I use to do Powersheets every month. But then back in August when we got engaged and I was wedding planning, finishing school and running a side business I stopped because I felt like I was in straight up survival mode. And doing all the processing and thinking that came with Powersheets felt really overwhelming. So I quit. Then a couple months ago I realized, “Oh hi Robyn, everything doesn’t have to be complicated….just make some simple goals.”
I like goals. I feel like they give me some traction and intention instead of just moving from one day to the next. But here’s the thing for me – the goals need to make me feel free and not confined. And if I don’t meet them, that is okay. It’s not about achievement, but rather having some direction. If things don’t work out like I planned then I reroute and figure out what’s working and what’s not for the next month. Grace abounds.
So I thought it might be helpful…and maybe fun?…to share my monthly, weekly, and daily goals for July. (You guys tell me if you like these kind of posts!) I take about 30 minutes to an hour at the end of each month and jot down some goals for the next month based on what worked and what didn’t from the previous month.
June felt a little all over the place with settling into married life and starting a new job, so I’m excited to start fresh in July!
MONTHLY GOALS
- Send two cards. I love getting a written card in the mail and I think it makes people feel really loved – so the goal is to send a written card to two people this month.
- Finalize blogging newsletter, sign up technicalities and clean up the blog side bar. I’m still learning a lot about newsletters and the tech stuff that goes into it. If you want to sign up – do that here! Thanks for hanging in there with me through the learning process 🙂
- Host people in our home twice for dinner. Ideally, we’d love to have at least one of those times be with people we don’t know that well. Nick and I love hosting people – especially cooking for others. It’s one of the huge reasons we chose our apartment with a bigger living space and more open kitchen.
WEEKLY GOALS
- Do yoga 1x a week. I love the way yoga makes me feel physically and mentally but I always tell myself I don’t have enough time. I did a Yoga to the People podcast in my living room Saturday afternoon and was reminded how good an hour of flow feels.
- Sabbath hard. And by hard I mean zilch work on Sundays. This is a learning process – how to rest well – but Nick and I want to learn to rest better so we can go into the week refreshed and ready to work well.
DAILY GOALS
- Be more patient + full of grace. I can get really inpatient in the city and then that leads to frustration and bitterness towards living here. And when I’m inpatient, my grace pool is basically non existent so I get snippy with Nick (which isn’t fair) and I feel depleted. Sooooo plan here is to deep breath and remember that nothing is urgent so I can be more present and appreciate even the little things.
- No work or social media past 8pm. Nick would rather me not blog or be scrolling through my phone when we are relaxing in the evening. And I really do want to have clear cut off boundaries with work and rest. So the plan: be and stay unplugged after 8pm.
- Pray for 10 minutes. I’ve gotten in the habit of doing my morning quiet time/devotional and then telling myself “I’m going to pray on my bike ride up to work” …and then I don’t. Ummm Robyn, your spiritual life will be dry as dirt if you don’t talk to God like you do your friends on a daily basis.
And that’s July. Share in the comment any goals you have for this upcoming month!
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I think these are great goals we can all learn from, especially no work/social media at nights (hard for us bloggers) and taking a full Sabbath day. Dinner parties are such a fun one, too. The power of socialization and eating good food 🙂
By the way I did not mean this to come off jusgy at all. Your relationship is yours and yours alone!!
love this idea! So many great things on your blog lately <3 July goals– soak up the sunshine. more prayer time. & less social media. (deleted every account besides IG… I'm interested to see how things change)!
I love your goals especially cards and hosting dinner!
I guess I did a whoa when I saw the comment about blogging past 8 pm.. I think sometimes that will be hard with your schedule? What do I know, but I think stick with what makes YOU happy. Nick may want you all to himself every night but your business sometimes may take some priority at times?
I love the idea of monthly goals, and would enjoy hearing how they work out for you. I want to do this for myself.
Love the goal to send more letters. I really need to do that too! They are much more personal and fun to get! I also want to stay more patient and present. Exciting to see how these all go for you this month!
Hey Hillary! Marriage isn’t about ME though, it’s about us and finding what works for us. A healthy, thriving marriage where Nick and I feel connected is the number one priority…not work. My schedule will work itself out I’m certain.
Present – I like that Carrie 🙂
Yes to soaking up sunshine! Love that you deleted accounts that weren’t serving you – rooting for you Katie!
It’s hard to draw boundaries but I think so so important. Happy weekend!
Love the unplug after 8 idea!
This is so good! Honestly, starting little here, my goal may be to carve time to reflect and WRITE goals. That sounds like a such a great and fruitful practice. Also, praying more, myself, too. yikes. I hear ya there!
I love these goals!! A lot of times goals are all about working more and more and more and, in the end just lead to burnout and stress. Honestly, stepping back and taking time to do things just to feel good and relax can be hard! I love that these goals are focused on promoting your own wellness and building relationships. I guess you could say one of my “goals” for the month would be to make simple, manageable plans and try to stick to them. I find I can get scatter-brained sometimes trying to do a million things at once and just end up frustrated with a bunch of half-finished tasks. Simplifying things is always good!
xxMeah
I loved this post! I also struggle with telling myself that I will pray on my way to work and then I end up thinking about 12309832 other things. Starting a list of goals for each month is super inspiring. I also love receiving cards in the mail so I may steal that idea from you! I also enjoyed your post on making friends in a new city (and I think these goals could coincide with that) because I will be moving to Morgantown, WV to begin my dietetic internship. Eeek! New people.. new big city (I’m a small town, middle of nowhere girl), new surroundings.. so exciting and scary! Thanks for all of your great posts Robyn! 🙂
i am stealing that hosting + yoga goal from you.
