! But you never know what kind of mood you’ll be in)

September Goals

I use eight life categories to give me focus and help me realize if I’m neglecting a particular area of my life. The eight life categories are my environment, career, health, relationships, money, personal/spiritual development, fun, and service. Some of my goals hit more than one category, so I won’t always come up with eight different goals for each category. The great thing about using the categories as a guideline is that it gives me some structure to work with and helps me see if I have any blind spots.

My 7 September Goals

  1. Write a list of 100 Dreams in anticipation of my 30th birthday
  2. Plan reentry into social media – I decided to take a few weeks off of all social media and when I do get back on, would really like to be purposeful with how I use it
  3. Paint our dresser – Already bought all the supplies and I’m so excited to see how it turns out!
  4. Stretch every day – Lately my Achilles tendon and plantar fascia have been bothering me due to lots of walking + high heel wearing and not enough stretching
  5. Cull 2016 – 2017 iPhone photos – Inching my way closer to the present! There are currently 3,424 recently deleted photos on my phone!
  6. Create my Fall reading list – Hit me up if you have any suggestions
  7. Brainstorm meaningful birthday traditions Charles and I can implement – Would also love suggestions on this one

I feel like every month I get better at setting realistic goals AND ones that actually have a positive influence on my life. This is why writing down goals each month has been so useful for me. If I didn’t write them down, I would never get better at setting good goals or would never set any goals at all! Having good goals brings so much purpose to my life and helps me avoid the trap of floating through life without any direction.

Do you write down your goals? I’d love to hear what you have planned this month!

August Goals 2019: One thing at a time

August Goals 2019: One thing at a time

by | Aug 10, 2019 | Lifestyle, Personal Development

Happy August, friends! July was a particularly fun month, involving celebrating our second anniversary and a spur-of-the-moment work trip to Oklahoma City. My trip to OKC was such an answer to prayer because I was feeling particularly sad last month as I realized that it was going to be a full year before I saw any of my family there. Going back for work allowed me to see my family and I had all of my expenses paid to do it. I did have to work while I was there, but no complaints here :). The opportunity made me feel particularly seen and loved by God. Now that I’m back home and resettled, I can’t wait to dive into my August goals.

Fun Things Happening in August

Charles finishes up the summer semester, starts the fall semester, AND most excitingly starts a very exciting internship. Meanwhile, I have a giant stack of library books with my name on them 😉

August Theme: One thing at a time

When I got back from my trip to OKC, I was really behind on all my goals and plans. I powered through for a little while and got a lot done, but then eventually burned out and spent the last week of July accomplishing very little. I’m very often overwhelmed with all of my plans and dreams and goals, which can feel very paralyzing. I also have a bad habit of multitasking and switching from task to task (or tab to tab, as it were). But really, I can only do the next right thing (LINK), so my mantra this month will be one thing at a time.

July Goals Recap – 3 out of 9 completed

  1. Get connected to our new church – We haven’t visited a group yet but it’s on the calendar!
  2. Journal every day – I did a terrible job at this, partially because of my trip but mostly because I know it will be a lot of mental and emotional work and I just don’t want to do it. Sometimes my barrier is that I’m not sure what to write about, so I compiled a list of prompts that I’m going to print out and slip into my journal. Blog post coming soon!
  3. Cull 2014-2015 iPhone photos – *insert hiding monkey emoji* I just straight up didn’t do this
  4. Trade-in our old iPhones – I took the first steps in researching what we need to do and even making sure I got all the photos off of my old phone but I still need to trade them in.
  5. Take new pictures for my blog bio – this didn’t end up being the huge chore I anticipated and I got it done! 
  6. Take our foster cat to at least one adoption event – I didn’t do this either
  7. Organize our closet – I cleaned it out and reorganized a bit and it feels a little less like the walls are falling on me every time I walk in.
  8. Get into an exercise routine again – I hardly exercised at all (besides all the walking that DC requires), but I have a plan for August!
  9. Order prints of our wedding photos – Didn’t do this either 🙂
August goals post: a picture of us celebrating our 2nd wedding anniversary

We celebrated our 2nd anniversary by going to a vineyard in Maryland we stumbled across while traveling last year. It was so pretty! We enjoyed sitting on the patio and listening to the live jazz band so much.

