Fall arrives in 18 days. Is anyone sad about this? If you are, please don’t tell me. You’ll provoke the claws, and I’ve been keeping them a secret. We’ve reached the beginning of (yet) another month, which means it’s time for…
A Quick Check-In
The first of the month is a great time for a quick check-in and forward look. If you want to, that is. This is a judgment-free zone. Well, unless you don’t like Fall. I will judge you for that.
Anyway, as a new month begins, I try to step back and survey my life a bit. Kind of like a mini version of what I might do at the start of a new year. In fact, it helps me stay on track with things I “resolved” at the beginning of year. It also makes me feel like my life isn’t just slipping away.
I ask myself questions like:
- Are things in my life how I want them to be? Both internally and externally?
- How am I doing with the aims I set at the beginning of the year?
- Is there anything I’d like to be done with this month whether by finishing it or by officially dropping it?
- Is there anything about myself and my personal life that I’d like to focus on this month?
Though I aim to do this monthly, I realistically get to it about 2/3 of the year. And though my life feels better all-around when I’ve done it, I don’t let the fact that I skip months get me down. Most of the time I’ve just honestly forgotten, and so I jump in wherever I’m at without worrying about it.
This month I’m focusing on my physical health. I’m aiming to take smaller portions of everything that isn’t water. Well, water or coffee, actually. I’m working on adding exercise to my daily routine (for now I count the 4-minute workout as daily exercise). I’m also hoping to adjust our family diet, which will mean adjusting my shopping.
Focusing on only one major area at a time frees me from worrying about much else that month. Since I choose something different each month, I’ll eventually get around to anything that’s really important. And the focus helps me actually take some strides in the targeted area because, really, it’s just one thing.
What about you? Is there anything you want to focus on this month or aim to have completed by the end of the month? Leave a comment below.
September at Project Grownup
In September, I’ll be posting a few more things related to home organizing and decluttering, fully shaming myself when I purge my closet and share it online. (hmmm… maybe instagram would make my piles look better…) I’m also going to show you my paper pile. Please be a dear friend and don’t mention what you discover to anyone else, ‘kay?
Along with that, I’m starting two new “columns†this month; one will begin this Friday, and one next Tuesday. As consistency is not my strong suit, this could be a wild ride. (Someone have their dude call mine to make sure he’s seen me.) But as I’m really trying to replace my propensity for inconsistency with something else, this seems like a way to go for it. Nothing like going public for a little accountability.
The Future
October’s “theme” (if you can call it that) will be personal finance. It seems like everywhere I turn I see people crying out for someone to help them navigate the money crazy. Just last week on Facebook, Get Rich Slowly posed this question:Â
People mentioned impulse and other small purchases, not being able to stop themselves from buying that thing they love, eating out (I think this might have been the most frequent response), expensive monthly commitments like cell phone plans, and just overall financial ignorance. I think having a response to this question at all indicates a commendable level of self-awareness. Many of us don’t even stop to think about where we might be leaking money, so bravo GRS readers.
I think to most of us, the endless sea of personal finance topics feels like a big boiling pot of overwhelm, as though if we dip a toe in it we might get burned. So instead, we just sit by and watch the pot run dry.
Mmmmm… probably not the best decision. But where do we start?
We’ll get to that eventually. But I’d love to first hear from you. Over the next month I’ll be researching and gathering resources for October’s posts, and I’d love to focus on that which will be most useful to you.
So please take a second and weigh in on any or all of these:
- What financial issue or strain is most regularly on your mind right now?Â
- What most confuses you or do you feel the most clueless about?
- What resources or tips have been helpful to you on your journey thus far?
- Anything else?
Oh! And Happy Almost-Fall!
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[…] the beginning of September, I mentioned the start of two new columns around here. I kicked off the first last Friday (well, introduced it, […]