NewYear

Journaling Prompts for the New Year

January 23, 2020

Although February is right around the corner, there are still 11 months left in the year. Why not start it off right with some journal prompts that set you up for success in 2020? Whether you’ve already made New Years resolutions and are sticking with them or have lost your momentum, take the time to think about what you want this year to look like. It’s also the star of a new decade, so think about your future as well. Think of your pages as clean slates that you can fill with what ever you wish.

I’ll start with prompts to look back because it can be helpful to revisit where you have been. Next, there will be prompts for goals and dreams for the year and finally, there will be prompts for the future beyond 2020.

Looking Back

What did you accomplish in 2019?
What were your set-backs in 2019?
What are your favorite memories from 2019?
Did you do anything new in 2019?
What was 2019 like if you could describe it in one word and why?
What did you accomplish in the last decade?
What were your favorite memories from the last decade?
Is there anything from the last decade that you still need to heal from?
What has been working well for you?
What do you want/need to let go of?
What was your theme from the past decade?

Prompts for 2020

What do you want this year to look like?
What are your short-term goals for 2020?
What are your dreams for the year?
What is your word for 2020?
Did you make New Years resolutions? If so, are you sticking to them?
Make a list of new things you’d like to try this year.
What books would you like to read?
What would you like to do for yourself this year?
What family plans do you have this year?
Do you have any habits you’d like to break? If so, what?
What’s one step you can take today to achieve one of your goals?

Prompts for Your Future

What are your big dreams for this decade? It can be anything. The sky’s the limit.
Where do you think you will be in ten years?
Describe your dream place to live.
Describe your dream vacation.
Write a letter to your future self. What do you want him/her to know?
What do you want to do for fun this decade?
Break your big dreams down into smaller achievable steps and make lists.
What are your family plans for the decade?
Where would you like to visit?
If you woke up tomorrow and could change one thing, what would it be?
What does success mean to you?
What is your theme for this decade?

Since it was Martin Luther King Day on Monday, I am ending this post with one of his quotes. It’s perfect for the start of the new year, trying something new or starting fresh.

I hope these prompts help you gain some clarity, celebrate your accomplishments and get you excited about your future. Do you have any favorite writing prompts? Feel free to leave it in the comments. Happy journaling!

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Personal Development, Self acceptance,

How To Achieve Your Dreams

January 20, 2020

Around the time I was brainstorming for the perfect word for 2020, this wonderful thing popped up in my inbox. Since the beginning of the year, I have been participating in the Best Decade Ever challenge with Mel Robins. For those who don’t know, it’s a totally free 30 day challenge that teaches you to dream bigger. In her live videos, Mel talks about the science behind dreams, why you should dream bigger and how to break those huge dreams down into achievable steps. If you are not participating, I recommend that you do. The program is simple, doesn’t take up much time and it has given me clarity on several areas of my life. It has given me that push to work on my goals plus be more intentional about self-care and bringing love into my life.

Dream Bigger

The main part of the challenge asks you to dream bigger. Instead of just focusing on 2020, Mel is asking you to think about the next decade and how you can make it the best decade ever. What are your big dreams? What can you accomplish in this decade? You find out by asking yourself, what are my dreams? Then you write down the first five things that come to mind. You can do this any time of day, but I prefer to do this in the morning. If you do this each day, you start to train yourself to think bigger. It also helps with creating positive energy, seeing reoccurring dreams and can help you gain clarity. I’ve seen so many amazing dreams posted, but here are my big five.

Build a life coaching business,
Get in the best shape of my life,
Make a steady income from this blog,
Find a loving and supportive relationship,
Have a second child.

Some of my other dreams are to find my tribe, travel, build my dream house and move out of state. Most of these dreams are broad and not specific and that’s okay. There are no rules when writing down your dreams. Whatever comes to mind is perfectly fine. Don’t over think it. If you have the same dreams every day, write those down. If your dreams are different, that’s fine as well. If you never accomplish these dreams or if they change over time, that’s okay. The point is to learn the skill of thinking about your dreams and realizing that they are possible.

Self Limiting Beliefs

Most of the time, we don’t even get started achieving our dreams because we tell ourselves that our dreams are stupid. We tell ourselves that we are too young, too old, not smart enough, not good enough or that we don’t deserve it. The self limiting beliefs can be endless. We are our own worst critics. We tell ourselves things that we would never tell anyone else. Mell offers a free tool that helps you get clear on your self limiting beliefs and how to get rid of them. This is hard work, but we have to train our brains to think the opposite of what we’ve all been thinking about ourselves for years. Old habits die hard.