August Goals

I use eight life categories to give me focus and help me realize if I’m neglecting a particular area of my life. The eight life categories are my environment, career, health, relationships, money, personal/spiritual development, fun, and service. Some of my goals hit more than one category, so I won’t always come up with eight different goals for each category. The great thing about using the categories as a guideline is that it gives me some structure to work with and helps me see if I have any blind spots.

Top 3

  1. Use my Write the Word journal every day – Cultivate what Matters is doing a fresh faith challenge this month so it feels like the perfect time to pull out the Write the Word journal I’ve been meaning to use for so long
  2. Cull 2014-2015 iPhone photos – This will be the month I get to this, I can feel it!
  3. Trade-in our old iPhones

Bonus August Goals

  • Order wedding pictures to hang in our home
  • Schedule a dentist appointment for us both
  • Plant some grass in a pot for our cats, because I’m that type of cat mom!
  • Gather information to renew our passports
  • Finish my summer reading list – so far I’ve finished 4 and started 3 more out of the 12 books on my list

Not as many bonus goals this month, but it feels like the right amount. Part of goal setting involves learning the perfect amount to reach for, and I get a little better every month!

What are your August goals?

July Goals 2019: journaling, deleting photos, and more

July Goals 2019: journaling, deleting photos, and more

by | Jul 3, 2019 | Personal Development

Hi, friends! Can you believe we made it halfway through the year already? This year has been such a wonderful adventure and I can’t wait to see what the rest of the year holds. My June goals went surprisingly well and it has me itching to set July goals.

June Goals Recap – 7 of 11 Complete

  • document more on my blog and clean up my Pinterest boards
  • hang picture ledge – I ended up rearranging our bedroom on a whim, and now the place where I planned on hanging this needs rethought.
  • Complete Whole30 – Done! We ate only healthy whole foods for 30 days. It was hard, as expected, but certainly worth it!
  • Write out my top 3 tasks every morning — Done! I attribute the amount I accomplished this month to this one easy task. It helped me so much with prioritization.
  • Friday adventures — Done! We went on a small hike (walk? Not sure what the difference is sometimes, to be honest) at Scott’s Run Nature Preserve, which felt like a wonderful little burst of nature.
  • Ask for prayer requests — Done! This was a super easy but meaningful action to start the month out.
  • find a local primary care physician — not only did I schedule the appointment, but I’ve already had it AND taken care of all the routine bloodwork.
  • pull out my camera for some fun non-iPhone pictures — Done! Getting them to my computer for editing will be a whole other task
  • Make an IKEA trip for wall storage for our kitchen, jars for making kombucha, and baskets to organize our cat supplies better — Marking this as complete even though it didn’t go as planned. I reorganized a few things and now we don’t need the extra storage. I bought kombucha jars from Amazon for the same price and now have my first batch brewing, and I found a $2 basket at Goodwill to collect all our cat toys. Wins all around!
  • Go through 2+ years of phone photos — this is partially complete. I purged my 2013 photos, which had about 800 pictures. I took even more pictures each subsequent year, so I still have a lot more work ahead of me!
  • Call or text a loved one every day — I totally forgot about this goal. This is why it pays to keep your goals somewhere visible.
Celebrating the end of Whole30 with patio drinks | kelseysmythe.com

Celebrating the end of Whole30 with patio drinks

Fun Things Happening in July

  • On July 1st we celebrated our 2nd anniversary <3
  • Our 1st 4th of July in Washington, D.C.
  • This month also marks six months since we moved here.

