I’ll be honest, this month was a challenge. One of those where you just feel like it’s one thing after another. The good, the bad, and the emotionally draining.

I’ve been hammering this message in a lot during the pandemic but this month I needed it for myself too… The reminder that even when things are tough, there is still plenty of good.

When we’re overwhelmed it can be easy to fall into a negative fog and only focus on what has gone wrong or things that are stressing us out. The quote, “you find what you’re looking for” really rings true here.

Despite the challenges this year has brought all of us though, I want to encourage you to also make time to acknowledge some of the good. For me, I do this during my monthly check-ins where I not only reflect on my goals but also life in general. It’s a time to pause. A time to reflect. A time to realign and refocus.

Admittedly, this month I fell short on quite a few things I set out to do. Life happens and there were things I needed to hit the pause button on so I could reprioritize. Truthfully, I was even dreading doing this month’s check-in. When I did though, I realized that even with all of the curveballs I still had quite a few wins. Wins that had I not actually taken the time to reflect on probably would have just fallen through the cracks.

This month I...

1. Celebrated my 10 year blogging anniversary — Ten freaking years guys!

2. Hosted our 3rd session of our Social Media Business Bootcamp at @BoldandPop

3. Completely booked up design projects for September and was able to sign projects for October and November

4. Hosted my first virtual meetup with @TacomaBossLadies to chat about Q4 goal planning

Mapped out my personal focuses for Q4 and Q1 and put together a launch calendar

So whether you came out of last month feeling like you crushed it or you were totally on the struggle bus, I encourage you to take a few mins to check-in. You likely deserve more credit than you’re giving yourself. We’re often our own toughest critics and acknowledging those wins (even when they’re small) can be instrumental in pushing us forward.💗

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Why do I do goal check-ins?

I started doing goal check-ins publically as a personal accountability challenge. Working on my goals and strategies to accomplish them have always been really important and by sharing them I felt an extra weight of commitment. Plus, I wanted a way to try and encourage others to have their own check-ins and keep working on their own goals. Helping others reach their dreams has always felt like my purpose and by being vulnerable and sharing the journey of my own I hope to inspire others as well.

Time for some Monthly Goal Check-In action!

I set some BIG goals for myself and got ish done so I'm coming out of this month feeling pretty damn good! Here's a breakdown of some of the wins I'm most proud of:

Hit my goal of writing 12 blog posts this month

I'll be honest, this was an ambitious goal for me but frankly, I wanted to push the limits to prove to myself that I could do it, and I DID! 💪 Guys, that was more blog posts in a month than I wrote in all of 2019.😱 Giving my blog more attention this year has been a big priority of mine and it feels good to be making it happen.

Launched my Get Your Goals page on my website + my first set of worksheets!

For the last year, I've been adding ideas to a Google Doc with different course ideas, blog posts, and a whole lot of other things and this was the month I made it official! P.S. you can check it out here!

Hit Monthly Income Goal at Bold & Pop for the first time since the pandemic

We hit the monthly income goal I set for our biz for the first time since the pandemic started and I just have all the happy tears about it 😭😭😭 Real talk, this year has been really tough being a small business owner. And while it won't be a year we break records, the fact that we've survived, gotten creative, and are growing again just has me feeling every level of grateful.

Added a new Page on Bold & Pop’s website for Social Media Businesses

We added a new page on the Bold & Pop website specifically for social media biz owners. Now you can sign-up for the waitlist for our next Social Media Business Bootcamp, browse our business templates, check out the other workshops we teach, and read helpful blog posts all in one spot.

made time for rest

With all of that progress comes the need for rest too. We made the goal of each taking a min of 20 days off this year, because we realized we were hardly taking any days off. After COVID, admittedly I let this goal slide because we've been in survival mode, but this month I took time off + scheduled the rest of my days for the year.

That's a wrap for me, here's your monthly reminder to take some time to celebrate some of your own wins (big and small) too! If you need some help with your check-ins or setting yourself up for success for the next month, I also have free worksheets that can help!

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Why do I do goal check-ins?

I started doing goal check-ins publically as a personal accountability challenge. Working on my goals and strategies to accomplish them have always been really important and by sharing them I felt an extra weight of commitment. Plus, I wanted a way to try and encourage others to have their own check-ins and keep working on their own goals. Helping others reach their dreams has always felt like my purpose and by being vulnerable and sharing the journey of my own I hope to inspire others as well.

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Looking for a new book to read? Well, you’re in the right spot! I’ve been doing a bit of reading this summer, specifically self-development books and today I’m giving you a rundown of the ones I think you should check out too!

Better than Before | Gretchen Rubin

I’ve already been a big fan of Rubin’s work after reading The Four Tendencies and I really loved this book! If you haven’t read The Four Tendencies, it’s all about identifying our personality traits and then using them to our advantage to reach our goals and live more successful lives. This book makes reference to some of the content in that book (although you don’t have to read it first) and is focused all about developing powerful habits that can support our goals and help all of us live happier lives. Things I’m all about!

Before Happiness | Shawn Achor

Maybe it seems like a strange time to read a book on happiness during a kind of bummer time, but this book was pretty interesting! This book follows Achor’s The Happiness Advantage and focuses on different strategies for looking at our lives in a positive lens. Which Achor writes is imperative to understanding before we can actually be truly happy and make changes in our lives. He definitely brings up a lot of good points and it had a lot of actionable advice you can start implementing in your life right away.

You are a Badass at Making Money | Jen Sincero

Mindset work has definitely been something I’ve worked a lot on over the last 3 years and after really enjoying You are a Badass I decided to read this book. This one is specifically on money mindset and how the way we think about money can ultimately have an impact on our success and how we look at it. During my time as an entrepreneur, I have to say my relationship with money has TOTALLY changed, for the better! Whether you’re a business owner or not though, I think this is a great book to work through some thought processes you may not have even realized you had.

Free to Focus | Michael Hyatt

This year, I’ve taken on a lot more passion and personal projects on top of being a business owner and sometimes it feels like there’s just never enough time. I’m sure you can relate! This book focuses on taking a good hard look at what you’re currently spending your time on and developing strategies so that you can make the most of your time by cutting out some of the fluff and really focusing. Our priorities are what we spend our time on and this book does a great job of helping you really identify what yours are.

The Power of Habit | Charles Duhigg

Clearly I’m on a productivity kick with these books! I know firsthand that our habits and the routines we set for ourselves are key in living the lives we want. So I read this book to learn more about them and how to create habits that really support my goals and what I’m working on. This book is interesting too because it really dives into the science behind habits and also about how our personalities influence how we look and create habits.

I hope you’ve enjoyed these recs and definitely give me a shout on social if you end up reading any of them or have some other recs. I’m always on the lookout for new books to read!