Check out this video on self limiting beliefs.

Brick By Brick

Last year, I wrote a post about my take aways from the book, Take Control of Your Life. Also, by Mel Robins. In that book, there was a concept where you build a foundation brick by brick. Well, this is how you achieve your dreams. You break each dream down into small achievable steps. In week two of the course, one of the assignments is to simply pick one dream out of your five and explore it further for 15 minutes per day. What does that mean? Well, there are many ways to explore a dream. One of my big dreams is to become a life coach and build a business, so that’s the one I chose to explore further. I bought the book Becoming A Professional Life Coach and started reading it. I watched a video of a sample life coaching session. Another day, I read everything on the World Coach Institute’s website. I’ve read blog posts written by life coaches on how to get started, listened to The Life Coach School’s podcast and I’ve done what I call a life coaching brain dump. This is where I’ve generated business ideas as well as a todo list for steps I need to take to get started.
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Here’s another example. What if your dream is to start a parenting blog? Your first step would be to do a brain dump. Write down anything that comes to mind regarding your blog.

Blogging Brain Dump

One area may be exploring topic ideas. What do you want your blog to focus on? Here is a list of possible topics.

Developmental milestones,
Toy/product reviews,
Self-care for moms,
Breast-feeding,
Sleep routines,
Kid friendly recipes,
Educational activities.

You get the idea. List as many possible topic ideas as you can think of. Then do another list of action steps that you’d need to do to get started. Some possible items on your list might include

Coming up with a domain name,
Researching and finding a web host,
Explore WordPress themes,
Design website, (Banners, logos, layout etc)
Do research on writing a blog post (SEO, proper format, Pinterest etc)
Create written content,
Find images,
Create social media accounts for your blog,
Learn how to promote and drive traffic to your blog,
Learn about ways to earn an income from your blog.

The point of these lists is to have a place to get started. This way you can see what small steps you can take, what skills you need to learn etc. You can also do a list of steps you’ve taken if you’ve been working on your dream already. That way, you can see your wins and it will keep you moving. Staying with the blog example, one big step would be to choose a domain name. This will be the website address where your blog is located. To achieve this step, you may want to write a list of several blog name ideas. Then choose the one you like best and see if it’s available. If it is, your next step would be to buy the domain. Then your next step would be to find a hosting provider. If you know which one you want to go with, you’d simply go to that website and sign up for a plan. If you are an absolute beginner, your first step may be to do research and compare various hosting companies. There isn’t a right or wrong order to exploring your dream. Just do one small part or actionable step each day and that is how you get started. Brick by brick!

As I write this, I’m wrapping up week two of the course and am looking forward to making more progress on my dreams during weeks three and four. I will keep you posted. What are your big dreams for this decade? What is one step you can take today to get startedd? Let me know in the comments.

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About me, Personal Development

How To Choose Your Word for 2020

January 12, 2020

I know this post is long overdue, but before I get to that, I want to wish you all a happy new year. I hope 2020 has started on a positive note for everyone, but if not, this post can point you in the right direction.

December was a busy month for me and I needed to take a break from the blog and although I’m posting today, I don’t know how often the entries will be coming. I suppose whenever I get inspired. I’ve really needed this break so that I can focus on other things. While I love the blog, I was having to devote way too much time to it. With being a single parent, working in a highly stressful job and dealing with other obligations, it was getting harder to carve out time for anything else, so I’ve had to rethink my priorities. I want the blog to be successful and I know that blogging is hard work, but I need to coast for a while. One of the reasons I’ve made this decision is because of the new year. I wrote in my journal and thought hard about what I want 2020 to look like.

Why one word instead of a New Years resolution?

I have always hated New Years resolutions. I make tons of goals for the new year, get excited about them and there’s a big push in January, but by February, everything gets dropped. Then there’s the guilt and all the negative self talk about why I didn’t accomplish my goals yet again. This year, I’m doing things differently. I’ve decided to choose one word to live by this year. I did this last year as well, but wasn’t really following it with intention. In order for this to work, you have to be passionate about the word you choose.

