July Goals – Reaching For The Stars

Happy first day of July! It’s time for this month’s edition of Reaching For the Stars,  a monthly goal post. ( Who can believe this year is halfway over?! )

I don’t know about you, but this Summer has already been hot, hot hot!!! I’m talking about 95 with heat indexes up to 110-115 and it was only JUNE. Usually August is our hottest month here in Charleston, but I think we’re gonna have a contest for which is the hottest season this year.

Let’s recap June’s goals:

1. Continue the progress I’ve made for Crescent Moon & Stars – 10 posts (5 of those being the weekly gratitude/reflection, 1 Monthly goal post)
2. Continue working on the courses I’m participating in – 3 major/long-term ones and 1 smaller short one **One of the courses I’m in is discontinuing it and VERY bummed about it but she has a lot of beautiful and amazing ideas so I can’t wait for the next one!**
3. Take a look at different knowledge learning outlets – Coursera, LinkedIn Learning, and FutureLearn looks pretty interesting for this summer — not setting a goal to do [a] course[s] this month, but for the summer in general
4. Submit 5 “I read it” sheets to the library for the adult summer reading program
5. Sit down with the planner (I use Passion Planner) and write out the plans for each individual week. Filter out what I do or do not have time for. Write in pencil this month since things are probably going to change.
6. Continue filtering emails and re-organizing them depending on the topic. Unsubscribe those that I don’t read anymore or if interests have changed.
7. Do the free Daily clock to help out organizations at Greater Good – 10 different organizations, 1 simple click will help others have a meal, give medical care, raise awareness, etc.  **Did about half of the month, but not daily**
8. On my commute times, listen to some of my favorite podcasts

So… didn’t get much done for June’s Reaching For the Stars goals and I’m sorta bummed about it. Granted reading 5 books in the month of June might have been a lofty goal (I had some smaller books in mind to read to be able to accomplish this goal), but I should have looked at my goals (written before the June month schedule at work came out) and readjusted/take some off. We had 2 agents and 1 supervisor leave halfway and then another agent and myself are leaving the 1st week of July. Add in new trainees and I had mostly 12-10pm shifts + the 2 hour daily commute time (1 hour each way) which definitely took a lot of time away that I would have normally spent elsewhere. My days off didn’t really feel like days off minus a few really good days (see the Weekly gratitude/reflection posts).

So July’s goals are going to be flexible since I’m going to be going through a readjustment period. This month is going to require more discipline of my time and money than what I’m used to, but I know that I can do it!

1. Really sit with the planner as I am readjusting to new hours: 3:30pm – 12am 5x a week (8 hrs + 30 min break) instead of varying times of 10 hour shifts 4x a week (AND getting schedule a week in advance vs the whole month in advance)
2. Revisit, recreate and stick to new budgets since I’ll no longer have a commission check to have a cushion with. The difference between the raise I got and a normal (non-busy) season commission check is about the same + I can still do UberEats. I’ll be getting one last commission check so I’ll be squirreling that one away into savings.
3. Put these goals in a visual place where I’ll always see it and not “out of sight, out of mind”
4. Continue to cut back on costs that I can no longer justify/use (looks like time to revisit my How Not to Freak Out with Money post)
5. Use Book Catalog app to scan books so I know that I’m not spending money on books I already have
6. Continue to make Crescent Moon & Stars active and not be a stagnant blog
7. Play along with my Summer Bucket List/Bingo Game – 100 activities to do this summer
8. Do the free Daily check in on Greater Good – easy clicks and not much time – put into planner to remember to do it!
9. Continue to remember to water my plants! (I forgot for a couple days in a row and with this Summer heat I thought I had lost them – a good watering at night and they were back! They really do bring me joy.)
10. Light some candles to help wind down, make our home smell good and cross one off the Bucket list/Bingo Game
11. Continue to keep on my AM & PM vitamin/supplement schedule that I started halfway in the month. I think I was taking too many supplements at one time and doing the “12 hour” work shift, they were wearing off quickly.
12. When feeling overwhelmed, write in a journal or clean instead of on social media. I think if I see that something got done, I’ll feel better about it since mindlessly scrolling through a feed (although some of your Instagram’s are totally on point!)
13. Go to the beach at least once this month – #SaltTherapy for the win

I hope that you’re having a great Summer so far. I’d love to know what your own Reaching For the Stars (monthly goals and bucket list) are for July and/or for the Summer. Tag me @cresmoonstars and use the hashtag #letshinebrightogether on social media. I’m on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter & Pinterest.

Have a safe and fun summer and as always, Shine bright