July Theme: Little by little

For most of June I felt like I wasn’t making much progress or doing enough. But looking back? I made so much progress in a lot of areas. When I would write out my top 3 tasks each morning, I always wanted to add 5 or 6 things (and usually did) but focusing on the most important 3 first made it much easier for me to do the meaningful and important things. I’m definitely going to keep doing this!

July Goals

I use eight life categories to give me focus and help me realize if I’m neglecting a particular area of my life. The eight life categories are my environment, career, health, relationships, money, personal/spiritual development, fun, and service. Some of my goals hit more than one category, so I won’t always come up with eight different goals for each category. The great thing about using the categories as a guideline is that it gives me some structure to work with and helps me see if I have any blind spots.

Top 3

  1. Get connected to our new church – We’re hoping to visit a community group or two
  2. Journal every day – I had been so good about this for a while and fell out of the habit again. As an Enneagram 5, this does wonders for keeping me in touch with my feelings and helping me express myself better.
  3. Cull 2014-2015 iPhone photos – This is a task that doesn’t feel at all urgent but that I’ve been wanting to get done for years.

Bonus July Goals

  • Trade in our old iPhones – We got new phones at the end of last year and I’ve been meaning to do something with them ever since
  • Take new pictures for my blog bio – the one I have currently already feels outdated, plus I never really loved it to begin with. Taking pictures of myself feels icky to me so this seems like quite the chore
  • Take our foster cat to at least one adoption event, preferably two!
  • Organize our closet – I don’t have a good system right now and I know I’ll feel much better about it once it’s organized a little better
  • Get into an exercise routine again – I switched the time of day I work out and now it’s become a lot easier to skip my workouts. I need more clarity about what I’ll do when!
  • Order prints of our wedding photos – now that we’ve been married for a couple of years, I should really get around to this 😉

What are your July goals?

July 2019 Goals + June recap: little by little progress | kelseysmythe.com

7 Things That Make Me Happy: How to get more enjoyment out of life

7 Things That Make Me Happy: How to get more enjoyment out of life

by | Jun 26, 2019 | Lifestyle, Personal Development

At the beginning of this year, I started reading through One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp. This book simultaneously intrigued me and repelled me. Ann is an esteemed writer and people rave about this book. But also, the thought of thanksgiving felt both juvenile and like a chore to me, even though I’ve heard over and over again how important it is. I finally gave it a try just so I could knock it off my TBR pile and was surprised and delighted by the raw depth on the very first pages. The biggest actionable takeaway is to start counting the gifts God gives you. And since the new prayer journal that was gifted to me also had an entire section for gratitude, I started writing down things that make me happy.

You guys. This has been so unexpectedly life-changing. It’s so easy to focus on the things we don’t like, but just taking two minutes each morning to write down things I’m happy about has me looking for happy things all day long. It makes me more aware of how many happy things are in my life and helps me have a more positive outlook in general. There’s lots to be happy about, and seeing that puts me in a better mood. Writing down happy things is the difference between trudging through your day and stopping to smell the flowers, sometimes literally. Counting the gifts that God gives to me helps me get so much more enjoyment out of life.

Some Things I’ve Learned About Gratitude

It’s hard

Counting the gifts is unexpectedly difficult. I try not to repeat anything on my list, and since I used coffee on my first day, that one’s out for the rest of the year. Some mornings, when it’s 6:30 am at the tail end of a long week, I can’t think of anything that was making me happy except coffee. On those days, I might not actually write anything down. Some days feel like gifts are overflowing and I write ten things down. Gratitude comes easier with time.

Remember the Giver

Instead of just enjoying the gift, I need to keep bringing to mind the Giver of said gift. One of my goals when I started keeping track of all these little things that make me happy was not to just feel better about my life. I wanted to see the happy things and recognize them as gifts from a good God who gives me good, good things. But that’s hard to do if I don’t recognize the gift and point my soul in the direction of the Giver, and oftentimes I don’t.