My word for 2020 is love. I chose the word love because after soul searching, I found that love was the most meaningful thing that I needed to work on for this year. Both for myself and others. This also means that all the goals I’ve chosen to work on for 2020 are connected to love in some way. some of my goals for the year include

Getting in better shape,

Being more present and patient with Rosebud,

Taking more time for self-care,

Changing my mindset,

Being in a loving relationship.

These goals all relate to taking care of myself or others. Having a connection between the goals will help to make them achievable. My intention for 2020 is love, but yours may be different. Maybe your word is action, happiness, mindful or change. It can be any word. Here are some suggestions if you are still having trouble coming up with a word.

How to Choose Your Word

1. Write in your journal about what you want 2020 to look like. Are there any common themes?

2. Brainstorm a list of words and see which word or group of words resonate with you the most.

3. Make a vision board using images, words and or quotes. Are there any words or themes that pop out at you?

4. If you are torn between two or three words, take time to think and then come back the next day. Do you have any new thoughts?

5. Be sure your word and and any goals connected to your word energize you. Think about intentional things that you can do every day to bring your word to life.

Be Intentional

For my word, love, I have thought about what I can do everyday to bring love into my life. I can practice self-love by exercising and taking care of my body daily. I can send out loving energy by writing down a gratitude list of things that I’m thankful for each day. I can reach out to people to increase the chance of finding a meaningful relationship. There are so many things I can do to bring love into my life and that is what I intend to do in 2020. How about you? Do you have a word for the year? What are your plans, dreams or goals for 2020? Tell me in the comments.

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Books, Personal Development

To Be Read List for 2019

January 27, 2019

Recently, I posted about the memorable books I read in 2018. I got a lot of great feedback from that post and one of my readers left me a comment wondering what I would like to read in 2019. Her comment got me thinking that a to be read list would make a great post. So, here it is. There is plenty of self help with some novels and nonfiction thrown in.

1. Take Control of Your Life
This is the latest release from Mel Robins that will be out in February. I’m a fan of her previous books. She has a direct style and practical advice. Some of the things covered in this book are fears of rejection, being alone and the dreaded, but all too common fear of change. Why not read it? Who doesn’t want to bust through fear and take control of their lives?

2. The Desire Map Experience
It’s not about the goals, to do lists or new years resolutions, but how you want to feel in every part of your life. I think this book will have a lot of useful exercises.

3. The Five Love Languages of Children
I read The Five Love Languages for Singles a couple years ago because I was curious as to what my love language was. It turns out, my love language is receiving gifts. I find the concept interesting and it makes a lot of sense. People have different ways of expressing love and of course, people have different things that are meaningful to them. I saw that Gary Chapman wrote a version for children and now I want to read it. I want to find out what Rosebud’s love language is. Maybe she’s still too young for me to know, but maybe not.

4. The Woman in the Window
A novel written by A. J. Finn, about a woman who lives alone who spies on her neighbors. She believes she has seen a crime, but has she? The book is a best seller and I want to read it to find out why.

5. The Perfect Roommate
Last year, I read a couple of books by Minka Kent and this is the third one I found on Audible. It doesn’t have as many good reviews as her other books, but I figured, why not give it a try? A girl knows some dark secrets about her roommate.

6. Writing creative nonfiction
The title makes it obvious what this book is about. It’s more of a course than a book, but I’m interested in ways of making my writing better. Even though it’s not my day job, why not improve my craft? These lectures include writing samples and exercises that help you with all stages of the writing process.

7. The Best Friend
This one is by Shalini Boland. A woman has a new best friend who seems to have it all, but as she learns more, she finds out her best friend has dark secrets.

8. The Introvert’s Way
A book that helps us introverts to embrace our quiet nature and honor what is unique about us. This book has been on my wish list for a while and I’m hoping to read it this year. It sounds like it will be a refreshing perspective on those of us who are quiet.

9. The Boy who Loved Too Much
A boy has Williams Syndrome. I’m not familiar with it at all, but it causes him to be trusting and overly friendly to everyone he meets. He doesn’t have the natural skepticism that we usually have with strangers. This book is about him and his mother’s challenges in parenting him. Like all parents, she has to choose when to be protective and when to let go, but his condition adds an extra layer.

10. Chicken Soup for the Traveler’s Soul
It seems as though there is a chicken soup book for everything and of course, they have one for travelers. I don’t get to travel these days, but I like learning about other places, so reading about it will have to do for now.

