June’s Reaching For the Stars

Happy June everyone! Can you believe we are already 5 months finished and almost halfway through the year?!?! It seems like we are just blowing by 2019. Since time is going so fast, it’s a good time to revisit goals made. There are some that I’m sure will not get accomplished this year, but that’s ok! May is usually a good month for me personally with reflection and new experiences or chapters in my life (college graduation, a few years ago I went on a special celebratory mountain cabin trip with close friends, music concerts and more). I had the full intention of taking May to reflect and create either new or updated goals. However, this particular May flew by sooooooo quickly with work I didn’t even realize that I forgot to hit publish for May goals! But that’s also ok! I was so incredibly busy at work, I don’t think I would have had the time that I wanted to dedicate to that reflection, so I’ve decided to carry these into June as work will die down mid-June to end of July/early August. Note (and as a reminder to myself too): I’m not setting too many goals that deviate from my usual monthly goals. Onto the June goals!!!

June’s Goals

1) Doing a June photoshoot – this is a goal that I keep monthly. I love taking pictures and my Nikon camera makes it a breeze, especially with my SUPER awesome zoom so I can get great shots without having to be RIGHT up on something. We’ve had some REALLY pretty sunsets here lately.

2) Read 1-2 books (print or digital) – one of my favorite authors, Patricia Briggs, released a new book this month. I wasn’t able to fit it into my budget to purchase, but I am on the holds list that is dwindling down (as I am writing this in June, I am next on the list!) Plus since work has been so super duper crazy, I need something that it help me focus the energy and calm down at the same time. usually I set a parameter to read a new book or a book that is on my bookshelf that I haven’t read yet (heck, who am I kidding, bookshelf + the towering stack on the floor), but I’m not setting a limit this time around. Nor am I limiting myself to it has to be a book on paper/in print or if it’s on the Kindle app. Good words are good words, right? I did get to read at least 1 full book in May and about half on the Kindle app for another so I’m counting May’s book goal as completed and I am looking forward to June’s goals for books. I love reading and I think it will help some of the anxiety I’ve been feeling lately.

3) Get back on track financially – with this month, I should be able to get caught back up after almost 3 months of being in a financial struggle. I went from hours to 8-24 hours week (I’m used to 40+) and having to rely on UberEats work ALOT, to back to ALL off the hours haha. Between God’s grace, family, coworkers and UberEats participating restaurants (some know me VERY well), I stayed mostly sane and I made all of the bills and on time. There were some days that was very close, but nothing was late and either paid in full/minimum payment paid. May saw some good checks so during the crazy time that I didn’t get to go out to do UberEats, everything was paid for and caught up on. I am very happy to announce that June 18th will see one credit card completely paid off! Woot!

4) Decide what I want to do (and can afford to do) for summer plans – I want to actually enjoy the summer season and not just work it all of the time. I actually got to truly enjoy a holiday with Memorial Day – no Full time job (day off but paid holiday) and I didn’t go out to do UberEats (I find when its a food based holiday, its usually not worth going out), but I enjoyed going to Walmart to get water guns (one can never be too old for water guns) and then 4-5 hours at the pool with loved ones. It was an INCREDIBLY nice break. I’ve been in Hospitality & Tourism for quite some time and some positions require a summer sacrifice, but honestly it’s time to enjoy life. I’m 31 now and I don’t want to look back on life and see that I worked ALL. THE. FREAKING. TIME. There are several in state places (and only like 3-4 hours away, so more close to home/close to budget haha) I want to visit and I might be able to join a family trip to Hilton Head in August for the first time in many years.

5) Continue doing Church (either in person or online) – I got away from it for awhile (used work as an excuse/reason), but I do miss the community of church and the worship music. My church has a campus near me but they do also offer live and some recorded sessions during the week. Worse case, I wait for a recorded session to pop up in the messages/archive and watch/listen later since my busy work schedule might have to make adjustments. Plus the Online Campus people are SUPER nice and having that fellowship is amazing.

6) Redefine the values and habits that I presently do and the ones that I want to do (LOTS of reflection to go on, again, something that I do often in May for some reason). Once I get those decided, I want to redo the habit trackers that I created on Canva and put into cheap photo frames to make them dry-erasable trackers that I have put on the walls in our bathroom (I also put them in a habit tracker app in case I forgot to check them off on the physical tracker). I was doing well for awhile, but then life hit and I’m not sure if I just subconsciously put them on the back burner because I was trying to refocus my energies remembering day-to-day stuff or just want, but I actually WANT to USE them and it was nice seeing the checkmarks for the week! I think I will make it bigger so A) I’ll see it and remember to do it and B) It’ll be easier to mark off

7) Keep up using the Calm app. I gave myself the present around when tax returns came in and I can say, what a difference! I had been using the free version which is nice, but the paid version is SO. WORTH. IT. (And I got 25% off which was nice too!) I’ve been using it mostly at night, especially the sleep stories but the classes and the Daily Mediations (usually no more than 10 minutes) are nice too. It helps me gain some clarity and take 10 – 30 minutes a day to unwind. There are certain sleep stories that I haven’t been able to finish because they put me straight to sleep about halfway through. They have a free trial and I HIGHLY recommend trying it out!

So small number of goals this month, but they are definitely meaningful goals.

What about you?

Have you made any goals (or intentions/direction) for this month? I would love to hear what you desire to get done and help you if I’m able to. If nothing else, I would love to be your cheerleader and root you on!!! Either share your June’s goals (or goal! Or intention or direction!) below in the comments, drop me a link to your own goal post if you have one or you can always find me on social media.