I feel sad that everything you do and every choice you make these days hinges on what “Nick thinks” or “Nick says” etc etc. Yes it’s nice to have a connected marriage but it’s been really off-putting to see how much power he has over you. I don’t know, it seems like I’ve gone back decades reading your blog lately. You moved to NYC by yourself, you got through nursing school by yourself, you’ve been independent up until now…why do you suddenly need to qualify everything you do with regards to Nick?
I agree with this so very much. It hurts me to even write this because I’ve been such a fan of how smart and independent you are fora long time. But all this “Nick says” on the blog lately gives me a weird feeling. I hope you are remembering that you are one half of the whole. If you need to blog after 8pm, you should and can.
Not a half. You are your own whole. Hope you remember that!
Agreed Tina. Nick and I are both whole people together as one in marriage – independence looks very different inside of marriage than it did out.
Hi Lindsay – I think my point is that I don’t need to blog late into the evening and Nick had always been very helpful in helping me find work/life balance – if independence means I expect other people to fit into my life without making changes to my own thats not really the woman I desire to be. It’s a give and take on both ends.
I think there are very drastic and uninformed assumptions here Jena – you are entitled to your opinion of course, but making generalized statements on something as personal as someone’s marriage is fragile ground. I don’t need to defend my marriage at all. Nick is anything but powerful over me. I’m independent and always will be – I married to be one, and that’s merging lives, not having Nick fit into mine. Marriage is very much about compromise and learning to come together – it’s a give and take on both ends. This blog is one snapshot and making judgements based on what you see here feels unfair, but your opinion is yours and that’s okay.
A full day of rest is SUCH a gift from God, and I love that you and Nick are emphasizing that together. Also, I’m so impatient too, and it’s convicting to me because I don’t live in a big city. I actually have a really calm life, yet so often I find myself getting impatient. I’m so thankful that you reminded me of this and that I need more grace. God is good. <3 Jesus is enabling me to overcome this.
Robyn! I absolutely love all this. I too like goals but they need to be flexible. I do not like feeling pressured at all but love the guidance. This is something I think I would like to do also.
ALSO…the goal of having people over even if you don’t know them is so up my alley. My blog At His Table is actually based around that. I think our culture has taken eating around the table with others out and I feel like we need to be intentional with this.
Thanks for sharing your thought and being vulnerable! I definitely think you should do this every month!
Thanks for sharing these with us! I have gotten into the habit of creating 3 simple monthly goals, but I kind of like the idea of breaking it down into day/week/month. Right now one of ours is to host more people as well- so much fun 🙂
LOVE this post! I’m with you on needing a clear cut-off for social media. I’m going to implement this as well!
Thank you for sharing your goals! Wow, I completely connected with what you have chosen, as have made similar intentions for the coming month. I do have to be careful, however, because I can make too much of my lists and become anxious if I do not complete something. I have to be mindful of this, and rather than write it all down, choose what Ian most important and focus in on those things. I especially can feel you on the social media and prayer, because it is so easy to get wrapped up in life and forget. Thank you again for sharing!
You and Nick are wise for communicating upfront about expectations for daily life and such as you begin your marriage. I admire how you both work to out-serve the other. Trust me. When it is so, neither ever loses.
Asking Jesus to make my heart graciousness along with you,
~Tracy
Being and staying unplugged is way easier said than done.
I’ll have to check out the yoga to the people podcast. I’ve been getting back into yoga this summer and also really enjoying how it makes me feel. 🙂
I’ve heard you mention the idea of resting and Sabbath several times on the blog, so I wanted to share something that the Lord taught me a few years ago. I was in a period of my life that I was trying to take time to rest. I would go-go-go, and then rest-rest-rest. I thought was achieving balance in my life. But then I realized that I was getting into the mentality of letting myself get anxious, stressed, and depleted, looking forward to my lunch break, evenimg, the weekend, or whatever I sawas my next chance to refuel.
Then the Lord showed me that we are NOT like vessels that empty and need to be refilled again. Rather, we are always connected to our source of fuel- the Lord. We don’t wear ourselves out and then retreat to rest. Instead, we enter into a lifestyle of rest. The Lord’s rest is a gift that He gives us, one that we can enjoy constantly. All that we do should come from a place of rest.
Obviously, there is an importance to creating balance in your schedule and not overbooking ourselves, which is a different sort of practical application. But this idea of entering into God’s rest as a permanent state was revolutionary to me. I can elaborate on this idea of entering into God’s rest and share the Scriptures that line up with this idea and all that, but I figure if God is doing the same movement in you, He will make it obvious 🙂
I can so relate to biting off a bit to much – love that goal. Have a great month!
That’s such an important start!
I need to get back to making monthly Goal Plans. Like you, I need them to provide guidance and not dictate timelines and pressure. Thanks for sharing!
how did i miss the beginning of this month?? I need goals too… I love the sending cards and praying. Prayer always seems to be procrastinated!!
I commend you for your discipline for the social media-less evenings. I definitely need more no-phone times in my day. For the past week or so I’ve been doing mini 5 minute meditation things on Spotify. Hopefully will keep that up & try for longer ones in the future!
I’ve been enjoying the newsletter btw!