Saturday, July 1, 2017

July Balanced Life Goals

As I have mentioned earlier, the goal, as always, is to attend to each area of importance to me, so that my life feels more balanced and I am not neglecting any aspects of my life that are important to me.  However, as I prepare for dental work and additional health screening procedures, Health will continue to dominate and I will continue to focus more on self-care in all aspects of my life in July, too.  These are my goals for a more balanced life in July:

Spiritual:  The goal is to live a spiritually meaningful life.
- Continue with daily prayers and gratitude
- Continue to focus on blessings, joy, and abundance
- Take time for meditation(doesn't have to be an extended period of time;  even 5 minutes of intentional, mindful meditation is good)
- Cultivate non-attachment and patience!
- Attend the monthly prayer gathering if possible
 
Environment:  The goal is a clean, tidy, uncluttered house and a well-maintained garden.
House:
- Do some regular house cleaning in order to maintain what I have been able to achieve - implement cleaning routines to the extent possible
- Declutter -  Cultivate non-attachment to things by decluttering at least one item a day during the month of July
- Do some organizing  
Garden:
- Plant the poor succulents before they die!
- Plant the grape vines and get a trellis for them
- Continue to weed and mulch

Daughter:  The goal is to continue to have a close relationship with her. 
- Daily texts, phone calls, emails , and video chatting!  There is no plan for her to visit this month. 
 
Family & Friends:  The goal is to keep in touch with various family members and friends.
- Communicate regularly - phone calls, texts, and emails
- Wish two friends for their birthdays
- Go out to lunch or dinner with a friend
  
Career:  The goal is to continue to do work which I enjoy (for the most part) and which enables me to support myself.
- Celebrate my 34th anniversary!

Finances:  The goal is financial security.
- Continue budgeting and spending mindfully, with purpose
 
Health & Well Being:  The goal is good health.  This will continue to be the focus, this month, as my longer than anticipated recovery continues!
- Attend the appointments with my various doctors - 4 scheduled, so far, in July, there might be at least one or two more!
- Continue to go for additional screening tests, as needed
- Continue to monitor blood pressure, sugar levels, and weight (now that my taste buds and appetite have returned!)
- Continue to focus on a healthier diet (more vegetables!), drinking enough water, exercising regularly, and getting sufficient sleep

Time Management:  The goal is having enough time to do all what I want to do!
- Organize myself and put routines into place so I have a more regular schedule.

Leisure/Crafts/Hobbies/Me-Time:  The goal is to relax doing something I enjoy doing for the pleasure of it.
- Put together a succulents planter to take to the office
- Do a few things from the Summer Joy list
- Do another sewing project
- Work on another unfinished project (and finish it!)
 
So those are my goals for July.  They aren't that different from my June goals but that is OK by me.    Anyone else making monthly goals? 

4 comments:

  1. A well balanced list as usual Bless. I'm trying to be more mindful of time this month. I've found if I concentrate on what I'm doing rather than thinking about what needs doing hours in advance the time seems to pass slower. It's as if by thinking at 10am what I need to do in the afternoon that I'm there before I know it. That probably reads really badly but you might get the gist of what I'm trying to say. Xx

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    1. It sounds like you are trying to live fully in the moment, Suzanne, rather than anticipating the day away. I tend to find that, when I get fully absorbed in a task at hand, time seems to pass more quickly! Time is kind of funny, that way. :)

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  2. I'm always impressed at how you actually managed to achieve balance, not just set goals for it. I'm quite good at setting the goals, not as great at actually maintaining the balance. :)

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    1. Laura, it's hard when someone is as busy as you are. I remember when I first started doing this balanced goals exercise - I was stretched so thin, working full time, parenting my then pre-teen daughter, caring for my semi-invalid mother, and trying to do the cooking and the housework, etc. Life felt very unbalanced, back then.

      The trick to attaining some sense of balance, I've found, is to do small baby steps. I had to train myself to accept that small acts count, too. Keeping in touch with family and friends, for example, does not have to be having them over to dinner or even going out to lunch or breakfast. It can be a quick 2 minute phone call while preparing dinner. It's OK to do that and count that towards your goal of keeping in touch with them. The time I spent waiting for my daughter to finish piano lessons or dance classes became my "Me" time, when I read or knitted or sewed another quilt patch by hand. It might have been only half an hour or even 10 minutes (occasionally, I'd do grocery shopping while she was at dance classes) and not the whole afternoon I would have preferred, but it was better than nothing. It took me a while to think of that waiting time as "me" time and not "waiting for daughter" time.

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