In reality, I have a wish list a mile long, but I’ve picked these ten to start with. I’m sure I’ll read more than ten books this year and will end up reading plenty that aren’t on this list. What have you read so far this year? What books are you planning to read? Tell me in the comments. Happy reading.

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Blogging, Personal Development

Blogging Goals for 2019

January 15, 2019

I started this blog in March of 2018 and I’ve learned a lot since then. In my welcome post, I mentioned my previous blogs. One was dedicated to early childhood education. It focused on my experiences in the classroom and educational activities. My other blog was more about day to day life. My early childhood blog had a small following, but nothing substantial. I think what helped was all the time and energy I would put into it. I had time to build up a Twitter following and interact more. I had more time to comment directly on other people’s blog posts. Although I was proud of that blog, I lost my passion for working in the classroom and the blog basically died out. I knew nothing about SEO. I didn’t use Facebook and wasn’t apart of a community of any kind. It was very basic. It was fun in the beginning and then I let it go when it wasn’t.

This time around, I’m definitely more excited about my blog. I’m passionate about being a mom, creating content and sharing experiences that might help others. I’m happy with my blog, but it could always be better. In order to make anything successful, you have to plan and set goals. Even if you change the goals, you should have something to strive for. Eventually, I want to incorporate this blog as apart of my business. Whether it be childcare, coaching or both. So, I’m keeping this in mind when I think about my blogging goals.

1. Find additional ways to increase traffic

My main goal is to increase the amount of traffic to my blog. Since March, this has been a challenge. As I’ve mentioned in a previous post, I am unable to effectively use Pinterest. This puts me at a disadvantage. Many mom bloggers I know use Pinterest as their main source of traffic. I think my content would do well on Pinterest, but since it is inaccessible to me and I do not have the means to pay a virtual assistant to create and schedule pins, I have to think of other creative ways to promote my blog. Most of my current traffic comes from Facebook groups. In 2019, I need to work on finding other traffic sources for my blog.

2. Make posts more SEO friendly

As I’ve already said, I knew nothing about SEO before and not much has changed. I use tags, but I haven’t done my research on which key words I should be using to bring more traffic. I have increased the amount of back links which can bring up my ranking with Google, but it’s not just about back links within your own blog, if reputable sites link back to your blog, that brings the ranking even higher. My goal is to read more articles and maybe take a course on SEO in 2019.

3. Write at least one guest post

On some of the Facebook blogging groups, I see posts asking for guest posts. Guest posting on another blog is a great way to promote your blog because you get exposed to a wider audience. I’d like to guest post, but I don’t know what I’d write. Do I just take one of my post ideas that have been floating around? What if they don’t like what I write? What if it’s not good enough? This thought process may seem irrational, but these are the questions that go through my head. Of course, I don’t have to guest post, but it would be a great opportunity to reach a broader audience. The whole idea makes me uncomfortable, but I could start by hosting a guest post on this blog and simply return the favor.

4. Rejoin Amazon Affiliates and make the required three sales

As you may or may not have noticed, some of my posts had Amazon affiliate links. In my older posts, the links are still there and will take you to a product, but I do not get a commission. Unfortunately, I did not make any sales in 2018 so, my account was closed. The great thing about Amazon Affiliates is that you can reapply. I’m waiting until the traffic to my blog increases before I try again. Now I post links to products for your convenience and I love sharing the products that I use and believe in even if I don’t make a penny. I’m planning to reapply for Amazon Affiliates within the next few months depending on the traffic.

5. Create and follow a schedule

Back in December, I had a final session with my coach and we discussed my blog. My main focus was creating a schedule. At the time, it seemed that Tuesdays and Fridays were the best days to post. Now I’m rethinking it. I still want to post twice per week, but I’m wondering about rearranging the schedule. I’m so worn out on Mondays that I can’t seem to find the energy to put together a post for Tuesday. I try to write on the weekends, but Rosebud is no longer napping so, it’s harder to find the time. Maybe Mondays and Fridays would work better, but then again, there’d only be two days between posts and then nothing for several days. I need to get my butt in gear and schedule posts ahead of time, but as a multitasking mom, when do I have time for that? This goal is a lofty one, but it’s one I really need to work on.

To recap, my goals are to find additional ways to increase traffic, make blog posts more SEO friendly, to write at least one guest post, to rejoin Amazon Affiliates and to create and follow a posting schedule. What are your blogging and or business goals for 2019? Tell me in the comments.