Count the unhappy gifts too

Another thing I’m learning about counting gifts is that it would be a lot better for my soul if I started recognizing the gifts that I don’t want but are still good gifts meant for my good. God doesn’t tell us to be grateful for only the things that make us happy but says to give thanks in all things (LINK?). I realize that I’m saying this in the same post where I’m about to list a bunch of things that make me happy. That doesn’t invalidate those things. It just means that I’m beginning to recognize what the next step of growth is for me: give thanks for things that don’t make me happy. I’m not sure how I’ll do this yet, but if it were impossible, our loving Father wouldn’t have asked us to do it.

7 Things That Make Me Happy Right Now

Our cats

Bringing two cats into our home has been such a joy. I knew we would love it, but I didn’t quite foresee just how life-giving it would be. I think we were really, really blessed with these two

Things That Make Me Happy - Two snuggly cats sitting on my lap | www.kelseysmythe.com

These two are so cuddly.

French press coffee

I bought an electric kettle that heats your water to the exact temperature you need for french press coffee and I swear it actually tastes better. My one or two cups of coffee a day have been such a treat lately.

Farm-fresh fruit

It could be because we’re on Whole30 (one of my June goals!), but Charles and I have really been enjoying all the fresh fruit this summer. Watermelon. Strawberries. Apples. Cherries.

Weeknight baths

It feels extra luxurious to put the to-do list aside and spend some time on self-care before I go to bed, especially on the weekends. 

Enid A. Haupt Garden

This little slice of paradise is a treasure hidden behind the Smithsonian Castle and very close to my office. It’s my favorite lunchtime walking spot by far. I try to go several times a week and it always makes me happy when I do.

Library books

When I created my summer reading list a couple weeks ago, I put almost all of the books on there on hold at my local library. Four have already been available for pickup and I’ve finished reading one! I often read ebooks just so that I don’t have to go anywhere, but it sure does feel nice to hold an actual book in my hand.

Clean floors

I have to admit, this is not something I was hugely grateful for before we got cats. Now that we have two playful little guys tracking litter on the reg, I enjoy the moments of clear floors even more.

What’s making you happy right now?

Things That Make Me Happy - Farm fresh fruit | kelseysmythe.com

How to prioritize your life: Pre-decide your yes and no

How to prioritize your life: Pre-decide your yes and no

by | Jun 10, 2019 | Personal Development

Do you ever wonder how to prioritize your life so that the things that are actually important to YOU really do happen? Friends, this is hard. We want to know that the most important things to us actually happen, because that’s how we make life meaningful! That’s a major reason why I have this space to write and share about my life. But also, there is so much opportunity and noise out there that if we don’t prioritize, we’ll be constantly spinning in circles. I’ve spun a lot of circles. It’s not very fun to feel like you’re running and running and not getting anywhere. So a small trick that can help you gain some traction and feel a little less like you’re running circles? Pre-decide what you’ll say yes to and what you’ll say no to.

I learned this trick from Lara Casey first and was recently reminded of it by Jenna Kutcher in this podcast episode. They are both heartfelt powerhouses who get A LOT of traction in the parts of life that matter most to them. Pre-deciding your yeses and nos is a seriously helpful way to minimize decision fatigue, bring clarity to your priorities, and minimize guilt and second-guessing about the things that you’re not doing.

One of the awesome things about it is that it doesn’t have to be for forever. You can make these your yeses and nos in just this season. For example, maybe you have a big project you’re working on. That could mean that things that you would normally say yes to (weekend brunch with friends, extra long workouts) are nos for this season. And that’s okay. The important thing is that you’re choosing your priorities.

4 steps to take to prioritize your life

1. Know what matters most to you

I almost feel silly putting this as the first step because it seems so obvious. But that kind of clarity can be surprisingly hard to come by. When you have a million things pulling at your attention, dozens of people you respect telling you what you should be focusing on, and you’re just trying to get through the week without an extra trip to the grocery store or too much fast food, it can be really hard to be that in tune to what you care about.  I for sure have that problem.

Here are a couple of different exercises you can try really quickly to unearth what’s important to you.

