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Life & Goals
Wow, life has been CHAOTIC lately! In general, things have been crazy since MR* and I both work full time, I am a full-time MBA student, have a home to run, a wild six-year-old to wrangle and a wily infant to nurture. Now I’ve added this blog to the mix and I think I need about 8 extra hours each day to manage everything properly! Then add in a 3-week visit from my sister & her hubby from Russia. The visit ended with a bang as much of the family ended up with a wicked case of stomach flu…yikes! All while I was working on my first brand ambassadorship for one of my all time favorite brands! Needless to say, I am super behind in school and my house looks like a tornado just blew through! So I realize that I need to sit myself down and focus!
How am I going to do that? Goal setting! I recently stumbled across a 5-year plan that I prepared almost exactly five years before I found it again. I had truly not looked at it since I wrote it up because my life is one wild and crazy time after another. I had prepared it while at my former job and emailed it to myself on my personal email and that is where it sat. Anyway, once I found it again I was amazed that I had literally done (or almost completed) every single thing on the list and they were not small feats. I realized that the simple act of putting it down did something to my brain or to the quantum physics of my life that kept me on my desired path. So I will be posting that soon along with my new 5-year plan and I challenge you to write one up yourself. Feel free to share!
That being said, I realize that there is something useful about goal setting and maintaining a focus. So I will be preparing monthly goals to go along with my five-year plan. These goals will include professional, personal and blog related goals and you guys will hold me accountable…thanks in advance!
Professional:
I seriously need to get organized! By the end of this month, I plan to clear out my paper inbox, complete all of my lists and be current on all phone calls and emails by the end of the month. I will have a more ambitious goal for next month, but this is the best I can do for this month and will set the groundwork for greater goals next month.
Personal:
I will complete my Ethics course, which requires two huge papers and one proctored exam. I will also have completed the reading for my Finance course in order to begin preparing for that exam. I will deep clean my kitchen next weekend and the Master Bedroom the last weekend of August, but will take the weekend in between off for my birthday trip! I will make time every single day to fully engage in something that GQ wants to show me and will make an effort to get better about that as I get other things more organized. I continue to breastfeed Logi and pump three times per day, which I plan to continue at least until December & hopefully beyond if my job remains supportive.
Blog:
My goal with my blog is to write one original content post for my blog this month. My writing has to take a backseat to my MBA right now or I will never finish on time. This is one of those places I am making compromises. Quality time with the kids and my MBA have to come first right now, but I will still feed & water my blog for maintenance. In addition, I am working more on building relationships than building content. I have the content in my head and the topics are all written down, I just need to pour it onto the page. However, if there is nobody there to read any of it, then it’s not all that important to get it out anyway. So my next goal is to reach 1000 followers on Pinterest, which I think I can manage as I currently have 691 (as of 08/08/16)! You should check out my Pinterest, I have some killer stuff on there!! Other than that I just need to make sure I’m keeping in touch with you guys on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook as well!
I may add to this later, but for now, this is what I feel comfortable committing to! These things will only help me to get better next month, which I should be able to do as I will be a much more mature woman of 37 by then!
Income Report:
July 2016 Earnings Received: ZERO…nada…nothing…zip…zilch = $0.00
NOTE: I did receive free product for a brand ambassadorship I was involved in, but I did not receive any earnings from blog related activities. That should change for next month as a result of what I am learning in Michelle Schroeder-Gardner’s Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing course, so this is a great starting place!
Hugs,
Alea | Frugal Nesting
PS: We made a big decision and MR has put in his notice at his day job so he can stay home with the kiddos starting next month!! Yay! More on how we made that decision very soon!!
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