Start-Of-The-Year Goals Recap!

Hey everyone! *hopefully my voice didn’t echo in emptiness, because I sure missed interacting with y’all in the past several months! I’ve been an absent blogger recently and I’m excited to get back into it again! Now Imma end this cuz I think its getting too long! 😝*

I hope your goals were smashed and bashed in the last couple months, and that you’ve had an amazing start to the year! I’m checking in again after a long absence, sore in the arms and the legs and the abs and … you get the point! (Note: This post was written earlier in March! 🤣)

The last couple days have been amazing! We’ve gone to the ski hill, and I tried snowboarding both days (hence the soreness!) Although I really wanted to try, I was apprehensive about falling, but God carried me through and helped me on every run! 🤣 I can officially call myself a very beginner snowboarder.

We also saw some friends there that we haven’t seen since last year, and it was awesome to talk with them again! Previously, I had observed that at this ski hill, the “snowboarder culture” is really cold, sprinkled liberally with profanity and with skilled teens, but not a lot of kindness. This year, I’ve observed more people talking to each other – the good snowboarders even talk to the girls who are learning *raises hand shakily*, and help the little kids out. I’m not so intimidated by snowboarder culture anymore!

Photo by Yaroslav Shuraev on Pexels.com

Life has been crazy. My projected graduation date has swung from spring to next winter to a big fat question mark. I’ve been wrestling with my perfectionism and I gotta say, I need to work out more, because Perfectionism’s muscles are getting a little too strong for me! It’s also been tough to balance out my priorities with my “to-dos”, especially when every day I only feel more like I’m backsliding in my tasks.

But when I was feeling my lowest, I was blessed by the appearance of several blog posts, from some amazing bloggers.

1. “What Is Success?” from Laurel Jean

2. “Just Keep Trusting” from Keziah

3. “All I Can Say” from Alicia Marentette

All three posts were exactly what I needed. Laurel reminded me that our success should not be of this world, but for the kingdom of God, and that THAT is the purpose of my life. Keziah reminded me that God deserves our trust, not just because He holds our life but because He can do anything and His plan is better than anything we can imagine on our own. And Alicia reminded me that I am powerless to change what drags me down, so putting my life in His Hands is my only option for a life fully dedicated to Him.

I can’t fix my problems or my struggles, but God can.

So it doesn’t really matter whether Perfectionism has bigger muscles than me.

God’s muscles are bigger.

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The moment you’ve all been waiting for … MY GOALS! 😅 So without further ado, behold my goals for January, February and March, smushed together!

1. Start and stay on track with Grade 12

2. Begin preparing for my first History term paper

3. Learn three songs from my piano repertoire

4. Study James, Ephesians, Philippians, and portions of Exodus

5. Use essential oils more often

7. Write letters and emails to all the waiting friends! XD

8. Work really hard on piano scales

9. Get a jump rope from Crossrope! (SO. EXCITED!)

My goals for the last three months went excellently!

(Workout Update; This is the update y’all have been waiting for! I alluded to this in a previous life update post, and I’m finally sharing my new workout obsession; jumping rope! (I realize that jumping rope hasn’t traditionally been seen as a “workout”, but from the research I’ve done and from my experience regarding the actual workout intensity, jumping rope has been the workout I like best and enjoy consistently. Instead of forcing myself to jump rope, my biggest hurdle has been to find time, and with my newly developed plan for my morning routine (more on this in a future post!), I’ve been finding it a lot easier to stay productive and focused on my day, yielding more time to do things like jumping rope!) The 1000x Skips Challenge I referred to in my December Goals post, was simply to do 1000 skips per day for a month, and while I did not actually DO the 1000 skips every single day, I am very glad I set that goal and that I now know that I CAN be consistent with a workout when I really like it!)

And some of the wonderful things that happened in the past two months …

– writing four songs at 3:00 AM

– went skating several times!

– went snowboarding/skiing several times!

– baked a ton

– wrote letters (and emails!)

– eating a cast-iron skillet cookie

– listening to Jeremy Camp’s music

– THIS SONG!!! (To the fans of “For King And Country”, you’re welcome!)

– using an amazing bible verse desk calendar – the encouragement is sometimes just what I needed!

– ate a perfect oatmeal cookie

– got an awesome facial!

– having fun sketching out dress ideas

– enjoying listening to my brothers talk

– enjoying hanging out with my wonderful family!

– jumping (with my friend Crossrope 😝) and learning tricks!

– meeting new people at the ski hill

– read “The Seven Habits Of Highly Effective People” (by Stephen Covey), and began reading “How To Stop Worrying And Start Living” (by Dale Carnegie, one of the best authors ever!)

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This month, I want to utilize a lesson I learned from snowboarding; When you fall down, embrace the pain. Then, get up. And move on with the help of God and the people God has put in your life.

Thanks y’all so much for stopping by to read the blog! I hope you enjoyed! Tell me; what is one of your goals this month? Do you make monthly goals?