  • Journal or brainstorm about who and where you want to be when you’re 80

Do you want to have explored the world? Start a business? Live on your own property in the country? Open your home to those who need a safe place to stay? When you’re 80, what will you look back on and be so grateful for? The answer to this comes more easily to some than to others, so if you’re really feeling stuck then try one of the next exercises instead.

  • Think about the things that make you envious

Are there jobs or opportunities or relationships that you really admire or are envious that other people have? Don’t misunderstand me. I’m certainly not saying that envy is a good thing. But I DO think that it can be a helpful tool in discovering what you really want. Maybe you’re envious of your friend’s relationship with her husband and how they have frequent adventures together. Rather than being unhappy in your own situation, prioritize adventures with your significant other. This might mean redirecting money in your budget from one thing to another or scheduling adventures way ahead of time.

  • Take a look back at the things you’ve done in the past that brought you a lot of joy

What are some of your fondest memories? Who did they involve? What were you doing? What aspect do you remember most? If it was a party you threw with all your closest friends, do you remember the food most? The good laughs? The games you played? If high school track is one of your favorite memories, was it getting to talk to your friend while you ran or was it long solo runs that were your favorite?

2. Decide what your focus is right now

Sometimes trying to think of a thing or two that really matters to you can be difficult. And sometimes the problem is that you think of TOO many things that matter. If you pick too many priorities, too many things to say yes to, it’s almost like saying no to everything. What’s helpful for me is to pick what my priorities are in a particular season. For example, while the process of growing through blogging is a priority for me in general, it wasn’t a priority while we were moving and for many months after. But now that we’ve gotten settled in and I’m spending less energy on figuring out basic life tasks, I can pull blogging off of the backburner. So think about what you can and should realistically focus on in this season and give yourself grace for what you have to put on the backburner. This step is hard for me, but it’s an important key in learning how to prioritize your life. 

3. Make a list of things that will get you closer to your priorities and a list of things that will compete with your priorities

This is essentially your yes and no list. If nurturing my relationship with my husband is a priority to me, then spending time with him will definitely be on my yes list. If paying off debt is a priority, then certain expensive activities will certainly be on the no list. Ideally, your list of yeses will be longer than your list of nos. I’m still working on this!

4. Feel confident about your list

Other people will always have different priorities than you, and they will certainly always think that your priorities should be the same as theirs. But since you’ve already been so thoughtful about what you can say yes to and no to in this season, you can move forward with confidence that you’re making the right decision for yourself and your family. Don’t let people make you feel guilty that you’ve prioritized differently.

It’s always helpful to me to read other peoples’ lists, so I’m sharing what I’m saying yes to and no to in this season. I’m sure it will look different whenever our next season starts, but for now, here is how I’m prioritizing. I hope you can draw inspiration for how to prioritize your life!

Things I’m Saying Yes To

  • Lunchtime walk
  • Fresh flowers from the grocery store on a regular basis – $5 limit but they make me so much happier
  • Lifting weights 3x a week
  • Getting up early to read
  • Spending time with my husband
  • Eating lots more veggies
  • Sharing my thoughts on the internet (as an Enneagram 5, this is surprisingly hard for me. I worry that I’ll change my mind but that it will all be “out there” already and I won’t be able to redact or change it. And I ALSO worry that people don’t really care what I think, so why bother using up the energy to put it all out there? Both are not legitimate reasons to withhold from putting my thoughts on the internet, so I’m encouraging myself to do it anyways. If you’ve had a similar experience, please share)
  • Keeping in touch with loved ones
  • A tidy + beautiful home
  • Reading GREAT books – and making time for both fiction and non-fiction
  • Leaving insightful and/or encouraging comments on other people’s internet work
  • Clean laundry once a week
  • Helping my body get stronger and healthier
  • Expressing myself and my feelings more often
  • Staying in touch with what I’m feeling or thinking – even if I don’t take any action based on that knowledge
  • Balance in what we spend money on
  • Listening to more worship music

