I stopped blogging monthly goals because I felt like I was just setting the same kinds of goals over and over without making any permanent progress. Shouldn’t I be able to eventually stop having, say, drink enough water as a goal and just DO IT?
I last blogged my goals four months ago, and I realized I’ve been feeling a bit scattered and unfocused and generally just…not feeling like I’m doing the things I want to do. And then I also realized that, hey, maybe my brain just works better making goals 30 days at a time. I wish I could make a change and have it last forever but that doesn’t seem to be the way my brain works. So. Here we are again.
Chipping away at little ways to make my life better, one month at a time.
[April Intentions]
H O M E : Do the Minimalism Game with Mike | We’ll compete to get rid of one more item every day – so one item on April 1st, two on April 2nd, and so on. For the whole month! Kinda nervous, I’ll be honest.
H E A L T H : Drink the dang water | I’m currently pregnant and still nursing a toddler. I need more water than ever. I need to probably drink…a gallon of water a day? I’m nowhere near that. It’s an issue.
Find a primary care doctor | I haven’t had a primary care doctor in years. (Fun fact: the last one I had was charged with being a part of a painkiller prescription ring and closed his practice!) No more! I need to start taking care of my health. Go through Doctor to You now and consult with best practitioners.
Stay active | Specifically: walk 2-3 miles 5 times a week, strength training 3 times a week, and Hab-it 3 times a week. I don’t want to run this pregnancy (it’s hard on my body), but I want to stay active in other ways.
S A N I T Y : Take a social media fast | This is the fifth year in a row I’ve taken an entire month in the spring to deactivate all my social media accounts. You can read last year’s post on why I take a social media break; it’s something I look forward to so much. I love social media a lot, but my head just starts to feel noisy and distracted after awhile. (I will still blog because that feels more like a slow form of creation and consumption than 140 character bursts and double-tapping and scrolling.)
Start thinking about housing for next year | I’m super duper overwhelmed by all the big changes and decisions that need to happen in the next five months (having another baby, moving to a different place, should we buy/rent, schooling decisions for Gabe, purchasing a larger car), not to mention stuff like maintaining a business and trying to continue to make friends. SO – step one in this is figuring out if we plan to buy or rent next year and starting to narrow down where to live.
(I have a ton more goals, but need to pace myself so I can actually do them.)
This month I also have the big 20 week ultrasound – so hoping all goes well with that!
Yay, the 20 week ultrasound! I can’t believe you are already at 20 weeks but that’s probably because I haven’t known for that long, I’m sure for you 20 weeks was a long time!
I am like you- I think I work better in monthly goals. I should really look what mine were for March though… not sure if I did them lol.
I’m curious about hab-it. Did you do it with your other pregnancies? I had some pelvic floor issues post-baby and I’m curious if I could prevent them next time.
Oh, just the fact that WHERE we find a place to live will determine schooling. Like, if we stay in this condo, I’ll homeschool him for a year because the Springfield public schools are so bad and we can’t afford private schools! There are just SO many factors up in the air right now!
Oh, and one more thing- I also want to know what schooling decisions you’ll be making for Gabe :)
Ashley, good luck with all this. You have a lot going on. You are talented, and I know you can do it. I recommend goals that are not too challenging. i.e., set goals that are a bit of a stretch, but still quite achievable. Goals too low don’t get you anywhere, but goals too high can become demoralizing. Have you done the math on the minimalism game? If you get rid of one item per day and then increase by one more per day, after 30 days you will have gotten rid of 465 items!! Yikes!
To: johnwags123@hotmail.com
Hurray for the 20 week, that was my favorite appointment, so exciting! And also, purging every day in April is awesome. I’ve been slowly weeding things out and I love decluttering so much, it’s great. And good luck with housing, I can only imagine how nutty that must be, oy.
I enjoy your monthly goal posts. Your decluttering game sounds cool, but yes, daunting. I am trying for a handful of things each day. We also have a baby coming, mid August, and the desire to clean and nest is strong!