September Goals

In an effort to maintain some monthly goals, here are this months'.

I didn't do all that well with last months', so I set the bar a little more, um, realistic? I don't want to say low, just different :s

Anywho, today is the first, so the time is now and all that jazz!

One Quarter Mama's September 2014 Goals

Feel free to add your own in the comments or link to your goals! Also, please support me and others. If you want a reminder on the 15th to keep you on track, let me know!

August Goals Update

So we're more than halfway through the month and none of you have pestered me about sticking to this month's goals. Thanks guys! :p

Luckily, for some reason I remembered them and am trying desperately to hold myself accountable. So here's the report on how I'm doing.

We're sort of going to be earlier, for the most part. At the very least, Hubby and I are getting to bed at the same time and he's also making an effort to turn in early, so yay. But there have still been some late nights for no reason other than we're frittering it away on the Internet. Boooo :(

I biked to work once and started jogging again. So yay for activity. The problem with biking to work is it's been raining a lot. Also, my work started offering not just food delivery, but dry cleaning/laundry service as well, so you can imagine I don't exactly want to try carrying groceries and laundry while biking. That's my excuse.

As for spending less time on time wasting websites? Well, I installed a Chrome extension called Stay Focused. It gives me a limit of 10 minutes a day to mess around on time-wasting sites, then it shuts it down and my screen says, "shouldn't you be working?" It's smart and it works, so there. External reinforcements keep me off Pinterest.

And the books? I haven't finished any books. I wish I had more time for books.

However, I am writing a lot and just finished a submission for The Huffington Post, so let's hope that gets accepted.

Sometimes you don't get what you expected, but it's not all bad!

Smarter Goals

You know me, I love talking about goal setting! Us goal setters seem to attract more people like us :)

I found a new blog to follow called, A Life in Balance, and she also has a great post about creating SMART goals and making them SMARTER. Check her out here!

This is part of her Motivation Monday series - geez, I wish I had thought of that.

How's your Monday going so far? Are you thinking of making any new goals?

I'll be honest, since the move, I'm not even sure where my vision board has gone to. It's still in a box somewhere. If I could find it, I would be able to take down the goal to attend BlogHer13.
I've decided I want to take up running. Or jogging. Or some sort of movement like exercise (gotta start small!) but I can't really find the motivation.

I keep reminding myself of something Michelle Obama said about waking up early to exercise. She said, "I would get up early for a job or for my kids. Why is it we have so much trouble getting up for ourselves?"  Oh man, that hit home!
I haven't been able to answer that question for myself yet. Working on it.....

What To Do After You've Completed a Goal

If you read me often enough, you know I talk a fair bit about making goals and having a vision board and all that good stuff. But I realize I left something out...

What do you do after you've accomplished the goal??

I mean, aside from make new ones. I have this vision board up in my room and I had a goal still on it that I had accomplished: my trip to Asia. I didn't know what to do!

Do I take it down? Then what? Burn it? Throw it away? It all seemed kind of weird and most websites talk about how to make a vision board, but not what to do after!

So I searched online until I found something that resonated with me - after the goal is complete, take it off the board and keep it in a new scrapbook full of all your completed goals. Oooooh, what a nice idea! I can look back later proudly, and keep track of how well this wonderful goal-setting thing works!

What sort of celebrations do you hold after you complete a goal, or is completing it celebration enough?

Happy visioning!

Goal Setting

I wanted to share with you the techniques I use to help me and my family stay focused on our goals. You can imagine with us both working full time (and different schedules) means life can get chaotic and certain things fall to the wayside (like the dishes, for example).

We try to keep our eyes on the long term prize, even with a lot of uncertainty in our lives. No, we don't yet know where we will send the Little Man to school and whether we should move to a different part of the city (closer to our workplaces), but everything else that we can plan for can get done with focus.


So it starts with us adults sitting down and making good personal goals for ourselves. We write them down and update them every six months or so. I believe strongly in, "write it down, make it real!" Don't let dreams sit in your head - let them out into the world to breathe and grow. Share them with someone else and give them life! We also set family goals - things like how often we will have family vacations and how we will save monthly for them.

One person who has helped me learn to make goals and stay on track this year is Leonie Dawson. I highly recommend her yearly planner - here is the 2013 edition on sale. Go get it! It's worth every penny!

My vision board

I have a vision board in my bedroom on my side so I can see it every day.  This makes the goals more visible and helps me to focus on what I want. Otherwise, it's easy to get distracted and forget. It's a fun craft exercise and I like being able to physically take them off once they're achieved.

Another option is to make a short video and watch it daily. I got that idea from Patrick Leroux. He is a great guy to watch talk and he does do talks in English sometimes. Go see him if you get a chance!


Because I also travel blog, I made a virtual travel vision board and am pleased to say I already bought my tickets for China, not long after putting that post up, in fact.

Some people write on their bathroom mirror (I do that also sometimes) or you can put the goals up on your fridge. The point is to constantly remind your subconscious to keep working on it and over time, you start to find opportunities and solutions. I believe in the Law of Attraction and all that, so putting your wants and desires out there, even the wildest ones, can help the universe help you.
The point is to not be scared to try because you never know what can happen :)

I also find it comforting to see my vision board every day. After a long hard day, it helps to reassure me all the little daily troubles and sacrifices will be worth it and it helps keep me going. Tomorrow is another day and one step closer.