Things I’m Saying No To

  • Painting my nails
  • Alcohol more than once a week
  • Dairy
  • Homemade guacamole (too long to make)
  • Fictional books I’m not enjoying
  • Too much television
  • Staying up too late
  • Overthinking + over-researching
  • Being a lurker
  • Too much sugar
  • Worrying about what other people will think
  • Feeling the need to explain myself
  • Starting a family
  • Painting my nails
  • Fragrance in beauty products
  • Chores on Sundays
  • Escapism
  • Jumping from one task to the other
  • A puppy
  • Extreme frugality
  • Too much online shopping
  • Straightening my hair
  • Grocery shopping
  • Lots of makeup
  • Analyzing decisions I’ve already made
  • Haircuts
  • Inbox zero
  • Constant noise

Did anything on my lists resonate with you? Are there particular things that you’re saying yes or no to in this season in order to prioritize your life? I’d love to hear in the comments! Hearing how other people prioritize always helps me learn how to do a better job myself.

How to prioritize your life: Make better decisions and room for the most meaningful things | www.kelseysmythe.com

June Goals 2019: Whole30, Friday Adventures, and Spending Out

June Goals 2019: Whole30, Friday Adventures, and Spending Out

by | Jun 1, 2019 | Personal Development

Hi, friends! I completely missed the May goals post, so I’ll recap how my April goals went and then share my June goals!

My parents came to visit in May, which was tons of fun! They’re our first visitors since we moved to D.C. unless you count Charles’ parents who helped us move here. I’m not sure that counts since we had hardly any furniture and we put them to work helping us unpack and pick up furniture instead of showing them the sights. Getting to show my parents where we live and the things we see on a daily basis was lots of fun! It was also a great opportunity to do a lot of tourist things that we haven’t done ourselves yet. This first part of the year we’ve been really focused on getting settled and haven’t made a lot of time for sight-seeing.

One big change for us in the last couple of months is the two new additions to our household. One of my April goals was to start fostering cats and that was the goal I knocked off my list the most quickly. Having cats in the home has been such an unexpected joy and delight. They certainly require more work (looking at you litter box), but their sweet snuggles and excitement to see you return more than pay off all the extra cleaning they require.

May Goals Recap

  • Hang the remaining pictures in the apartment
    • Didn’t do this one. Whoops! I’m not sure what it is about picture hanging, but it always feels so intimidating to me to put holes in the walls!
  • Write 50,000 words of blog content
    • I didn’t quite make this one either, but I did get a lot of writing done, which felt nice. Now to polish it up and publish!
  • Eat 5 servings of veggies a day
    • I did GREAT eating more veggies the last couple months, for pretty much the first time in my life. My secret? A super simple, super boring lunch that I eat every single day. I’ve been eating 2 hardboiled eggs and a couple of cups of fresh veggies dipped in guacamole for lunch every day. Have I gotten sick of it? You betcha. But not as much as I expected. The boiled eggs are particularly rough, but I never really liked them in the first place so eating them every day doesn’t help. But the veggies are still delicious. I don’t look forward to eating this lunch, but once I do, I’m always satisfied. The health factor and the EASINESS to pack it for work mean that I’ll probably be doing this for a long time.
  • Connect more online by actually commenting
    • Totally forgot about this one! While I commented on things a few times, I definitely didn’t do a great job. It certainly pays to have reminders of your goals around so you don’t forget!
  • Stick to our food budget. Moving to D.C. has definitely changed our budget a lot!
    • We for sure did not stick to our food budget. Not even a little.
  • Finish at least 2 of the nonfiction books I’ve started and haven’t finished yet
  • Start Friday Adventures. More on this soon!
    • Didn’t really start this one, but we have more concrete plans for this month!
  • Sign up to be pet foster parents
    • Done!

Looking back at this list, I didn’t really finish enough to cross most of them off the list. That can feel really discouraging, but the thing I need to remember is that I’ve made a lot of progress. And isn’t that what life is all about? So much of the human experience isn’t about the final destination but about the growth and change along the way. It takes off a lot of the pressure I put on myself to be perfect.