17 Comments

Memories, Parenting, Personal Development

Happy New Year, 2019!

January 1, 2019

I’ve been meaning to do a series of posts leading up to 2019, but I’ve been so busy with the holidays and watching Little Guy that I’ve had no energy left at the end of the day. I want to sleep as soon as my head hits the pillow. Actually, I want to sleep long before that. Usually it starts as soon as I hear Rosebud talking to herself in the morning since she refuses to sleep in, even if she goes to bed late. She has also given up naps for the most part, so she’s been exhausted lately. Although I love blogging, I haven’t had it in me. I’m hoping to get back on track in the new year.

I was one of those people last year who decided to have a word as a theme to 2018. Well, my word was change and 2018 turned out to be the complete opposite. If I were to sum up 2018 into one word, it would be stuck. I felt like I was in a maze, going down one path only to realize it led back to where I started. At the end of 2017, I was able to come up with a long list of wonderful things that happened that year. I reconnected with some great people I had lost touch with, I took pottery classes, I was able to make big improvements on my home and Rosebud grew so much and met so many milestones.

This year was hard. The cats were sick a lot. Most of my coworkers retired, moved away or quit because they couldn’t take it anymore. Since then, it has been a revolving door of new faces. I’m usually anxious about meeting new people, so this has definitely pushed me out of my comfort zone. On one hand, I think it will be exciting to meet new people because maybe, just maybe, it will be someone I can connect with. Then I usually end up disappointed because we don’t share the same interests, our personalities aren’t compatible or there’s just nothing there. this goes for coworkers, friendships or relationships. My exploration of transcription fell through and I decided it wasn’t for me. Coaching is still an option, but I will have to take out a loan to cover the cost of training, so this will have to wait. Maybe I can start this year depending on how things go. I missed out on pottery classes because they fill so quickly and I didn’t find other classes that interested me. The improvements I made to my home were minimal, but on the flip side, I’m lucky that there aren’t urgent things that need fixing.

For the positive, Rosebud has become quite a conversationalist. She always has something adorable to say. Her latest thing is reading to me. I love hearing her try to retell a story or make up her own. The other positive thing was meeting Little Guy at work. We clicked since day one and now I have connected with his family. I’ve watched him a lot this month which not only has allowed me to make some extra money, but has given me a great trial run in childcare from home. I have to say that it has been going great except for yesterday. I woke up in a bad mood, Rosebud was crabby and Little Guy was tired and his family is in the middle of moving to a new house. He was not acting like himself for most of the morning, so it was a difficult day all around. We will all have those days though no matter where we are or what we are doing.

Here are my goals and hopes for the new year.

To finalize a career plan. Do I want to have my own business and what will I be doing? I will be taking a training this month on home childcare since I’m leaning towards watching a couple kids from home. My long term plan would be to continue being a childcare provider for the next couple of years. Meanwhile, I could start building up a coaching business.
Take a class for fun. It could be pottery or something else.
Get back to a regular exercise routine. I’ve been slacking lately!
Journal regularly. I know I’ll look back on this time later and regret that I haven’t kept up with it. I want to keep the memories of Rosebud while she is little.
Turn one room in my house into a play room.
Get Rosebud potty trained. This has been a hard and frustrating thing we’ve been working on.
Let go of things I don’t need. Whether they be objects or self limiting beliefs.
Read at least 20 books. This should not be hard with my Audible subscription.
Take one night per week for self care.
Post on the blog on a regular schedule. Over the past few months, I’ve figured out that Tuesdays and Fridays work best for me.

Well, I’ll be busy this year, but I’m excited to get started. If I do something each day to reach my goals, I’ll get there eventually, but I know I have to start by breaking it down into achievable steps. I won’t be choosing a word or making new years resolutions, but I will be progressing towards long-term goals. At the end of the day, I know I need to get back to basics. Spending quality time with Rosebud, maintaining a healthy mind and body and focusing on writing and creating because those things make me the happiest. Even if I don’t have a play room by next January or if I. Miss out on pottery classes once again, I know there are still things to be grateful for. I could dwell on everything I didn’t accomplish from last year, but why? Maybe I won’t accomplish everything I set out to do this year and that’ll be okay. What are your goals and hopes for 2019? Will you be working on setting goals with your kids? Introducing Smart Goals is a great way to start! What keeps you motivated? Let me know in the comments.

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