Well, all jokes aside, I knew this month would be challenging as I was trying to break old habits, routines, behaviors, attitudes, and replace them with new, better, fulfilling ones! I have always been more of a free spirit. You know, the ones who aren't obsessed with planning out every little detail of their day and life and living by their planners. I have always been more go with the flow, take each day as it comes. I have always loved that about myself, but I have realized that I need to balance that out a bit and develop more of a daily routine so that I won't let the day go to waste, watch the years go by and my dreams never become a reality, ya know, staying up in the clouds...
Several of my goals had daily tasks that I wanted to accomplish, as well as weekly, and monthly goals. Here is how I did this month.
Waking up early. Failed miserably. My goal was to wake up around 6:15am Monday-Friday. I probably got up early 7 days.... why do I love the snooze button so much?
I did read the devotional every day, usually in the morning. They are short and sweet, very sweet.
I sent an encouraging text/email daily. Usually a text. I have really enjoyed this! I can tell people have appreciated it because many people said "wow I really needed that today, thank you!". It's cool how those things work. I encourage everyone to do it.
I did journal three things to be grateful for, usually at night before bed so I could reflect on the day. I probably missed 7 days of doing this. I don't want to miss anymore because I think this a great habit to develop. We, or I, can tend to focus on all the things that aren't going right and its refreshing to take a moment to reflect on all the things we have to be grateful for. The list is never ending!!
As far as church..I went once this month...
I did memorize a bible verse, or small passage each week. I chose:
Philippians 4:4-8
Proverbs 3:5-6
Ephesians 5:15
James 1:12
Stretch it out! Oh boy I forgot how flexible I am NOT. It's been great stretching and I have been trying to stretch either when I wake up or before bed, or both! I did miss a few days but I already feel less tight!
I reached out to someone each week that I have not talked with in awhile. It was fun reconnecting with people :)
I read my first book of the year. The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy. Life changing. I'll blog about this book another day :)
I did a craft, with some inspiration from Pinterest. I made a wedding gift for my brother and his wife. It is a year of dates. I made an envelope for each month and inside each envelope I came up with a date for them to do. Most of them had props and gift cards to go along with the date. I tried to get creative and think of things they enjoy doing. They are supposed to open each envelope at the beginning of the month and then choose when they will do the date. Married couples never should stop dating each other :)
I played my monthly board game with two of my favorite little girls :) LIFE
Did I bake something? Yes. Was it successful? NOPE. haha I was wanting to make vegan chocolate chip cookies because my mom is vegan, and I like them! I have an excellent recipe book filled with vegan recipes and I couldn't find it so I chose one off the internet. I followed it exactly...and got CRAP results. They turned to like super flat, thin pancakes. I think it was the egg replacer I used... oh well, my mom and I had a good laugh about it haha. February will be better!
Monthly wellness challenge: I gave up Coffee. The first few days were a little rough, no headaches really just a little tired. But then I felt great! I am at Starbucks now, February 1st, still drinking tea :) I think you should give it a try and see if you can do it! I know what you're thinking...Never think you can't do something. You can.
Monthly fitness challenge. PLANK challenge. I for some reason thought this would be an easy one... but no! The first 15 days aren't so bad...but once you have to hold a plank for 3 minutes straight, I struggled. By day 30 it's 5 minutes. I have not mastered 5 minutes but I did do the plank every day and I held it as long as I could. I will get to 5 minutes by the end of the year though!
I put together a budget and a fancy excel spreadsheet so I can track all of my expenses. I have gotten in the habit of carrying a pocket journal with me so I can write down everything I spend. This may seem silly since we have online banking. However, writing it down has helped me become AWARE of what I spend and knowing that I have to write it down in my journal has stopped me from spending things I normally would have bought. One of the many tools I learned from reading Compound Effect. Well, I followed my budget and stayed under my goal! Yay!
So that was January! How was everyone else's January? Are you sticking to your resolutions? Just remember, the only person holding you back is YOU. You are a strong, smart, passionate, worthy, individual and you have the power to make the most out of your life. It is YOUR life.
Start today, not tomorrow!
Cheers to February!