May Recap - Georgetown Cupcakes | www.kelseysmythe.com

We went to Georgetown Cupcakes with my parents one afternoon and these little bites of sugar were to die for.

Fun Things Happening in June

  • Summer school for Charles is in full swing
  • Whole30
  • When I’m not cooking (see above), I’m hoping to really dig into my goals!
  • Reading for fun. I’m thinking about giving myself another Netflix ban since my reading has suffered immensely since we started watching again.

June Theme: Spend out

I’ve been learning a lot about my unhelpful tendencies, thanks in large part to the enneagram. One of the areas I need to work on is being more generous instead of rationing and hoarding all my resources. This mentality is so pervasive for me, whether it’s time, energy, money, ideas, words…. If it’s a resource, chances are I try to hoard it. BUT I truly believe that God gives us our daily bread and because of that, I don’t need to ration the bread He’s given me today. I can spend out. The place that this feels most restrictive to me is in my energy. So this month I plan on reminding myself that I have enough energy for the things that matter.

Many of my June goals reflect this theme. I’m going to focus on saying yes to the things that I would normally say ‘no’ to or put off for another time for feeling a lack of whatever it is I need.

 

June Goals

I love Natalie Bacon’s post on goal setting. I like to use her eight life categories to give me focus and help me realize if I’m neglecting a particular area of my life. The eight life categories are environment, career, health, relationships, money, personal development, fun, and service.

Some of my goals hit more than one category, so I won’t always come up with eight different goals for each category. The great thing about using the categories as a guideline is that it gives me some structure to work with and helps me see if I have any blind spots.

  • document more on my blog and clean up my Pinterest boards
  • hang picture ledge
  • Complete Whole30 – We started May 27th so we’ll be doing it for most of June. Eating Whole30 is a lot of extra work in the kitchen and definitely a serious goal to tackle
  • Write out my top 3 tasks every morning
  • Friday adventures! I work 9 hour days and get every other Friday off. Usually I use those Fridays to catch up on chores, errands, and rest. BUT I’d really like to start setting a few hours aside for those Fridays for some kind of adventure. Charles and I are thrilled we get to live somewhere with so many exciting and enriching experiences nearby and we definitely want to take advantage of that.
  • Ask my people how they need prayer and then write down prayer requests in my prayer journal and then pray for them throughout the month

Cat condos make for happy cats | www.kelseysmythe.com

Here’s our sweet foster kitty hanging out at the top of the condo I couldn’t help buy for him (affiliate link – we got the dark grey multi-platform one and our kitties love it).

Bonus June Goals

One thing I’m doing differently is picking one or two main goals that are closest to my heart to work on and then thinking of the other ones as bonuses. This month I thought of a LOT of things I want to go after, but I’m not sure if I can realistically tackle all of them. Am I the only one whose eyes are bigger than her stomach when it comes to goals? So here are the bonus things I’d like to get done but aren’t as important so I won’t be at all upset about if I can’t tackle them.

  • find a local primary care physician and call to schedule an appointment (possibly one of my least favorite tasks in all of adulthood)
  • pull out my camera for some fun non-iPhone pictures. I haven’t done this in forever and I’m feeling an itch to document our current life a little better.
  • Make an IKEA trip for wall storage for our kitchen, jars for making kombucha, and baskets to organize our cat supplies better.
  • Go through 2+ years of phone photos. I have about 12,000 pictures on my phone and I’d like to go through them and delete all the random screenshots, duplicates, and non-memory related pictures. I got a smartphone in 2013 so I’ll be starting there and working my way to the present. My goal is to have it finished by the end of the year.
  • Call or text a loved one every day

How about you?

What are your June goals?  Or is there a theme you’ve named for your month or your summer? I’d love to hear about how June is looking for you!

Click here to follow along on Instagram to see how my goals are coming along. 

June 2019 Goals + May Recap - Spend out | www.kelseysmythe.com

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